Good commute

Tonight when I was driving home from work, the light and scenery were just magnificent. I work in Bellingham and live in Lynden, so I was driving north on the Hannegan Road. The sun was low in the western sky on my left. I put my windshield visor down over the window on that side. I drive through farm country between the two cities, pastures with horses, sometimes cows, occasionally llamas, fields with blueberries or corn, houses and barns. While driving to Lynden, Mt. Baker to the east would require me to look through the window of the back door (I get a good look at Baker and the Twin Sisters on clear mornings, driving south), so I don't look for it; however, some magnificent mountains are in the far distance up in British Columbia, Canada. Only a few trees are touched with color yet; mostly they are still green.

I always see the very first color already in August. Somewhere in the area there will be just one branch of one tree that turns red in August. Now it is a few more branches. Here in the Pacific Northwest, we don't get the spectacular fall colors for which New England is famous, but we get some. I am glad we are the Evergreen State, though, so that even when all the leaves have changed and then fallen, we still have green trees. Snow comes only occasionally in our winters, and doesn't stay long-term, so mostly the pastures and grasses are quite green all winter.

On my drive this evening, the westering sun made the all the colors--green, yellow, and the rest--vivid. The air was clear.

Here's a picture I took in February of this year of the Canadian mountains:

This picture was not taken from the Hannegan, and it's at a different season and time of day than I saw these mountains this evening, but it gives some idea. They were not as snow-covered today as in this picture. I realize I always look at and my eye is drawn to that sort of snaggle-toothed peak, but I have no idea what the mountain's name is.

Now, here's a picture I took last December on my morning commute of the sun coming up behind the Twin Sisters, and if you click on the picture to enlarge it (use your "back" button to come back), you will more clearly see snow-capped Baker glowing to the left of the Sisters:

This picture encourages me by demonstrating that even close to winter solstice, the sun is still coming up while I drive to work--it's not dark all the way. Also, I now go to work a half hour later than I used to (I start at 9:00 instead of 8:30), so that's all the more time for the light to grow.

Beauty matters.