2008-----THE SUMMER OF SMOKE-----UGH

Most of you know that last summer was barely spent at home........there was a two-month cross-country trip, the Star-Spangled Adventure, followed by six weeks of rehearsals and performances of three plays and then two weeks at Disneyland and San Diego.

Our family was SO looking forward to staying home all summer..........we had wonderful plans.............exploring new hikes and old favorites (since we live in one of those hiking-central kind of places), taking daily walks in the evening and or morning (since I really need the exercise), walking out to "our meadow," inviting friends over.........breakfasts, lunches and/or dinners at the Lake, like we used to do in the old days.......really working on the property, establising new beds of flowers and herbs........maybe working on a Mary Garden and sunflower houses.

Sigh........VERY BIG SIGH..................

As you are probably aware..........there have been a lot of fires burning in Northern California.

At the end of that week I was ill..........there was this strange evening, on Saturday, June 21st........when this big lightning storm came over the top half of the state. There was little rain.............but someone reported more lightning strikes than anyone had ever counted in a storm before. The sky was so forbidding.

By Monday afternoon, it was reported by Sacramento that there were over 840 fires in the Golden state of California..........and all, but three were north of Sacramento. Isn't that scary?

And then, the SMOKE arrived..................and it has barely lifted in the four or five weeks since.

The air quality is too poor for hanging outside, for opening windows, for seeing our beautiful scenery.

The only thing it is good for: are amazing sunsets. When else are you able to look directly at the sun without being blinded???

I have included some photos below..........to share what we have been seeing here.............

The photo below is our backyard view, taken just before dusk last week. Today, you could not even see this mountain.

The view from the site of my future gazebo:

Um, what do you mean you cannot see Mount Shasta therebehind the trees???? This has been our view of Mount Shasta all summer. VERY BIG SIGH..........my husband says he is miserable this summer...........like it is another very long winter. sigh. poor guy, he has such a great view of Mount Shasta from his desk at work......and......he is getting so tired of winter. this does not help much. oh, well........

Two views, above and below, of the same sunset. I love the close-up of the trees below. I LOVE my zoom on my camera..........I am at least 100 feet from this tree.

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The photos below are a series of one sunset in particular. Both Matthew and I took these photos.

They are kind of amazing.........but not like what we saw in person...........

WOW

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This last one is so cool.

Matthew got the weathervane on top of our chicken coop.

It is much clearer before I had to shrink the photo to get it on the blog.........but, you get the picture. Pun Intended. :)

I posted all of these photos a few days ago, waiting for time to journal.......only to have such two clear days, I thought maybe our summer would be redeemed. On the way home from work yesterday, I saw this amazing and HUGE wall of smoke in the north........you could see the sun-kissed, orange smoke floating to the west. Well, we went from one of the clearest days all summer to one of the worst days all summer. Today was so bad, I do not think even non-respiratory-impaired folks should be out. It was very painful. All of the mountains in the photos above did not even exist today.......... :(

Please remember all of the fire-fighters in your prayers, and their families. They make great sacrifices for us. I appreciate what they are doing..........and I feel bad for them having to work with no rain in sight........high temperatures.........and in all of that smoke. I hear the smoke is worse in the towns south of us. UGH.

Blessings from Smokeville!

With love,

Chari