The season between December and February is my favorite time in Southern California. Mild, blustery days under intense golden light, red bougainvillea mixed with evergreens, silhouetted palms against a blue sky that verges on indigo during cooler months. And when it rains in South Pas in the wintertime, that usually means it snows in the mountains. This is my idea of a white Christmas! (For a few more recent snowy mountain images from around the San Gabriel Valley, check out my overflow blog Glancing About. )
19 comments:
Yesterday's Papers:
Laurie, the Eliot that I quoted yesterday was a passage from The Lovesong of J. Alfred Prufrock.
The following is from Preludes III. It was the last two lines that had popped into my head. It's not Miracle on 34th Street, I admit:
And when all the world came back
And the light crept up between the shutters
And you heard the sparrows in the gutters,
You had such a vision of the street
As the street hardly understands;
This is what I think of when I think Pasadena , Laurie. Just lovely.
V
Love the snow on the mountains and the view from the valley.
The snow is beautiful (at a distance). And wow, I get to read poetry too. Excellent!
That's probably my fav season of de yr as well, LA.
I've been out in de field snapping pics of "the season", as you know.
To Cafe Observer: You may be my pet for a day, a week......"Come and Sit By My Side, Li'l Darlin'."
I'm on a roll now. This picture of the majestic mountains backdrop must be so exciting this time of year. Just beautiful. Brings me to, what else, a song:
Oh the weather outside is frightful (except in Calif.)
But the fire is so delightful,
And since we've no place to go,
Let it snow, Let it snow, Let it snow.....
Those years as a chanteuse left me with, "A million of 'em."
I don't know of any other place where you can see bougainvillia, palm trees and mountains with snow all at the same time.
Enjoy your Holiday, California people.
I'm sitting here in Texas embraced by fog. No, I won't go into, "A Foggy Day."
Love you all.
This could be in Bogeta, or some other South American paradise... you'd never know that the big, sloppy, smog-spewing city of LA is a short drive on the freeway from all of this beauty.
Instead of contemplating my navel, I will contemplate your gorgeous shot!
This is the same view that people watching the Rose Parade and the Rose Bowl get to see on New Years Day. Invariably, January 1 in Pasadena is a beautiful, sunny day. It's only rained once on New Years Day in the last 50 years. All the people in Wisconsin, North Dakota, and other freezing places yearn for California. My mother used to say that the continent tilted to the left on January 2 becuase of everyone moving to California after watching the Rose Parade.
Another beautiful shot that captures Southern California on a day after a rainstorm.
I can't resist jumping in with some poetry. (Mr. E -- silly me, I should have recognized your quote from J. Alfred Prufrock. I guess it's been too long since I read that poem. All I remember is "I am old, I am old, I shall wear my trousers rolled and walk barefoot on the beach, do I dare eat a peach?")
Anyway.
He're's an Eliot quote I really like:
Go, go, go, said the bird: human kind
Cannot bear very much reality.
Time past and time future
What might have been and what has been
Point to one end, which is always present.
How pretty, the air looks so clean and fresh!
The first snow I ever experienced was at Mt Baldy.
Laurie:
Your Eliot quote is from Burnt Norton, one of the Four Quartets. Another of the Four Quartets is Little Gidding, from which comes this quote that begins and ends I believe the movie version of John Fowles' The Magus:
We shall not cease from exploration
And the end of all our exploring
Will be to arrive where we started
And know the place for the first time.
That chap is wearing a long sleeved shirt, another sure sign of winter in South Pas.
LA, did you ck your spam catcher 2day?
The air smells icey and reminds me of the air at Lake Arrowhead, where I longed to get snowed in but never quite managed it. We did, however, awaken to an unexpected foot or two of snow several times!!!!
I like the inconspicuousness of the person walking away in shadow. Of course I could come up with a song immediately, that goofy song from the 60's "Walk Away Rene." After having drunk a bottle of champagne at a friend's Christmas party although not buzzed, I'm dull enough to not be able to come up with anything more poetic or creative.
Mr. E, you rawk!!
Sounds like perfect Christmas weather to me! ;)
Laurie---I am LOL'ing right now. I think you and I are on a similar wavelength.
Yesterday morning I went out to nearly this spot and took pics of the snow and thought of the previous pics of "Kenny Lee's house" when I did it. (I too did it in short sleeves and was looked at like I was crazy).
After an 8 hour drive home last night and a more than full work day today, I haven't had time to upload or cull the pics I took on my trip. When I do I'll email you a link to them.
All I could think about on the days it rained this last week was "thankfully it is raining now so it doesn't ruin THE parade". Oh how quickly the local attitude comes back, even on a short visit!
Hey folks,
Thanks for all of the comments and memories and poems! It's late and I'm bleary-eyed and possibly fighting yet another cold so I'll catch up tomorrow... til then...
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