Under the Dome 2009
Ecolit class hike number one.
Today’s rain, the first in weeks during this dry wet season, regreens the yellowing vegetation. The air is damp, ready to unload again from scudding clouds overhead. Intermittent sounds of breeze: a vibrating groan from the sycamore overhanging the dome, a light rustle from the pepper tree to the side, a delicate breath from the oaks on the hillside. The soil, which had become hard and crusted yesterday is gooey or bouncy.
Over the ridgeline to the east, the grey veils part, displaying two blue patches and then quickly cover up, recalling the momentary revelation of sunshine, deep azure and billowing cumulus on the slippery trail up the canyon which lighted up a fresh carpet of wildflowers on the serpentine slope.
Birds twitter in the oaks near the bridge, goading us to leave this Golden Age and head back down to the world of work.