Tuesday, June 21, 2011

Summer Palettes

The sky above finally clears and assures us below that blue can indeed stretch from horizon to horizon over Western Washington. Looking at the ground when my eyes are not turned up toward this hopeful summer expanse, a gathered coat of white reminds me of another summer-time scene from the near-underside of the globe.

to look down
In New Zealand, the Pohutukawa trees inevitably shed their soft pink bristles and coat the ground around them. A year and a half ago, I paused on a well-tread sidewalk and, stepping down next to the curb, bent low to capture an essential part of the land's summer palette, seen in the photograph above.

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Here is my driveway today, and the concentration of nature's shedding and settling in this particular land.

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And I just have to share photographed evidence that the skies surely cleared. The sun shone fearlessly. The temperatures climbed brazenly (that's all subjective of course, considering the high was around seventy-five degrees Fahrenheit).

Eating dinner inside would have been an injustice to this gift of a day, so I tossed together a panzanella inspired by a leftover portion of Breadfarm's Black Olive Baguette and settled into the mossy grass outside my front door (picking white fluff out of my bread salad along the way).

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2 comments:

Morgan said...

Love it! Good looking salad! I am looking forward to reading your blog. You can read mine at growgathernourish.wordpress.com

Michelle Stiles said...

oh mossy grass.... I adore how Bellingham takes to the outdoors every minute of a nice day. I actually read that people in the PNW get more stressed during the summer because they are so anxious to get outside... I might just be one of those people...