Friday, October 16, 2015

Better Late Than Not At All

Nothing Terrible happened and I didn't forget my blog. I usually write it on Thursday night, but we had three seminars this week, with the last one on Thursday evening. After putting in a twelve hour day, I wasn't up for writing anything when I finally got home.

The cool thing about yesterday was that I picked up some background for the book I'm working on. Before the seminar we went for a walk along the ocean. GONE WITH THE WOOL takes place on the Monterey Peninsula and the skies are usually cloudy. The location is important to the books and the weather plays a big part. But when I'm describing the day, I don't like to just say that the sky was cloudy. As a result, I have become very observant of the different kind of clouds and what the sky looks like. The sky was a real treat to look at yesterday. There were steely gray clouds out over the water and I could see that it was raining out at sea. Right above us, the sky was a pale blue, the kind of color that says there is lots of moisture in the air. But up ahead as I looked at the looming Palos Verdes peninsula, shimmery puffs of clouds hung at the top and a veil of thin fog was slipping down the side.

I like that we do the seminars in different areas around L.A.. Yesterday we went from our own familiar San Fernando Valley to Simi Valley. Once you get past rock covered mountain sides, it feels much very open. the sprinkling of rain we've had has already given the golden hill sides a touch of green. Then we headed down to South Bay, which meant going all the way through L.A. to the beach communities. It was early enough that the traffic wasn't too bad as we went through the Sepulveda Pass on the freeway. The Santa Monica mountains get moisture from the ocean and are always green, though it's more of dark hanging onto water kind of green, rather than the lush bright green of the Midwest.

We ended our journey by driving along the water. As we passed LAX, a 747 took off right over us. I watched it fly out over the water and thought about the view from the plane. Whenever I end up with a window seat, my face is always pressed to the glass looking out as the plane takes off. I love being able to look up the coast and then as the plane turns, see Catalina.

I never get tired of looking out the window, no matter what window it is.

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4 comments:

Linda O. Johnston said...

Glad all's okay, Betty--in fact, more than okay! How fun that you can use your other profession, and sightseeing while you're on your way, to incorporate descriptions into your writing.

Planner said...

I was looking up at the sky yesterday, too. I saw a bright blue sky and huge puffy white clouds that were illuminated by the sun. Then off to the side of this magnificent vision were black clouds. It was the sunshine that turned ordinary clouds into a spectacular sight.

Betty Hechtman said...

Linda, it's always nice to be able to mix life with research.

Betty Hechtman said...

Planner, It is fascinating to look at the sky and note all the different kind of clouds.