What I've Been Thinking

Wow.  I blogged about reaching my year anniversary of blogging and then...I didn't post again for two months.  What gives?  I'd love to say I was so busy with work or travel or charitable pursuits that I just didn't have time to blog about all things vegan, but that would not be true.  Soooooooo many times I have started writing something, only to stop, because all I have really focused on (aside from family, work and all things vegan) is the Presidential Election.  And, I really don't want to blog about that. 

Anyone who knows me, knows that I am liberal and that I voted for Obama.  My fellow liberal buddies and I already talk politics often so I get my fix.  And the folks at MSNBC call me if I don't tune in, so loyal is my viewership.  Meanwhile, many of my friends and family members are either conservative or they pride themselves on not getting involved in politics, so I don't really engage them in political repartee.  Therefore, I am blogging about something completely apolitical today:  our glorious weather here in Western Washington. 

Seriously, it's spectacular.  Anyone who has read the Twilight books or seen the movies can remember Bella's description of how green everything was. (You know you do, even if you won't admit it. I saw you at the theater.)  I was living in the semi arid clime of Colorado Springs when my then young daughter and I read the books, and I remember thinking that Stephanie Meyers probably exaggerated. 

She did not. 

We moved to the Seattle area in June of last year, which means we were still in the rainy season.  For those of you not familiar with this area, the rain usually lasts from October through June.  July, August and September are dry, sunny months.  Of course, we have beautiful, sunny days sprinkled throughout the year but the rain or mist is fairly consistent for about nine months. Almanacs prove this has long been a predictable pattern that Climate Change has not yet, thankfully, ruined. 

I walked the streets of my new city of Bothell,  drinking in the moisture and the beautiful GREENness of it all.  The trees, TREES, were everywhere - beautiful conifers and hemlocks and maples.  The tree trunks were green with moss, the sidewalks (seriously, the sidewalks)  were green tinged.  Roofs were mossy (not a good thing, but pretty) and the whole town looked like it was filmed through a green lens.

Then autumn came and I was bowled over by the colors.  Red and gold and orange leaves were everywhere.  Okay, I know this is not news to Midwesterners or people in New England, but having spent 20 years of my adult life in Colorado Springs, it was breathtaking.  (Note:  Colorado Springs is lovely but it is, relatively speaking, rather tree-less and most of the trees in people's yards are Aspens, so the overwhelming color scheme in the fall is yellow, yellow, yellow.  Aspens are pretty, just a wee bit monochromatic.) 

And now, it is autumn again.  The rains started about three weeks ago.  It rains every day, either a little or a lot, and I am once again viewing my world through green colored glasses.  That's the wonderful thing about Western Washington.  Even after the deciduous trees shed their leaves, there are just so many fir trees and mossy surfaces that the landscape remains green.  Being a west coast state, our grass does not go dormant in the winter and instead, turns emerald.  And ... fall and winter bring the mists.  Mist rolls over the trees, swirling light gray against dark gray skies, wrapping my world in a cocoon of dampness.  My entire being joyfully soaks up the moisture.  I walk every morning in the cool, wet air.  I am at peace. 

For a moment.

Then I spend the majority of my walk hashing out political issues with my husband while we hike.