Tis the Season: Holiday Photo Collage
All spring and summer, until the smoke descended, Tony and I marveled at the ever blue skies here in Southern Oregon. Clouds were rare. Late fall and early winter have changed the script. Every day, now, clouds decorate the sky. “Valley fog” early in the morning lifts to reveal the mountains, still wearing a mantle of clouds. Soon the sun breaks through and the clouds move higher, giving definition to the spreading blue sky that comes and goes as the day wears on. No two days are alike. Our drought, on the other hand, continues. These are not rain clouds.
For the past few weeks, I’ve been snapping pictures of the unfolding holiday scene in these parts: sunrise over the mountains (on days with no valley fog), stores decked with bows and firs, the first hoar frost, vineyards at rest, nesting mistletoe, back roads, the first ski day at Mt. Ashland (photo courtesy of my skiing buddy Kathy), gingerbread cookies, and the local Festival of Lights—which in Ashland, you may have guessed, involves another parade.
Always friendly, the town seems especially so now. When I left the town’s gingerbread decorating celebration, I came across a young mother with sleeping twins and a three-year-old, accompanied by an older woman (her mother, it turned out), chirping away in Italian. I offered a “Buon giorno” and five minutes later we were exchanging emails and planning a get together to speak and cook Italian (my husband’s specialties). A few steps later, I walked past one of Ashland’s “unhoused.” “Happy holidays,” he cheered. “Oh and they’re handing out free cannabis in Lithia Park [the town’s glorious public park].”
It’s not cannabis, but here are some holiday photos from the Rogue Valley.
Season’s Greetings. May peace be with us.
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