Gray
“Adam seemed clothed in a viscosity that slowed his movements and held his thoughts down. He saw the world through gray water. Now and then his mind fought its way upward, and when the light broke in it brought him only sickness of the mind, and he retired into the grayness again.”
East of Eden, John Steinbeck
Inspiration
It was an unusually gray August. A mix of coastal fog and smoke from the Soberanes fire, left us feeling that summer must be somewhere, just not here. To be fair, the sun pushed its way through the gray many afternoons, at least for a few hours. Then the late afternoon fog swooped in from the coast and settled until the next afternoon, or the day after that. The Soberanes fire has moved south and so has the dusting of gray ash, on our cars, patio, plants and whatever else was outside. We will remember this fire for a very long time. After this raging fire Big Sur and the Los Padres National Forest won’t ever be the same. It was started by an illegal campfire on July 22nd in Garrapta State Park and it won’t be contained until the end of September. That’s right, over two months of fire. Every June, July and August I look for summer, knowing that it will arrive in September and stay through October. This is how we summer in this part of California.
