I live in Northern California, in the central valley. This is not southern, 78 degrees and breezy, California. Nor is it fogged in until noon, sunny until four, fogged in until noon, San Francisco. But the climate here is mild enough.Well, that is only half true. The summers are so hot small children have burst into flames crossing the street.
The winters however, remain uneventful compared to the mountains and mountains of snow blanketing most of the northern hemisphere lately. The main feature of winter here is the cloudy sky. By winter, I mean mid-December through mid-February, because that is really all we have to offer. Almost every day of those two months is overcast. High, dull, impotent clouds. Broken up sometimes by fog. Sometimes by rain. Though most of our rain comes in early spring. Day in, day out, there is a grey blanket of gloom as far as the eye can see.
But, not today. For the first day in about twenty, the sun came out, strong. It was not warm, but it was bright. Today, I sat in a sun beam. I sat in a sun beam drinking a cup of tea and I resolved that in my next life I shall come back as a spoiled house cat, because this sitting in a sun beam thing is for me.
A neighbour of mine in Nelson (my hometown) used to say she felt, from December to March, that she was constantly wearing a grey felt hat, because the clouds were always there, always low and oppressive. Good to hear you enjoyed your sunbeam today.
ReplyDeleteSorta between SF and Sacramento ?. Or nearer the Oregon border. You see those of us outside the States cannot work out where the line between North and South sits. Myself, I place it on the Golden Gate, but that would put the central valley south.
ReplyDeleteVince that is funny. Many California's can't agree on the line. I went to college in Santa Barbara, which I considered southern California. My fellow students who grew up south of there, considered it central California. People closer to Oregon consider San Francisco to be Central California, while San Franciscans consider it to be northern.
ReplyDeleteAnd the perspective varies if you live on the coast, or if you live in-land.
I guess technically, there are three Californias, northern, southern, and central. But the term Central California tends to be an east/west designation referring to the central valley which runs the entire length of the state pretty much.
Is this really interesting to anyone?
I live in one of the many suburbs outside of Sacramento.
I agree. Laying in a sunbeam is pure luxury.
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