Since James and I got back to Portland two days ago, I swear this city is trying to seduce me.
Before we left, it had rained about, oh, 16 inches (about half of our normal yearly rainfall) in a month. Then we got to California, and I remembered what sunshine is actually like, where it was cold but felt like springtime, where I didn’t have to put on every single waterproof layer before I went outside, where I didn’t even bring my boots. Where run after run along the American river, around a Natomas lake, along a Lincoln oak-savanna creek, where hours of birdwatching reminded me how fricken lovely it is outside in California in the winter. I was excited to come back to Portland, but not so excited to leave behind that glorious sunshine.
(runnin’ the wintery trails in Lincoln:)
Our plane was a late one, and from our landing in the dark we could see all the reflected lights of Portland, double lights bouncing off the wet streets. Welcome back to rain-town, we thought. The next day, though, I woke up to the sun! The real sun! The not-a-cloud-in-the-sky, all-the-mountains-are-out sun! Heck. Yes.
A cold-morning, icy ride up to the zoo (glad I remembered how to bike over ice) and a subsequent hike up to the view at Council Crest confirmed that all our surrounding mountains are piled in snow right now: crisply, dazzlingly, profoundly white in the sunshine. And today, another sunny day, a walk to the library turned into a loooong, aimless wander through my neighborhood, everyone outside bundled up like snowpeople, all smiles and happy-new-years.
(a new (to me) mural I found off of SE Hawthorne — and check out that blue sky!!)
I smiled like a maniac for hours and wandered and wandered and wandered, soaking it all up. The NOAA forecast shows us being sunny for the next three days. Three days! I don’t want to believe in it too hard and jinx it, but a little itty-bitty corner of my soul thinks that maybe Portland is apologizing for the last few weeks. Sorry, it’s saying: dry yourselves out some before the next monsoon.
Oh, and happy new year too:)