Monday, September 18, 2006
Greys and Blues
We've been subjected to days of sullenly grey weather for most of the last week; then yesterday morning a chilly rain, and rapidly moving low cloud cover presaged a cold turn in the weather. On these dreary days the sky-blue fall-blooming gentians, seen against wet rocks, can lift my heart and turn my mind back to late summer days backpacking over the high mountain passes in Wyoming. Gentiana paradoxa is one of the so-called willow gentians, with whorled, finely cut foliage... though it is more of a clear, medium blue; not the deep blue of the alpine gentians I saw against the lichen-covered rocks of 10,000 foot high Hurricane Pass, overlooked by the Grand Teton to the southeast, so close you felt you could touch it.Last evening, the grey clouds rolled on to the east, pulled along by a rapidly moving low pressure area, and the sun went down, bathed in cold fire. Frost is a possibility tomorrow night, but I'm warmed by the memory of clear August days of long ago, in the alpine meadows of the mountains of my youth.
// posted by IBOY @ 1:36 PM 
