Changeable Season, Changeable Place

I haven't written here since we returned from our winter odyssey, mostly because I'm come to realize that my blog is really a travel and photo blog, and my hometown of Missoula, MT, can be pretty boring photowise in late winter. The dead grass of the meadow across the street has been washed out by rain and frost, the pines' needles wear their black-green winter color, and the snow comes and goes. I call the place "Grayzoola" at this time, as the skies are almost always gray.

Now and then, we get some relief, as we did about a week ago. The sun came out, the air warmed, spring seemed on its way. On one particular day, light rain dampened the meadow grass, turning it golden in the rare sunshine. I kept glancing out the window, savoring the amazing color of the meadow, and suddenly a giant almost double rainbow glowed into being. I grabbed my camera and snapped away--here you can see the result:
















Then, only a few days later, we awakened to a transformed scene, much more typical of this time of year, and to show the contrast, I once again took photos:





















It can be quite disconcerting to see such radical changes in the environment in such a short time; am I having hallucinations? No, I'm living in the Mountain West! Then, in a few more days, the weather returned to its normal boring late winter state, with dead grass and gray skies. The only ways we know Spring is on its way is to go walking at an hour which would have been pitch black in January and to notice that the robins are back.