Fall in the Sky

Pennsylvania has it's vivid and lush Fall foliage, a burst of color before the thick green pigments give way to lurid grays. During my first Fall in San Francisco, I found myself pining for the smell of crisp autumn air, the whisper of summer in the air as it faded away into cool, dark winter. I missed the signs of Fall I'd always known: bursts of red, oranges and yellows shimmering through wooded hills and fields. Fall didn't seem like Fall without having to dig out thick sweaters and the crackle of a fire churning in my living room.

This year I spent Halloween weekend in San Diego and happened to have my camera handy when I was struck by quite possibly the most beautiful sunset I've ever witnessed. Though coastal California doesn't have fiery Fall shades painted in the tress, they were strewed across the evening sky as the sun slipped away behind the foreground of the Pacific Ocean.

I was so captivated by the cascade of colors cradled between the neutral blue-gray tones of the ocean and lingering clouds, that I felt a bit like Brendan Fraser's uber-sensitive character in the 2000 movie, Bedazzled:

At first the loss of obvious seasonal changes made life seem a bit surreal. Summer bled into Fall, Fall to Winter, Winter to Spring... Weather in San Francisco is more distinct week-by-week rather than season by season. Without the indications of each season, the reality that it truly was summer or fall seem irrelevant. I'll never fully overcome the loss of the cyclical beauty ever-changing seasons that dictated my life back East, but with art like this filling the canvas of the sky along the coast, I think I'll cope.