A Grand Circle of Ice

I took this sunrise sequence on Lake Avenue in Pasadena this morning, with coffee at McDonalds.  Why would anyone want to leave beautiful Pasadena?  If this sunrise were all I could possibly see of a distant and enticing wild, it would suffice.  I would need no more.  

In this brightening sky, with trees, mountains and truths to possibly learn, comes a need to explore.  Perhaps I’ve seen too many exotic things.  Maybe I am too accustomed to beauty so close at home.  

If this bird, perhaps also enjoying the sunrise, were the only other life I could ever see, I would study, admire, and be amazed, as I am now, but how much more!  So many wonders I gloss over.  

Horsetail clouds might be called birdfeather clouds, for lack of horses.  

I don’t know if I’ll be amazed, bored, frightened or dead on this trip, But the ice on Mt. Olympus is worth a try, and the bicycling days around it promise a mix of solitude and new friends. 

Today, I might have I learned that clouds are part of wind, if I had no books, no internet, no Caltech lectures.  

The red dot shows where
 the sun rose two weeks ago.

The top edge of the sun appeared on the horizon this morning.  It rose farther south than  two weeks ago, and half an hour later.   Still six weeks off, this trip will come with short days and different weather.