One gift that this love for taking pictures has given me is a way to see things in a new way. I have travelled in the back seat of cars along highways in these parts since childhood but unless I saw a cow or a field of horses it was mostly dull and repetitive. But I am shocked by how new and interesting this landscape has become to me. When we travelled to San Francisco recently, I was in awe of the picturesque views around me. The torturous bus tour to and from Carmel was tempered by golden hillsides, open ocean, and fields of colourful invasive plants (damn it for looking so pretty). I often feel sad after a trip that our home is so mundane and doesn't have the beauty of these other places with their hills, and colours, and large bodies of water. Over the weekend it finally clicked: this landscape is comparably beautiful. I've had blinders on.
Thank you to Donna, Scott, and Amy for generously taking me in their vehicles this weekend, and waiting patiently while I greedily gorged myself on picture-taking.