Views and Smoke

I'm sure there are parts of the world where I could get similar views... but it's views like this that make me stop and think how happy I am to be where I am.


I wrote that on Saturday for a filler post next time I had nothing to say. Now I feel I should update it with the rest of the story.

Those photos were taken 6.9.12 at about 8:30 a.m. I didn't know then, and can't tell by looking at the photos now, but a wild fire was just beginning to burn in the mountains visible in the right side of the first photo. By that evening, we were able to take photos of the fire from out backyard. Last I heard, the fire was burning more than 52,000 acres.

6.9.12 

6.10.12 - smoke

I haven't taken any more recent photos - because right now, you can't see the mountains for all the smoke. Everything is gray and hazy, and our throats hurt from breathing the smokey air. I can't imagine how much worse it must be for those living in the path of that huge plume of smoke.

This kind of wildfire is one of the things I don't love about living in Colorado. As my husband puts it, being a semi-arid area means we're dry enough to burn but wet enough to have things to burn - and dry enough not to be able to stop it. That's what it feels like at the moment. We're lucky to be several miles from the fire, and for the most part, we've been very lucky in missing most of the smoke as well - but we have friends who haven't been so lucky, people who have smoke thick in their homes and people who have been evacuated and possibly even lost their homes.

Right now, we can hardly see our neighbors' houses - and the air is burning both eyes and lungs. Even a wind blowing the right direction wouldn't be amiss. Rain doesn't seem to be in our forecast. But I think we're all hoping it comes anyway.



Washing the quilts now is more unappealing than ever, when I know they'll smell like smoke and need re-washed again soon. But at the moment, it feels like that rewashing will have to be by the recipients - my house and water may never be smoke-smell-free again. I feel petty whining about smoke smell when I think of the people who have lost their homes or people who have to wear masks inside their homes because the smoke goes right through their house.