10.20.2004

October Morning

The sun rises behind Mount Baker these days, putting on a spectacular show. This morning, the first hint of coming dawn was the slow differentiation of the clouds from the mountains below – the jagged peaks remained featureless black, the clouds shifted to dark indigo-grey shot with smouldering magenta bands, broken by the shadows of the Cascade Range.

As I drove westward, the sky lightening steadily behind me, the colours shifted to azure and rose, and spread along the horizon to the north and south. The usually dull concrete high-rises of White Rock, rising ahead of me, glowed as the sun hit them, damask towers with liquid gold windows.

The Gulf Islands, across the Straight, were a study in smoky blues and purples, clinging possessively to their shadows as the rest of the landscape brightened to meet the day.