Desert sojourn, day 19

Because the moon is now several days past full -- living out here, you become aware of the times of sunset and sunrise and the phases of the moon, because they are so evident -- yesterday evening I did some stargazing, lying on my back on the table outside, the same table I eat dinner at around sunset. I noticed a few wispy clouds and some haze on the horizon, but it's been getting hazy the last few days, and the conditions didn't detract too much from my enjoyment of the night sky. As a city dweller, especially someone who lives in San Francisco where the fog comes in so regularly and obscures the sky at night, practically any views of the stars at all is a huge improvement over what I'm used to.

Then this morning there were even more clouds, so there was an ornamented sunrise:

In fact, I didn't see the sun itself at all until about 9:15 a.m., so my morning walk (which took place at sunrise) was shaded after sunrise for the first time.

In other news, there was a story in the Riverside paper today about the acquisition of a couple of sections of nearby land for the national park. The interesting parts of the story are about the flora and fauna on the land and the part about the waterfall that appears when it rains. Wow, I'd like to see that.