Morning in Paradise...

Morning in Paradise...  Miki, Race, and I took yet another route this morning, totaling about 2.5 miles round trip.  When we left, the mountains to the west had just their peaks in sunlight.  When we returned, the entire valley was sunlit.  It was just 48° outside, and wall-to-wall blue sky.  Beautiful, it was.

I love all the lighting effects in the early morning, as the mountains' shadows recede across the valley sides and floor.  In the last photo below, there's a pronounced “halo effect” around the shadow of my head (where the camera was).  This was just five minutes or so after the sun first hit that alfalfa, so the effect has to be entirely due to dewdrops and hairs – the plants couldn't have oriented their leaves so quickly!