desert weather

Yesterday it rained from morning through the night.

Today was clear and sunny. The air was clean and the objects existing in space were bright. I cannot say I have noticed this phenomenon anywhere but here (here as in Tucson, but I imagine it extends across places that are the desert). It was so clear that objects appear to be images in a picture, so real that perhaps they are not because the picture looks flat. A perfectly captured and created scene with just the right light (no glare or reflection) and color and air without any interference, and still.

This afternoon walking home, however, the wind gusts had picked up, rustling the palm tree branches, and the shadows had lengthened -- reminding me both of winter and the beach.

Even after a year and half, sometimes the desert is strange to me.