The moods of a mountain

The same 520 Bridge that rewards us with precious sightings of Ethel and Ernest also provides a spectacular view of majestic, magical, awe inspiring Mount Rainier. We locals call it The Mountain. And like our beloved eagles, The Mountain plays a game of flirtatious but shy enigma. We live in a land of clouds. It isn't rain that Seattle should be famous for, as we get only a modest annual rainfall. It should be the clouds that seem to settle in and remain almost immutable from November to April. Ah, but when those clouds part.....the glory of The Mountain amazes us. Sometimes it appears in a purely azure sky like a gigantic vanilla ice cream cone. Other times The Mountain wears a wide brimmed hat of lenticular clouds. Or the clouds will hang around the base of The Mountain and we will only see the white cap sitting above what looks like a fluffy platform of swirly fog. Today The Mountain was glorious. We are enjoying one of the driest winters in recent memory. And today it is a beautiful sunshiny 50 degrees and The Mountain looked like an expert had photo shopped it on the southern horizon, with a skirt of gauzy white clouds around its middle. What made it all perfect...one of the eagles was way up high in the air, soaring around on the updrafts, barely needing to move its wings to stay aloft. Sometimes those of us who find the short, dark, gloomy days of a Seattle winter to be a bit depressing think maybe we should move to Santa Fe or travel to Maui to avoid the grayness of the season. But then....there is The Mountain. And our eagles. And we know why we stay.