Santa Barbara chiaroscuro

Morning fog—such a blessing in this town of too much sun.
My wife doesn’t think so, being from the Sierra foothills,

but the gray quiet in the oaks is the closest thing we have,
most days, to the moiling clouds of Oregon, where I grew up.

Now that I’m about to retire, we’re looking for a new home
with equal parts light and shade—impossible to find, of course.