Ick is the only way to describe today’s weather/environmental/fire/air quality conditions.
The Zaca Fire is kicking our butts.
We awoke to a red sun, orange cloud filled sky. And a ton of ash. On my clean, de-ashed car. Here is the hood, the orange ball reflected is the sun at 8:30am.
Oh, did I mention it was snowing ash? I mean, floating all around, falling on everything, snowing ash.
And of course the flowers & plants couldn’t get away from it.
Martha Washington Geranium
Geranium leaves
By this afternoon it was piled up like snow drifts along the edges of the driveway & brick work. And you can’t just rinse it off with water, it becomes a stick-to-everything liquid. So, it takes a lot of soap & a lot of rinsing to get the car clean.
The day stayed orange. Tracy took some great pics of the sunset. She has one posted from our knit group at Java Station tonight.
Two days ago I had my camera with me while we were playing at the playground. Here are a few pics of the smoke plume. The fire is approx 20 miles away, as the crow flies, over the Santa Ynez mountain range.
It did flatten out after a while once the wind picked up. The layers in the plume were amazing!
I have a whole flickr set that you are more than welcome to look at and share.
Needless to say, we are all very thankful here for the hard work & determination the firefighters have shown. As a former firefighter, I know the battles of fighting wildfires and this is a huge one! I know the exertion, the frustration, the rush, the toil, the labor and I appreciate every single second that they are putting themselves on the line for us. Thank them if you get a chance!