On the edge of flame

Written last night:

Dear Friends,

Sacramento is on the edge of the fires devouring Sonoma and Napa counties  — here we have no flame, just smoke. This photo isn’t Sacramento, though; it’s Dixon, about 20 minutes southwest of here -- in the direction of wine country. I drove there today to buy some walnuts. (This is a newly-planted field, and I don’t know what the crop is.) Usually you can see mountains in the distance, but today they were blotted out. The sun, too, is shaded by smoke. I could smell smoke, faintly. We are lucky to be safe.

Love,

k

P.S. At 2 this morning I woke up to the smell of smoke. Had I left the oven on? (After dinner I'd used it for five minutes, toasting nuts.) Then I remembered the fires, and, barely awake, I fumbled to close the bedroom door to the balcony. The smoke  was out there, and it's still there this morning.