I couldn’t take my eyes off the sky.  Our usual monochromatic blue or gray skies were replaced by deep blue textured with white.  My first view this morning was as we headed off to run errands.  We have this quirky spiky tree near the driveway that I am obsessed with photographing.  It always makes an interesting backdrop to photos of the sky.  This morning I noticed the tree was beginning to get leaves (again–this tree gets terribly confused with year-round spurts of spring and summer weather) as I looked up into sun infused clouds, with the neighbor’s palm tree in the background.

Later, after the errands and some shopping at the outlet mall, my husband offered to stop along the coast in San Clemente so I could get out and take some photos.  My eyes were drawn to the contrails playing with the clouds against the brilliant blue of the springtime sky.

The coastline is always beautiful, and today was no different.  It was high tide when we stopped and I picked my way down close enough for photos–but trying to avoid another oops like I experienced yesterday!  The sky appeared to have stripes…and you can’t really see it in this photo, but the sea had dozens of sailboats in the distance.  I like the way the white of crashing waves echo the white of the contrails and clouds in the sky.

Even the traffic couldn’t ruin the day.  Accidents and heavy weekend traffic made a 30 mile trip take more than 90 minutes, something that is unfortunately all too typical. (I suppose it is a price we pay for living near the coast.)  Our too-often-brown hillsides were wearing their springtime best and bursting with lush and vibrant green and so many yellow flowers…you can almost feel the softness with your eyes!

Although I missed the photo opportunity as we left Costco and headed back home, my eyes took in yet another playful interweaving of contrails and clouds.  I looked up and noticed an enormous hashtag in the sky.  #skyview