Mid-December in the Southern California Piedmont

The small city east of Los Angeles where Jane and I live is named Upland for a reason - it is at the base of the foothills of the San Gabriel Mountains, a higher elevation than the floor of the San Gabriel Valley below us. In my native state of North Carolina, it would be said to be in the 'Piedmont' - all you French-speakers know what that means. From my backyard I have a clear view of Mount Baldy which is within the last ranger district of the U.S. Forest Service on which I worked before leaving the forest service when President Ronny and his pal James Watt took all the money away from the federal resource management agencies. Mount Baldy is also named Mount San Antonio after Anthony of Padua, a patron of the Franciscan order - this is, after all, mission country - particularly the San Gabriel Mission a few miles from here. Baldy has two peaks, the highest of which is 10,068 feet in elevation. It is the highest peak in Los Angeles County and also in the San Gabriel range. There is a trail called the 'Devil's Backbone' that runs from the main peak to the west peak. Along this trail the spine of the mountain is very sharp and narrow - you can look down into the Antelope Valley on the north and into the San Gabriel Valley in the south - but be careful not to stumble while you're looking. The original people to the south of the range who came to be called 'Gabrieleno' by the Spanish because they built the San Gabriel Mission, the Tongva call this mountain 'Yoat', meaning snow. The Mohave to the north call it 'Avii Kwatiinyam'. This morning, December 13th, when I woke up Mount Baldy was covered in snow and yet it was only sweater weather here in Upland, in the mid-40 degree range and warming to the high-50 degrees during the day. In fact, in my yard right now the roses and camellias are blooming. This is one of the incongruities of Southern California - I could drive two hours to Palm Springs in the high desert and be in balmy summer weather (but don't go there in the summer unless you are ready to roast)or drive 20 minutes up Baldy to play in the snow. After living and working in the mountains of Southern Oregon and Northern California for 16 years, pines and firs and cedars are the standing people that I consider family. Here I am surrounded by palm trees and cactus and yet I can still look up to the snow-covered peak of Mount Baldy. I live in a city of trees, an Arbor City - right now my front yard is covered with the leaves of the Liquidambar styraciflua that some call 'sweet gum'. The Liquidambar was an eastern tree that was imported to be a street tree and to give Southern California some autumn color. So - I guess this is all more reinforcement of the notion that all of life is a trade-off - but once in a while, maybe, just maybe, you can have your cake and eat it too. N'est-ce pas?