Luminous

The last few days have been dark and even rainy so it was lovely that my day for renting a car and hitting the hills was clear! Indeed the light in Pisgah National Forest, the day's highlight, was so clear that everything was shining. Not just water... Leaves and pine needles 

and smooth branches sparkled too. My iPhone was so dazzled it wasn't able to capture what's most novel to me in this forest: in the many stream and waterfall-filled valleys and on, I think, the east side of hills, the understory isn't the brown of dead leaves but deep green - 

mostly rhododendrons; the best I could do was that picture at the top. (I can't imagine what it'll be like when they all bloom in the summer!) The effect is like one of those medieval tapestries with white trees against a lush verdant background. From a distance, blue prevailed.