Ashes to Ashes

I will read ashes for you, if you ask me. 

I will look on the fire and tell you from the gray lashes 

And out of the red and black tongues and stripes, 

I will tell how fire comes 

And how fire runs far as the sea
.

By Carl Sandburg

Fire all throughout the Southwest--it is burning, eating and consuming every single thing in its way.

from a distance

Residents are looking back at the fire, as they drive away with just clothes and photos.

Dry dry air, heavy and suffocating.  Sun scorching burnt earth, 100 degrees or more. Tinder dry vegetation, ready to burn.

Oh, God!  Please protect the firefighters!  

Oh, God! Bless families whose homes are burned to the ground!

Every summer, I post about wildfires.  In 2014 , we could see the flames from our house. 1994 at a school where I taught, ashes covered playground and swings. That one was called the Witch Creek Fire

Below are photos I took from our house in 2014.

Fires like these will happen until December. Last year, many wineries near Napa were ruined and burned. It took three months to extinguish that fire.

P.S. This was a re-post updated from 2014.

Witching Hour

Sunburnt Sun

Gray and pink...

Wisp to Wild

Grasping, consuming.

Swirl upward--

A gift to fires

of all fires.

Witch Creek,

Poinsettia 

Paradise, 

Cedar,

San Marcos,

Elfin Forest, 

Mount Palomar...

Coco..

Other battles without names.

Burn to the ocean

or Stop at the crest?

Fiery tongues lick cold

Impassive walls.

Left empty and deserted,

Waiting for the end.

Homes and trees

To rest, layer upon layer.

White and Gray.

Green life, now absent,

Source: Ayla87

Becomes moonscape

in moments, in hours.

All for 

A Sunburnt Sun,

Fire at its witching hour.