California... Southern California... A couple of days ago I read about the Ski Areas of California having a bumper year for that industry because of the record snow fall in the Sierra Nevada Mountains. The world there will be white with green around the edges for a long time.   This morning's paper included a picture of a wild fire not for from where I live. We are reminded that the world burns, too. I was reminded that California is a place that can be as green as Ireland for part of the year, that part which includes plenty of rain; and it is also a place where deserts seem to spring up overnight.  For the past month I have watched a transformation taking place at the place where I turn off Interstate 805 to get to our community.  For months I kept thinking I should stop and take photographs of the beautiful tall green grass growing near the roadway.  Now I have waited too long.  The green grass has turned into the dry grass of summer.  I stopped today to get pictures and decided that this small patch of California is what all the people who grew up in the Great Central Valley think of when they live far away and think back on their homeland. Someone seeing the pictures now that summer is here won't remember the green of winter and spring.  When I lived in Southeast Asia where everything is green all year, I longed to see the summer beige of California.  Now that I live in Southern California, I long to see the green of that other time of the year. Change is good. Life is good.