It's the first (full) day of spring today but the calendar lags behind the landscape. Up in the mountains everything's been leafing or blooming or glowing green for weeks already.

Here's the corner of Mulholland Highway and Cornell Road, a spot where, a few summers back, I clocked temps at 108 degrees. Now, though, especially with the marine layer in play, it's cool and fresh and, in between packs of racing motorcycles, quiet and beautiful.