Hilltop Life

"Solid life has a capillary connection with the air," says J. "You can burn it, but it won't die."

He speaks metaphorically, of course. Many living things died in the Station Fire a year and a half ago. But you can't defeat life itself. Thus the new growth in the lower part of the photo.

I took the shot a few yards above The Meadows, a hilltop neighborhood in Altadena. You have to be dedicated to live in The Meadows. Every time there's a brush fire or a heavy rain, you get evacuated. The fire came so close to those homes I could have thrown a baseball from a back yard into the flames--and I've got a sissy throw.

But the mountains are at your doorstep. The trail head is in the middle of your block. The trails are beautiful and the temptation is great. People get up there, fall in love with the life, get their capillary connection to the air and neither flood nor fire will move them off that hill.