The window nearest me as I sit at my husband's desk looks due west. Across the two-lane street I can see my neighbor Dan's little mobile home, which is white with brown trim (Dan has just come out and is sitting on a chair in the shade on his deck; a cottonwood tree towers behind him), and beyond that I can see a few more distant cottonwood trees, and past them the foothills of the Rocky Mountains, dirt brown right now because of the drought. From here they just look like low rolling hills dotted with pine trees. There are a few clouds west of the mountains, which look as though they were resting on top of the hills. I wish they held the promise of rain, but it's not too likely. Above the clouds there's the amazing western sky, wide and blue.