The flat, grey light doesn’t diminish the little dog’s excitement on this hike up the Perseverance Trail. Yesterday’s heavy rain hasn’t washed away the scents she loves to sample. I carry a camera with little enthusiasm. We walk over familiar ground unenhanced by sunlight, frost, or even rain. As if to lift my mood, the sun’s ghost appears just above the outstretched limb of a cottonwood tree. A robin settles in the tree. I snap their picture before the ghost departs.