Halcyon days. We continue to experience a not-unusual, glorious, extended warm period. Today is to be 8C and the next week's highs are to hover close to freezing. And let it be noted that when in January the temperature here is 0C and the sun shines, you are having one very fine, exhilarating day. The clarity of the air, the sharpness of the light, the loveliness of the mountains as they loom into view--these all are (as some earlier residents might have put it) transcendent in their beauty.

In the reading department, I'm liking McCullough's take on John Adams. Rich material. Letters (a thousand are available for research) between Adams and wife Abigail show her to be his intellectual equal and affectionate cheerleader, spurring him on in "the Cause"--but not his doormat. The two of them deplored slavery at a time it was common in every colony. They lived simply, raising their own food on their hardscrabble farm while Jefferson in Virginia had slaves waiting on him hand and foot. (He owned 200.)

McCullough's biography and the like are causing scholars to recognize the extent to which Adams' contribution had been undervalued. When it came down to the one-yard line and delegates were voting for independence on July 2, 1776, John Dickinson of Pennsylvania gave a final rousing, brilliant, thoughtful argument for holding off on the decision. It was so good no one wanted to answer. At length Adams rose to his feet and once again carried the ball. This time he gave the speech of his life and, as Jefferson later put it, lifted the listeners out of their chairs. He scored, independence was adopted, and the US of A came into being.

One impression that fascinates me in the account is the fact that (unlike today's politicians) the men in the room, while having such wildly different backgrounds and viewpoints, were men of integrity. The debates were real. No TV cameras were on and what was said and decided really would change history. They personally could be hung as traitors if things went badly, and as they spoke hundreds of British ships were filling the New York harbor.

Also fascinating in the account is the fact that Jefferson was pretty anti-Christian, something he let slip in a non-pugnacious way from time to time, while Adams, it seemed, was a heartfelt believer. Jefferson's view on religion was one Adams found offensive. Yet the two became best buds and stayed that way until their deaths on the same day--July 4 (!), 1826.