I had a difficult time deciding whether I wanted to feature flowers, or vegetables for this Round Robin Challenge. I thought about visiting one of the many community gardens in the Bay Area to feature the lovely way they dress up a neighborhood, but in the end I decided to do a round up of some of the prettiest flower gardens I have been to in my travels with my digital cameras over the last 10 years.
Enjoy! :)
Let's begin with the photo featured at the top of the post!
Pastorino's, Half Moon Bay, California
Mission Santa Barbara, Santa Barbara, California
Conservatory Of Flowers, Golden Gate Park, San Francisco, California
Queen Wilhelmina Tulip Garden, Golden Gate Park, San Francisco, California
Japanese Tea Garden, Golden Gate Park, San Francisco, California
Capitol Rose Garden, Sacramento, California
A Lovely Balcony Garden, 20th st. San Francisco, California
The Brazilian Room Garden, Tilden Park, Berkeley, California
Now that you have seen my gardens, please be sure to visit the other Round Robin participants. Please click the Link at the top of this post to be redirected to the official Round Robin blog. :)
"Probably the saddest thing you'll ever see is a mosquito sucking on a mummy. Forget it little friend."
~Jack Handy
Look what I found! It's a mummy... but it's also a pretty good photobomb! :) I couldn't help but smile when I found this photo, while cleaning out some image files from last autumn. Isn't it cute? I am pretty sure the disembodied hand you see belongs to either a customer, or perhaps a window dresser, but you never know... As you might remember...October is a very special month for mummies!
"The problem with cats is that they get the exact same look on their face whether they see a moth or an axe-murderer."
~Paula Poundstone
Yesterday was a big day in Dylan's life. He was seen deep in his thoughts throughout the day! I know he was because I personally observed all 12 of them!
"Taking pictures is savoring life intensely, ever hundredth of a second."
~Marc Riboud
I wish I could say that this was a carefully planned photograph. I wish I could say that I labored for hours, hand stocking the lake with tiny little fish, just to get the perfect shot of my favorite bird chomping away on his meal in a very photogenic manner... yeah... I wish. LOL. But actually I have to admit that while I was out with the camera one cold, dark December day, I spotted a cute little egret, sitting still and quietly in Lake Tilden. I had been out that day looking for shadows and moody corners of Tilden park, so when I came across this bird I couldn't have been happier! I snapped off about 25 photos or so, most of which came out either overexposed or grainy. But I did get a couple of shots that looked pretty decent. The one above was a completely surprise! The bird spotted the fish in the water, and dived in so quickly to catch it, that I didn't even see it happen. I didn't see what I had captured with the camera until I got home!
That's called a lucky break! LOL. It's okay... it has inspired me many times when I have been out with the camera specifically looking for birds. I think I stop now, and consider the bigger picture surrounding the birds... not just the subject itself. Luck... it's a good thing! Don't waste the lesson it gives you! Whatever the lesson is!
"The road of life is filled with sunshine and clouds, black and white, triumphs and tragedies. As we continue down the road, we decide which things we bring with us, and which we leave in the rear-view mirror."
~Julie-Anne
It's time to take a look back at the people, places and things that caught my eye in April. I had fun! I dunno, I think it just felt amazing to be able to get out of the house, after being sick in March. In any case, I found a lot to be inspired by. :)
Enjoy!
And now how about a little music?
The Beatles "The Long And Winding Road."
"All great roads are paved with uncomfortable memories."
"You're being cryptic again. It's like soap opera sex. Lots of boring dialogue and when they finally go to bed, everything's dark and covered by blankets."
~Ragnar Tornquist
It's April 29th... FINALLY!
April has been the longest month of this year, I swear someone added a few extra days! Nah, I know, this April has the exact same number of days it always had, but I have to say, it felt a lot longer longer than usual! Why? you ask. Well, you see, I have been waiting for the relaunch of two of my favorite soap operas, and let me tell you, the waiting hasn't been easy! It's been a long hard fight for we soap fans, a true uphill battle if there ever was one! And it all started in the month of April 2 years ago, when Brian Frons, former head of daytime programming for ABC, made the ridiculous, overreaching decision to axe not just one, but two of the network's long running daytime dramas, All My Children, and One Life To Live. At the time it seemed like a permanent dark cloud had been set not just on my Monday thru Friday, but on the days of millions of other soap fans as well!
We asked nicely that the network reconsider.
They ignored us!
We gathered and signed petitions online, and the old fashioned way.
They ignored us!
The Hoover company supported us by pulling all their advertising from ABC daytime. (Don't forget to buy Mom a Hoover vacuum for Mother's Day by the way!)
The network not only continued to ignore, but indeed openly thumbed their nose at us!
ABC replaced our favorite daytime dramas with... uggg... a "lifestyle show" and a "cooking show."
The first of the soaps to disappear was All My Children, in September of 2011. It was replaced by the ridiculously named cooking show called... gulp... The Chew. Hosted by, and I stick by the following opinion, so-so chefs, Mario Batali and Michael Symon. I actually spoke with Chef Symon one evening over Twitter, when, to my dismay, he decided to laugh at my assessment of him. I backed my opinion by telling him exactly why I felt the way I did. Let's just use one example here. His 5 in 5 segment. 5 ingredient meals, you could, or should, be able to prepare in 5 minutes for under $5 dollars. First of all, in the 3 months I watched The Chew, he never, ever, finished successfully in that amount of time and as for the $5 part... it was iffy at best! Not impressive! If it doesn't work, have the courage to say so, and move on! Right? Then there came the insulting way Batali introduced each show by saying "there are two types of people... Italians, and those who want to be Italians." Chef Batali... I have never wanted to be Italian! And should we talk about the many, many times I saw the chef's touch raw food without washing their hands? I could go on about the other elements about the show that bugged me, but there is no need for it. I don't watch it, but some do. In my opinion ABC won't be cancelling it anytime soon, so why belabor the point... right? It's awful. The End.
Now, as if a ridiculous cooking show wasn't enough... the network decided to replace One Life To Live with the short lived lifestyle show... The Revolution. The reviews were awful, right out of the box. It was so bad it lasted a total of 6 months on the air. It was BAD! It was so bad that it never came close to garnering the kind of ratings One Life To Live did in the same time slot. It was a sad embarrassment for all involved. But the saddest part about the entire situation is that The Chew, and The Revolution replaced shows that had been on ABC for over 40 years! Yep, that's right, both were on ABC for over 40 years! It truly was insulting to the fans to think that one more cooking show, or one more lame lifestyle show could possibly replace a show we had watched, and cared about since, as in my case, a small child. You know how when something big happens, and years later you reflect on where you were when it happened... the day Elvis Presley passed away, my sister and I were in my room, watching One Life To Live on my portable black and white TV. It was August 16th, 1977. She was just a few months away from getting married, and she and her fiance had planned to get tickets to see Elvis perform later that year. It was going to be their wedding gift to each other. It was one of those moments I never forgot, nor did I forget what I was watching when the "Breaking News" chimed in.
Brian Frons, and ABC made a big mistake. We fans made our voices heard loud and clear. And then one day we got some unexpected news, something was about to happen that has never happened before. A couple people got together and said... "What if?" What if we can relaunch those two much loved shows online? Long story short. There was some rough going with that idea, and at one point we fans accepted the possible reality that it probably wasn't going to happen, then just after the first of the year came the news that it was A GO! Now, most of the casts of both shows are back. It's a new day, and as of today, Monday, April 29th, All My Children and One Life To Live are back! They can both be seen Monday through Thursday with new 30 minute episodes, and on Friday with the recaps on Hulu, Hulu Plus and iTunes.
I said at the time Brian Frons made that dumb decision that it would go down in entertainment history as one of the stupidest decisions ever made in daytime! And guess what... I was right! As for Mr. Frons, well, he was let go from ABC in January of 2012! Bye Bye Mr. Frons have a nice time in oblivion!
Sometimes Mondays get a bad rap, but I think this Monday will go down in history as a pretty good day!
Now, here is a clip from One Life To Live, featuring one of my favorite daytime characters, David Vickers, played by Tuc Watkins. In the clip David debuts in his big break into acting by doing a commercial for a certain type of health product. It's funny! Watch it! Get your day off right with a little humor. Life is too short, we need a little escape once in a while... right?
By the way, some really great actors have gotten their start in daytime, among them are, Judith Light. Julianne Moore, Christopher Reeve, Meg Ryan, Demi Moore, Kevin Bacon, Tommy Lee Jones, just to name a few. Soap actors are some of the hardest working people around, and they have made my life much nicer just by sharing their talent with the world. I am honored to be a fan!
Congratulations on your new start All My Children and One Life To Live! I will be there every single day!
"We could learn a lot from crayons; some are sharp, some are pretty, some are dull, while others bright, some have weird names, but they all have learned to live together in the same box."
~Unknown
I am feeling in a silly mood, but at the same time everything, seemingly everywhere, is bursting with color. Well, we are in the middle of spring after all. Today it's supposed to be 95 degrees outside, so to my dismay it feels like summer is bullying spring a bit, but I guess that is to be expected. A few years ago I remember marveling at the fact that winter seemed to be bullying spring! LOL. In any case, while there will be flowers all summer, and well into autumn, there is just something about spring flowers that fills the soul with joy. :) It's something I have come to appreciate more and more.
As much as I am enjoying the pretty... I can't help but enjoy the silly also! It's a healthy balance methinks.
The Silly...
"If I told you I've worked hard to get where I'm at, I'd be lying, because I have no idea where I am right now."
~Jarod Kintz, This Book Is Not For Sale
"Who cares about pretty? I'm going for noticeable."
