Muscovy Duck

Muscovy Duck

"Be like a duck, paddling and working very hard inside the water, 

but what everyone sees is a smiling and calm face."

~Manoj Arora

From The Rat Race To Financial Freedom

I first spotted this duck a couple weeks ago. Isn't it gorgeous? I love learning about new birds. Hopefully I will be able to do some bird watching this winter. 

The San Francisco shoreline has some great places to do some bird watching from!

And what's so amazing about this duck... it seems to love the leaves as much as I do!

Quack

Leaf Of The Day

Mood: Happy

~Me :)

A Mosaic Of Them All

"Winter is an etching, Spring a watercolor, Summer an oil painting, Autumn is a mosaic of them all."

~Stanley Horowitz

I have been in love with autumn since I was a small child. I always loved seeing the beautiful crimson, gold and deep purples of the season. I love the ripe pears and spicy pies. Cinnamon has always been my favorite scent, and Alan and I fell in love in autumn, and we were married in October. Autumn is a special time of year for me! I know it's strange, and I can't really explain it, but I have always felt healthier and more invigorated in autumn, like I have been renewed! And there is just something about a sight like this one, that fills me up with joy and happiness! It's magical!

Life Is Good

And, if FEDEX manages to stay on course today, my new camera will be here sometime this afternoon. It's a replacement for the Nikon Cool-Pix s3600 that went missing last month! I ordered the new one in a lovely shade of purple... autumn purple of course... and I can't wait to take it for a spin around the autumn world. Leaves, trees, Christmas lights, clouds, raindrops, wild geese, maybe even snow... who knows what the last of autumn may have in store? All I know is, I want to see every last leafy bit of it!

If I could, I would photograph every single leaf of autumn!

Leaf Of The Day

Mood: Happy

~Me :)

Autumn Light Autumn Darkness

Autumn Daytime

"Autumn... The cheerful sundial; it falls in the shadow of they leaves.

 There, where your branches brace themselves against the gate of heaven."

~Kristian Goldmund Aumann

It's been raining in the Bay Area the last few days. Changing the light, changes the color of things, and I have been having an amazing time photographing the leaves. Cloudy days are my favorite days to experiment with the camera, but cloudy days are not without their challenges, but all in all I had a pretty good time! The same group of leaves photographed from different angles, a few hours apart. Their vibrancy changing with the light.

Autumn Nighttime

 

Autumn Shooting Star...

Dwell on the beauty of life. 

Watch the stars, and see yourself running with them."

~Marcus Aurelius

Meditations

I smiled when I saw that leaf floating in the water, it reminded me of a shooting star!

Leaf Of The Day

 

Mood: Happy

~Me :)

Late In The Day On A Late Autumn Day...

"There is a harmony in autumn, and a lustre in it's sky, which through the summer is not heard or seen, as if it could not be, as if it had not been!"

~Percy Bysshe Shelley

Sigh. That's all... just... SIGH.

:)

Leaf Of The Day

Mood: Relaxed

~Me :)

A Face In The Crowd: The Thanksgiving Edition

"Question for your life: If your face looked like your ass, and I'm not saying it doesn't, would you consider invading Russia in the middle of winter wearing only shorts?"

~Jarod Kintz

$3.33

I think I had been taking photos for well over a decade before I began to see faces. Oh don't get me wrong, I can recognize a face in the sense that I know what two eyes, a nose and a month creates one, no what I mean is, I began to see faces in objects and clouds or at least patterns that looked like faces. It's called Pareidolia. The most common example of which, might be when we see the Man In The Moon. To date, I haven't seen Jesus, or the Virgin Mary, which I hope isn't a bad sign, but I have seen some pretty interesting anonymous faces here and there! Take this one for example... do you see it? Look at the picture above. Do you see a cute little Golden Retriever looking back at you? Alan and I thought we did, so I thought it would make a fun addition to my collection!

 Tell me what you think... do you see it?

Thanksgiving Dinner

 (Before Picture)

The Leaf Of The Day

Mood: Happy

~Me :)

Cray-Cray For The Holiday

"Don't spoil Christmas Day by anticipating how it will be. 

Let it unfold as it does and be grateful for whatever comes."

~Toni Sorenson

Have you heard the drums yet? Oh I don't mean the little drummer boy playing his drum for the baby Jesus, I mean the war cry alerting us to the WAR ON CHRISTMAS! Be careful... if you aren't keeping up on these things,  you should know you will suddenly be crept up on, not by the Krampas, but by the invisible specter of consumerism, and good tidings expressed, that rob us of the true meaning of Christmas! Sarah Palin knows of this danger, as does the grandfather of jitters Bill O'Reilly. 

They both wrote the book on it dontcha-know? These are scary ass times people... be scared... be very scared... should a stranger wish you a fond HAPPY HOLIDAYS, because, Oh-GOOD-LORD-DONTCHA-KNOW, it will certainly one of those Heathen-Socialist-Communist-Liberal-PC-Considerate-Left Wing-Democratic-Tree Hugging- (And I don't mean an O'Christmas tree) -Weed Smoking-Obamaites trying to diminish Christmas by acknowledging your existence in a pseudo pleasant manner! WINK!

Don't BE FOOLED! Christmas is in DANGER of being destroyed by all the Happy Holiday's banners, and the subtle messages of that HOPE thing that can be found on the prettiest of wrapping paper and greeting cards. It's diabolical I Tells ya! Just stop into the Hallmark section of ANY Walmart store and you will see it right there! You know, I would like to see Sister Sarah and Brother Bill picket a Walmart and expose them for their hypocrisy!  I should encourage that! Everyone needs a little encouragement... right? You GO BILL AND SARAH!

 Don't Be Fooled! 

The WAR ON CHRISTMAS IS HELL!

There, I have done my part for the war effort!

Now, if we are all done with the cray-cray... 

I have a shitload of shopping to do!

Oh and well wishing to express!

Happy Holidays!

;)

And now, this tree hugger presents...

 The Leaf Of The Day

Mood: Happy

~Me :)

A Look Back At November 2014

"November is usually such a disagreeable month... as if the year had suddenly found out that she was growing old and could do nothing but weep and fret over it. This year is gowing old gracefully... just like a stately old lady who knows she can be charming even with gray hair and wrinkles.

 We've had lovely days and delicious twilight's."

~L. M. Montgomery

Anne Of Avonlea

And yet another month of 2014 comes to an end. A quiet, gentle end. The trees are beginning to look like stick figures, and the calender says it will be winter soon, which that means that I have about three weeks left in my Autumn Leaf project! I still might collect leaf photos for as long as the trees have leaves, but I don't think I will include them as part of the official collection. We'll see. Anyway, I have really enjoyed doing the leaf peeping, so maybe I will do it again next autumn. But for now, I will leave you with the full November album, and a fond look back at a lovely month. November is a beautiful kaleidoscope of color. And individuality. And life. November is beautiful!

A Look Back At November 2014

Leaf Of The Day

Mood: Happy

~Me :)