Taking Down Decorations

A bare tree stands

with roots at both ends

in December days

~Kiran Bantawa

Bare Trees

Alan and I were talking things over last night, about the holidays, and if we really wanted to do anything about it at all. Any decorating, or playing of board games, or visiting our favorite haunts like, Union Square, in San Francisco. Our moods have been dark and heavy lately, politics overwhelms everything! Should we buy gifts this year? Because if Trump's tax plan passes, well, we are going to be in a financial pickle come the new year. And then there is the fact that we are just getting over colds. Both of us sick, for most of the last week!

Yep... we are in a funk. I think we will push through this, but it didn't help that I got a rather large mailer from a local Funeral and Memorial service provider! And not just any one, the one that currently hosts my dad! Don't those people know that this is the time of year when suicides rates are at their highest? Come on guys, you can't get rid of me that easily! I'm just trying to think of that unfortunately timed ad as a, Fuck You, and Happy Holidays, from my dear old dad! He had that kind of sense of humor!

We will push forward. We will put up a holiday tree and some decorations, and we will find the spirit. I know we will. We just have to make an effort. That's the hard part. Making the effort. Anyway, we are about to turn to a new year, 2018, and hopefully some really nice turn of events will happen... call it a 2018 miracle! You never know, maybe 2018 will completely make up for all the pain of 2016, and 2017. It could happen, and if it does, I will put the damn holiday tree up in May, if that's when Trump is finally removed from office! You. Just. Watch. Me! 

HAPPY HOLIDAYS

TREASON WILL BE THE REASON FOR THE SEASON!

#9 Leaf Of The Day

December 9th 2017

Cull Canyon Park

Mood: Sarcastic

~Me

Darkness And Light/Plus Leaf Photo Catch Up

"December, being the last month of the year,

 cannot help but make us think of what is to come."

~Fennel Hudson

A Meaningful Life

Fennel's Journal No. 1

Did you miss me? Yes, I took a few days off, to be sick as a damn dog! Alan and I both were. Coughing. Fever. Chills. Sick to our stomachs... wait... that wasn't about having a cold, that was about politics. Once again, politics couldn't help but drown all of us, in it's seedy waterfall of despair. I don't really want to talk about it, but I will share to the extent that I am fed up with witch hunts, lack of due process, and fear on a national level, of boogeymen, and clowns! There is a lot of REAL things to be afraid of. Once such thing to fear, and may have, indeed, got us here is tribalism. Don't think so? Look around. This season's theme of, American Horror Story: Cult, has pretty much nailed the current political, and social climate.

Women are becoming cultists, and hey, it's not that I don't get it. I experienced the same kind of evil, as the women coming forward have. Rape. Sexual Assault, and harassment in the workplace, and I even feel like the men who perpetrate these crimes and uncomfortable situations, should be brought into the light of day! But not because of false equations, not because politicians, who find their political roads to the top, by using fear, political fear, intimidation, of anyone, or appearance of "moral high ground." That's a little easy, don't you think? Al Franken was forced to retire from the U. S. Senate yesterday, and denied DUE PROCESS, that HE REQUESTED, after the first accusation, because Democrats want to gain ground on the senate race in Alabama.

I want that too, but to sacrifice one of our own, with NO proof and without hearing both stories, is wrong, and always will be. To fire every man, or woman, for that matter, who finds themselves in the same situation as Al Franken did, without due process, doesn't help women like me, survivors of sexual violence, it sets us back! Years! Right now, we have to hold onto everything that makes us America, and as painful as it can be, DUE PROCESS is part of that! America is falling away, more and more, and becoming something I don't recognize. Something that we might truly need to fear. So, when I read the quote I used for this post, I knew it summed up how I felt completely, and definitely bears repeating...

"December, being the last month of the year

cannot help but make us think of what is to come."

I don't think I am looking forward to 2018.

 #8 Leaf Of The Day

December 8th 2017

Tilden Park, Little Farm,

Berkeley, California

 Leaf Gallery 

( Click Each To Enlarge )

#5 Leaf Of The Day

December 4th, 2017

Cull Canyon Park

#6 Leaf Of The Day

December 5th, 2017

Tilden Park, Berkeley, Ca

#7 Leaf of The Day

December 7th, 2017

Stockton, California

Mood:Worried

~Me

 

The Full Cold Supermoon In The Constellation Of Taurus

"I, swear, the reason for full moons is so the gods can move clearly see the mischief they create."

~Michael J. Sullivan

Age Of Myth

It's December's Full Cold Moon, it's in the constellation of Taurus, it's, the last full moon of 2017, and it is a supermoon! That's a lot for one lunar event, but it explains some things too. President Trump's insane twitter rampage this weekend, and I am betting his Tweeting will only get more outrageous, as we get closer to the morning! Also in full moon events, The Philadelphia Eagles lost to Seattle, and Alan and I BOTH have head colds!

It's the perfect merging of events, set up in the sky to knock my mood and my body flat of it's ass! Still, I loved looking up at that moon, it was cold outside, not freezing, but definitely cold, but what a sight! It made me long for Twin Peaks in San Francisco, because it would have been an amazing place to watch it rise, over the East Bay hills. I miss San Francisco, but photographing something that amazing, from my own yard, was pretty wonderful too! I'm grateful, and I miss San Francisco. See, I can do two things at once!

 #4 Leaf Of The Day

December 4th, 2017

Cull Canyon Park

Mood: Happy

~Me :)

The Sweetest Season

"Wind warns November's done with.

 The blown leaves make bat-shapes, web-singed and furious."

~Sylvia Plath 

I was in Quincy, in late October, and I was losing the light quickly. I had to hurry to get all the pictures I could, and play in those beautiful leaves as long as possible! Truth is, there would never be long enough of any autumn day for my liking. The seasons of summer and autumn always seemed backwards to me. Summer gets the long hot days, when you can't think straight from the oppression of heat, and the only real color is green.

What was God thinking, putting this overwhelmingly beautiful season in front of us, and not giving us enough time to see it at our leisure? I am basically in the autumn of life, and I want to cling to it. I am smarter now, then at any other time of my life, and wouldn't go back to stupid spring for anything. Autumn is wisest season, but by the time one realizes it, it's cold and dark, and winter comes, and time goes deeply quiet. I am going to photograph autumn, for as many years I have left!

Never, ever, waste an autumn day, 

no matter what the weather is, or how much sun is left.  

It's all a gift. 

 #3 Leaf Of The Day

December 3rd 2017

Placerville, California

Mood: Quiet

~Me