Saturday, October 13, 2018

Falling In Love In October

"May you fall in love in October
and all the beauty it brings,
May your life be as colorful as
the turning of the leaves,
On each blessed autumn day!"

~Charmaine J. Forde

As of today, Alan and I will have been married 28 years! We began dating in late august, of 1988, but we knew it was really love in October! Alan proposed to me, the following year, on October 8th, 1989, and we were married one year later, on October 13th, 1990! Everything went wrong with the wedding, it was a true comedy of errors, from uncooperative, insane relatives, to the wrong cake being delivered, that, by the way, tasted like Certs breath mints, to someone stealing the pew decorations, before we could do our wedding photos... lol... everything went wrong, but the only thing Alan and I concentrated on was he and I, because that was all that mattered! Which is not to say there wasn't a few shit fits thrown about it later, there were, by both of us, but our love for each other, had nothing to do with it! As it was then, so it is now, it's just he and me.

AND
HE AND ME
ARE FOREVER
WE!


 #22 Leaf Of The Day
October 13th, 2018
Little Farm
Tilden Park
Berkeley, California




~Mood Happy
~Me :)


 

Friday, October 12, 2018

Beetlejuice, Beetlejuice, Beetlejuice


"October, baptize me with leaves! Swaddle me in corduroy and nurse me with split pea soup. October, tuck tiny candy bars in my pockets and carve my smile into a thousand pumpkins. O autumn! O teakettle! O grace!"

~Rainbow Rowell
Attachments


Alan and I went on our first trip to Berkeley, of the autumn season, yesterday and the leaves were glorious! We didn't make it downtown on this trip, we spent our time in Tilden, just enjoying the fresh air, and the landscape. One of my favorite trees, located near Little Farm, was beginning to show some happy color. Oranges and hints of purple mostly, but there were some green and yellow making a showing as well. It will be another week or so, before the colors go deeper, and then the window for it won't be open long, so it's a matter of keeping watch as much as possible.

 I am not sure how often I will be able to visit, because we have a lot of destinations planned for this vacation, but for the first day, all in all, it wasn't a bad start. After the leaf peeping, it was down to Orinda, for a free showing of Beetlejuice at the lovely old Orinda Theater. If you are a regular visitor to my blog, you probably remember that we, traditionally, start our vacation each year, on the second Thursday of October, which is free movie night at the Orinda! It began four years ago with, Rosemary's Baby, and now it wouldn't be autumn, or vacation time, without it!

 Can you believe, Beetlejuice turns 30 years old this year? It came out just 6 months before Alan and I began dating! The last time either of us saw it, we were just friends, and now, all these years later, we are just two days shy of our 28th wedding anniversary! It was a pretty strange feeling to realize that that much time had gone by. Other than the strands of white hair we both have now, and my arthritis, standing in line felt exactly the same as the first time we  went to see the movie together, in 1988! 

Time goes by so fast, when you laugh together as often as we do!

#21 Leaf Of The Day
October 12th, 2018
Cull Canyon Park, California




~Mood: Happy
~Me :)



 

Thursday, October 11, 2018

HISSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSS And The Leaf of The Day


California Academy Of Sciences
Golden Gate Park
San Francisco, California
October 20th 2010

"When the wolf howls and the moon dims
hope fades with the waning light
Evil lurks at every turn as shadows waltz
across the ebony night.
Behold the midnight hour
where all of reason takes flight."

~Grace Willows 

Our vacation Begins Today! What does that have to do with that charming creature above? Absolutely nothing!
Yay!

The Madagascar Hissing Cockroach is one scary bug! Bugs and creepy crawlies are scary enough for me with just their appearance, but now they have some that also hiss? Hissing from a cat can be scary, because it usually means, they are about to scratch the living fuck out of you, but a hissing cockroach, that's crossing a line I simply refuse to deal with! This little specimen was behind glass, and I couldn't look at it for about 20 minutes or so. Once I did, it took forever to get my courage up to photograph it, even knowing full well, there was no danger, whatsoever, of it attacking me! In the end, I did get my courage up, and I took the photograph. It was cool that it all happened in October, because one expects to be frightened in October, but damn, I don't think I want to meet that guy in a dark alleyway, in the dead of night... in October!

 #20 Leaf Of The Day
October 11th, 2018
Stockton, California


~Mood: Scared
~Me :)




Wednesday, October 10, 2018

Come Little Leaves... . And The Leaf Of The Day

Tilden Park, Berkeley, California
November 11th, 2018
Minolta

"Come little leaves," said the Wind one day, "come to the meadows with me and play. Put on your dresses of red and gold; for summer is past, and the days grow old."

~George Cooper

I photographed this little leaf on November 11th, 2008. I think it might have been what sparked my interest in starting this yearly project. I love doing it very much, and it has become as important to me as Halloween and Thanksgiving are! After autumn closes the door for another year, I will still be searching for leaves as far into the other seasons as they go. So, as you might have guessed, I have a hard time letting go of things I care about, even leaves. LOL.

It's only 29 days until the midterm elections. Less than a month. It seems like things could be a slam dunk, but I can't let myself go there. I knew there was every potential for Donald Trump to win the 2016 election, but I put it away, out of my head, because who could take him seriously? He had no experience in politics, so who in their right mind, would vote for him to become the most powerful person in the world? 

Well, as it turns out, I guess there are enough people in America willing to have brain surgery done on them, by whoever gives the best pitch, rather than which doctor has the most experience. So, if you happen to be a janitor, but you think you'd be just nifty at brain surgery, rest assured there will be someone who will let you do it, because you're different than any other surgeon they had ever met before! 

My stomach is in knots. It's not like we will see any peace if democrats manage to take back either the house or the senate, or both. We will have to continue to endure Trump's abuse, and daily barrage of nasty attacks. We will continue to be trolled by he cowardly little anonymous cultists, and it might get even worse than it had ever before. He's scared of the Mueller investigation, and he should be! Mueller is more than capable, and that's already been proven by multiple indictments, and those who agreed to testify on condition of being immunity from prosecution.

But if we lose, we will still be beaten, and stepped on, because winning has never been enough for him. He can't just be gracious, he has to be smug, and nasty, and cruel, like it's his lifeblood, like it's what keeps him alive. It's not enough to just breathe air like the rest of us do, he has to beat, demean and abuse people if he wins too. The pain he inflicts won't stop either way the midterms go. 

Sometimes I think I will never know another day of peace again.

Ever.

And I'm just sad, all the time now, except when I am photographing the beauty of autumn leaves, because I know they have nothing to do with him.

Nothing. 

Don't get me wrong the depression fluxes in severity, but it never really stops. So, is this how the rest of my life will be? Not one day without psychological abuse? Am I really going into my old age, with this reality? Will I ever go a day again, without hearing the name Trump? Or feeling the pain of the decisions he has already made, like the appointment of Brett Kavanaugh to the Supreme Court? 

The leaf at the top of this post, was photographed exactly one week after the 2008 Presidential election. I was so much happier then. Even if John McCain had won, I wouldn't have been the happiest person in the world, but I wouldn't have been depressed to the point that I am right now. Sarah Palin, as vice president, would have been annoying, occasionally funny, really absurd, but she wouldn't make me worry about being hit with a nuclear missile. 

Well, probably not, anyway.

#19 Leaf Of The Day
October 10th 2018
Stockton, California




~Mood: Sad
~Me   :)


 

Tuesday, October 09, 2018

The Willet And The Leaf Of The Day

Willet
November 9th 2007
Emeryville, California
Minolta

"Autumn is the greatest reminder: it reminds us how dreamlike beauties our earth has and it reminds us how all these beautiful dreams can easily vanish."

~Mehmet Murat ildan


That beautiful bird is a Willet. I photographed it on November 9th, 2007, just after the cargo ship, Cosco Busan, crashed into the Bay Bridge, and dumped 53,569 gallons of Intermediate fuel oil into the San Francisco Bay. This accident devastated wild life for months afterward. If you look closely, you can see some of the oil this bird is standing in. It was heartbreaking! I hope nothing like this ever happens again, but there is a part of me that fears it will.

With national environmental protections being eroded every day, it's just a matter of time. Fortunately we have had two governors in a row, one Republican, one Democrat who have understood the importance of conservation and preserving the coastline in California, and for that I'm grateful.

I hope it stays that way, but unfortunately there is a part of me that believes it's only a matter of time before there is another accident, perhaps on a larger scale. I pray I'm wrong. California is safe for now, I think, but not necessarily true for the rest of America. When did preserving the only Earth we have, become a partisan issue?

#18 Leaf Of The Day
October 10th, 2018
Ione, California
Samsung 7

~Mood: Quiet
~Me :)
 

 

Monday, October 08, 2018

Autumn Leaves Old And New And The Leaf Of The Day

"Autumn colors remind us, we are all dancing in the wind."

~Lorin Morgan-Richards

While out hunting leaves yesterday, I came upon this pretty shrub. I had no idea what it was, and it wasn't particularly autumn-ish, but it had lovely leaves that were fading from a dark green, to almost white. I was intrigued by it. I am not a big fan of shrubs and bushes, in my opinion they are nothing more than homes for spiders, but this one really caught my eye. The leaves, when there was enough to be bunched together, formed an unusual shape, almost like a flower, or maybe a star. In some ways it also reminded me of a very small white poinsettia, but after a little detective work online, I learned it was the leaves of an Azalea bush.And that  pretty much explains why I hadn't seen it before, I am not a big fan of Azaleas either, but now I am a big fan of it's leaves!

#17 Leaf Of The Day
October 8th, 2018
Stockton, Ca
Samsung 7




~Mood: Happy
~Me :)

Sunday, October 07, 2018

A Bird Of A Different Autumn And The Leaf Of The Day

Herring Gull
November 19th, 2008
Golden Gate Bridge
San Francisco, California
Minolta


Autumn
The autumn comes, a maiden fair
In slenderness and grace,
With nodding rice-stems in her hair
And lilies in her face.
 In flowers of grasses she is clad;
And as she moves along,
Birds greet her with their cooing glad
Like bracelets' tinkling song.

~Kalidasa

I was tidying up some folders of my photography for 2018, when I came across a folder from November of 2008, which had somehow been misplaced. Inside were a group of photos I did near the Golden Gate Bridge, on a crisp autumn morning. The air was delicious that day! You could see forever, and forever was absolutely beautiful! I photographed this curious fellow that day, but I don't remember posting him on this blog before, so I thought it would be nice to give him, or her, a little recognition. It's a pretty bird, isn't it? I am glad I found it, now I can add one more beauty to my Birds folder on Flickr.

 #16 Leaf of The Day
October 7th, 2018
Ione, California

 
~Mood: Happy
~Me :)