The Birds Of Monterey Bay

"When the autumn meets the tranquility,

 there you can see the King of the Sceneries!"

~Mehmet Murat ildan 

As much as I love an autumn landscape, with nothing but red, yellow, orange and brown leaves floating from here to there, it isn't the only thing to appreciate about my favorite season, sometimes it's just the amazing color of the sun, and the way it makes everything around seem so tranquil. As you know from my previous post, Alan and I spent a day this past week, in beautiful Monterey, Pacific Grove, and Carmel. I love it there, I really do, but since moving to the Central Valley, I don't spend nearly enough time along the coast. In fact, this was our first visit back, since we moved here in 2015, so it was an especially nice journey back! While I didn't see as many different sea birds as on previous visits, the ones I did see were quite spectacular, and if I didn't know better, I would think they were posing for the camera!

October 17th, 2018 was a wonderful autumn day!

#30 Leaf Of The Day

October 20th, 2018

Pacific Grove, California

Photographed October 17th 2018

~Mood: Happy

~Me

Art About Town: Sacramento... Sakti By Gerald Whalburg (2012)

Still

In the fall, I believe again in poetry

if nothing else it is

a movement of the mind.

Summers ball together

into sticky humps

spring evenings are glass beads from one mould

for standard-sized youth

winter a smooth heaviness, not even cold.

But the mind trembles

here, on the brink the mind trembles

there is life, after all,

there is life, still

unbelief left.

~Jaakko A. Ahokas

Some, Art About Town, for this post. I am tired tonight. World weary. I guess it's to be expected, so close to what will be the most important midterm election of my lifetime. I just want to drown in autumn leaves and art. I have done my share of drowning in politics, which seems to be the only news we have anymore. No stories of kittens being rescued from storm drains. No stories of people being saved from house fires by their neighbors, just politics, sadness, fear, frustration, and all of it coming at us so fast that one fears looking away. But we have to once in a while, right? Even if it's just once in a while, so we don't miss an autumn leaf turn and fall gently to the ground, or to admire a lovely piece of art.

There are TWO Leaves Of The Day in this post, because I accidentally uploaded the wrong one to Twitter. So, I decided to fix the matter by making it a double leaf day.

 Now, for your viewing pleasure... 

 #28

#29

~Mood: Tired
~Me :)

The Decline

"Change is an unsuspecting and finicky foe. You don't realize the strength or grip until it's too late."

~Dave Cenker

Second Chances

A short break from the usual autumn tribute. No pumpkins in this post, decorations, or thoughts of ghosts, just a collection of beautiful butterflies! Lovely, and gentle! Fragile and too few! On past visits to the Monarch Sanctuary, in Pacific Grove, California,

the eucalyptus groves were dripping with thousands of monarchs, resting in the leaves, until the sun turned, and they all flew at once into the warmth of the late afternoon sun! It was enchanting! But yesterday, Alan and were shocked to see only about 15 total! It was very sad, and really quite disturbing!

The earth is hurting. Climate Change is real, and it's at the most serious point it has ever been, yet it is being blatantly ignored by the American government, who should be leading the world in connecting the scientific facts and evidence to common sense approaches to reversing the damage already done! The most recent climate study is frightening! Total devastation could happen within my lifetime, And believe me, based on the obvious lack of butterflies, bees, and deer that usually wander all around the sanctuary, coupled with the decline of the number of different bird species in the are, that had seemed to drop off as well, it left me not just depressed, but also truly scared! 

#27 Leaf Of The Day

October 18th, 2018

Stockton, California

~Mood: Quiet

~Me 

Different Worlds Are Sometimes The Same Worlds

"Ghosts have a way of misleading you; they can make your thoughts as heavy as branches after a storm."

~Rebecca Maizel

Infinite Days

 Isn't she lovely? She is the new girl in town, and apparently the lady friend of the ghoul I introduced to you last year! She lives right down the road, and I guess she spends her days asleep, like I do, and does her chores at night! I've been a night person my whole life, so I can definitely relate. Once a pattern of behavior is set, good look changing it, especially when you've been doing it forever! She and I have a lot in common. We both haunt the places we love, we are both crazy in love with our favorite person, and we both seem to wait all year for autumn, and especially Halloween, which if you look on the calendar, is the exact halfway point of the season! She and I live in different worlds, but isn't it strange just how much we share? Until she tells me otherwise, I think I'll call her Lucille!

 "For dreams too are ghosts, 

desires, chased in sleep, gone by morning." 

~Libba Bray

Lair Of Dreams

#26 Leaf Of The Day

October 17th, 2018

Ione, California

 ~Mood: Quiet

~Me

The Only Thing You Have To Fear Is Donald Trump Himself

"I enjoy the spring more than autumn now.

 One does, I think, as one gets older."

~Virginia Woolf 

Jacob's Room

My whole life I've heard and read, what a melancholy season autumn is! But it has never felt that way to me. I've always thought that, of all the seasons, autumn is the only one with a sense of humor! It's death reminding you, with the ultimate "joke's on you" prank, of turning all the leaves on the trees into beautiful colors, of red, gold, orange, mustard, and sometimes purple, that shine in such vibrancy, that death is the furthest thing on your mind! 

But, rather than a joke, or a set time to be melancholy time, maybe autumn is more like a yellow signal light. The message is a simple one, it's time to slow down. It's time to reconsider how fast you and your life are going. I don't see the melancholy in that. Even as the seasons of autumn and winter converge, I don't feel the sadness others do, not as long as I can find autumn leaves fighting off the skeleton trees that winter causes. But actually, if truth be told, I don't feel depressed in winter either. 

Winter has ice ghosts. Shadows that sometimes scare me more than any shadow I've seen in the last days before Halloween.Winter is black and white, and therefore it makes me search for the color, and it's that feeling of a treasure hunt that sends me out into the cold of life, determined to live. I refuse to give up. I push back. I have pushed back so hard on some years, that I was able to take pictures of autumn leaves, still on trees in March, because I was determined to search for them! The leaves were literally sharing a tree with the cheeriest of spring blossoms, and I would have never seen them, if I hadn't pushed through! 

We aren't going to get out of life alive.

 And there is no easy way out, it just is what it is.

So I'm going to grab my camera and enjoy the scavenger hunt. 

And pretend Donald Trump doesn't get us all prematurely killed.

Well, this post just took a seasonal turn... didn't it?

I went and did it again!

I dwelled on my biggest fear!

The scariest thing since

 Frankenstein

 Michael Myers and Dracula combined!

Boo! And Boo!

 "Don't Boo... VOTE!"

~President Barack Obama

(A real president)

 #25 Leaf Of The Day

October 16th, 2018

Stockton, California

~Mood: Happy/Not Happy/Happy/It's Complicated

~Me

 

Art About Town: Sacramento. Arpeggio IV By Bruce Beasley

"In Heaven it's always autumn."

~John Donne

Alan and I went to lovely Sacramento yesterday, to enjoy the autumn sun, the leaves which are just beginning to turn, and the amazing amount of art work that can be found all over the city! I love Sacramento for so many reasons, but the art probably tops the list! From huge sculptures like this one, to the colorfully painted electrical boxes that dot the town, art is everywhere! This particular piece sits outside the Crocker Art Museum, along with several other sculptures, but rather than show all of them, I thought it would be nice to spread them out over several upcoming posts. For now, concentrate on that late afternoon sun, and this absolutely fabulous sculpture, Arpeggio IV, by artist, Bruce Beasley! And know, there will be plenty more, Art About Town, posts to come!

Arpeggio IV 

By Bruce Beasley

Crocker Museum

Sacramento, California

October 14th, 2018

 

#24 Leaf Of The Day

October 15th, 2018

Stockton, California

~Mood: Happy

~Me :)

Art Like A Falling Yellow Leaf

"Sadness, is an autumn, within an autumn."

~Mehmet Murat ildan

The Orinda Theater, which I spoke about in a previous post, is a gorgeous independent movie house, which opened on December 27th, 1949. Well past the age of the Art Deco movement, yet all through the theater are window panels and architectural lines, reminiscent of that earlier era of design! That theater is fabulous, and I will be doing a more in-depth posting about it at a later date, because I love supporting little individual gems, such as single movie houses, but for now, just gaze at that gorgeous window panel.

I snapped this photo when Alan and I were at the Orinda the other night, to see, Beetlejuice! Look at that panel, isn't it absolutely enchanting? That style just mesmerizes me, and it doesn't hurt that it somewhat resembles a falling yellow autumn leaf! Maybe its my love of autumn, the way it reminds me of the art deco movement, or vise versa. I'm not sure, but I think as I travel along during this vacation, I might see how many more art deco designs I can find to admire, while I'm searching out those falling yellow leaves!

I'll find autumn in anything I guess!

#23 Leaf Of The Day

October 14th, 2018

Ione, California

~Mood: Happy
~Me :)