Your Own Autumn Forest

"An autumn forest is such a place that
 once entered you never look for the exit."

~Mehmet Murat ildan

If you found your own autumn forest, 
would you ever want to leave?

#55 Leaf Of The Day
November 16th 2019
Stockton, California
Nikon

~Mood: Happy
~Me  :)

Facing Inner Darkness And Bad Vacations

Saturday November 2nd, 2019 

Stockton, California

Autumn is the time of balance and of sacrifice, a time when the light is defeated by darkness, a time when night takes over and brings the coming winter. The ancient wisdom says that those who long for light must face their inner darkness and overcome it."

~Tony Riches

The Secret Diary Of Eleanor Cobham

This is one of the last photos I took, while still on vacation. I was tired at this point, and just wanted the whole thing to be over, but I was not cynical about photography, and I was happy to still fit in a little time to celebrate the shadows and the twilight on the last evening before the clocks changed. Personally, I love moving the clock backward and gaining that extra yummy bit of autumn, but not if it meant I had to deal with one more hour of that vacation. I decided to not think about it, and just move on.

#54 Leaf Of The Day

November 15th 2019

Photographed November 3rd 2019

University Of The Pacific

Stockton, Ca

Nikon

~Mood: Happy

~Me

October Tree Hugger

 'The laughter of children filled the crisp air while

 off-beat rhythms of knocks and door bells mixed with a chorus of

 "trick or treat" that sang out into the early evening."

~Amber Newberry

One Night In Salem

I photographed the fella, way back on October 25th, but for some reason decided against posting him for Halloween. He is funny, and obviously his family has a great sense of humor! Isn't it funny how we can look through our photos when we first take them, and just not spotted all the possibilities? You never know what treasure a tip-toe through the archives will produce.

#53 Leaf Of The Day

November 14th 2019

Photographed October 21st 2019

Stockton, California

Nikon

~Mood: Happy

~Me 

The Full Beaver Moon And Impeachment Popcorn

"The winter will be short, the summer long,

The autumn amber-hued, sunny and hot,

Tasting of cider and of scuppernong."

~Elinor Wylie

Nets To Catch The Wind

Just a short post today. A celebration of the Full Beaver Moon, and the Impeachment of Donald John Trump. I can't call him president anymore, because I feel no respect for the office of the presidency. Not his presidency. I felt for a long time that to refuse him his title was silly and argumentative, but I can't do it anymore. I just can call him president.I smile to myself the other day, when I realized that popcorn kinda looks like autumn. Little puffy pieces of autumn. It also looks like impeachment, which is the reason we bought the cool little cart for. I won't lie, I have been praying for this day for a long time. He's cruel. And he's selfish. He refuses to learn. He seems to be cognitively ill. All things that need to be addressed, and hopefully they will be. Hopefully, by Christmas, this nightmare will be over, and we can work on undoing all the damage that's been done. At least some of it. Hopefully, we will heal as a nation.

Hopefully 

I watched the Impeachment Trial of Richard Nixon, and of William Jefferson Clinton, and I will be watching this one two. Politics. Either way, the full moon will probably make it all stranger that it would have been otherwise, full moons do that.

#52 Leaf Of The Day

November 13th 2019

Berkeley, California

Nikon

~Mood: Quiet

~Me

The Birds Of Autumn 2019

"How can you understand something is really beautiful?

 Very simple: When that thing comes out of your life,

 you start desperately waiting for it to come back! 

And autumn's beauty is such a beauty."

~Mehmet Murat ildan 

I love doing some bird hunting while on vacation, and one thing about the vacation that went right this year, was my adventure spotting birds.  In fact, I spotted more birds this year, than in past years! I was particularly lucky to spot a Great Blue Heron, out here in the valley, in Tracy, California. That was definitely a high point, and one more thing that made the vacation a little more redeemable. It wasn't a complete disaster, thanks to so beautiful, if not always cooperative, birds.

 Wild Turkey

September 21st 2019

Skyway park

Livermore, California

Nikon

Black Finch

October 23rd 2019

San Francisco, California

Nikon

 

Robin

Tilden Park

Berkeley, California

October 8th 2019

Nikon

 

Great Blue Heron

Tracy, California

October 23rd 2019

Nikon

Song Sparrow

San Francisco, California

October 23rd 2019

Nikon

Absolutely beautiful. Every one of them! I am going to continue to seek them out through the rest of autumn and then into November. I am hoping to add at least either more birds.Wish me luck!

 #51 Leaf Of The Day

November 12th 2019

Photographed October 20th 2019

Stockton, California

LG Stylo 5

~Mood: Happy

~Me  :)

 

Walking With Autumn Thoughts

"There's something to walking with autumnal thoughts through the evening fog. One likes to compose poems at a time like that."

~Hermann Hesse

 Demian. Die Geschgichte von emil Sinclairs Jugend

More from my visit to the Stockton Rural Cemetery last month. The leaves were still reluctant to show their colors, well, most of them anyway, but across the way, in the very far corner there was a beautiful tree in full autumn bloom. It was gorgeous! Isn't it strange when one tree out of many seems to think for itself? Oh I know, it has more to do with the amount of sun, and moisture and all, but it's nice to imagine that they have the will to shine and it be about determination, rather than natural order. Shrug. I have no idea how things work, I just live on this planet.

#50 Leaf Of The Day

November 11th 2019

Photographed October 10th 2019

Berkeley, California

Nikon

~Mood: Quiet

~Me  

Walking In Autumn In 2019

"It is autumn on tip-toe that silently walks the hills and treads the forested expanses, gracing in each step a billion leaves

 in a chorus of colors so brilliantly ingenious

 that a thousand museums or more will never possess

 the talent to produce what autumn effortlessly creates."

~Craig Lounsbrough

It's dark and cold, and the trees have finally started turning spicy autumn. Finally, I feel happy, and at ease. I hope the leaves will be able to carry me through winter, but the leaves, and sometimes whole branches, are falling to the ground dry and dead. It makes me sad, and worries me deeply. Climate change is apparent in so many ways. It's not just the devastating wild fires California has seen, but last year, when we visited the, Pacific Grove Butterfly Sanctuary, it was depressingly apparent that the Monarch grove had a lot less butterflies than in previous years. Yet another victim of Climate Change damage, which is happening all over California. It's scary and sad. I am committed to doing my part, as is Alan, but America needs to elect someone who understands basic science, and can be the living example of how to care for our nation and planet.

 I pray that folks will wake up, and vote for a president that can be a real leader on the issue of Climate Change, but the truth is, folks have free will to do what they will. So, either folks will wake up to the science or they won't. Our future, it would seem, is a 50/50 bet. Either we will survive or we won't, but if you take a closer look, a realistic look, it's more like if something doesn't change, regarding America's approach to the climate crisis, soon, it will be more accurate to say, that we have no chance at all. I first heard about climate change (global warming) when I was in 3rd grade, back in the old days when it wasn't controversial to take care of the earth. Now we live in the information age, where we can check statistics and facts on how things have changed, regarding global warming, over time, but it's being discouraged and deemed a hoax by the most powerful office in the world. And rather than think for themselves, those who put him in office would rather not have to think, or read, or do their own research.

A hoax?

How many more autumns will I see?

More and more damage to towns and communities yearly.

In every state.

How can anyone watch an entire community burn to the ground and believe Climate Change is a hoax? Or watch helpless as unprecedented floods or storms ravage two or three states at a time, and call it a hoax? 

When will I see the last California autumn? 

Right now, it's easy to believe that I am living it, right now.

#49 Leaf Of The Day

November 10th 2019

Photographed October 8th 2019

Berkeley, California

Nikon

~Mood: Quiet

~Me