Western Bluebirds And Autumn Leaves

 

“Autumn
The cheerful sundial;
it falls in the shadow
of thy leaves.
there
where your branches
brace themselves
against the gate of heaven”

 
     ~Sir Kristian Goldmund Aumann 

 

 

Halloween Countdown Film #22... The Blob

 

 "Beware of the Blob. It creeps and leaps, and glides and slides across the floor. Indescribable... indestructible... insatiable ! Beware of the blob... " 

 

Gee, why would I be thinking about a giant orange-red blob that rolls over everyone and sucks the life out of humanity? Sorry, this is my happy place away from politics, but many of the early horror films were related in some way to politics. The Blob was a metaphor of the mid-20th century's fear of communism, the atomic age and ignorance of science. The dialog of the film addresses it fairly pointedly...

 

Steve Andrews: How do you get people to fear things they don't believe in?

 

Lieutenant Dave: At least we got it stopped!

Steve Andrews: Yeah, as long as the arctic stays cold.

 

This film came out in 1958, so it's pretty clear that Climate Change science was an issue, I didn't grow up in that era, but I remember it being taught to me in Junior High, in the late 1970's, and pretty much everything I was told would happen, is happening! Unprecedented wildfires. Storms gradually gaining strength to horrific levels, the warming of the oceans. There's a list and I am sure you can check many boxes of the continuing devastation. We just never learn. Maybe the scariest part of The Blob, is our slowness to accept the truth, because accepting it is just too frightening to see.

 

Americans went to see this movie in 1958.

 And we didn't learn a damn thing from it.

Can you believe there are still climate deniers in 2025? 

 

 

Oh well, take all the politics out of it, The Blob, is still an awesome movie. Campy, yes, "B" movie... yes, but it's got a really fun theme song, and actually has a bigger picture involved, and that's why it's a classic! 

 

 

Autumn Leaf Of The Day #20

 

“Autumn is a season of desperate hopes. The leaves are souls begging to turn life on pause. Begging to stop, begging to take a break, hiding under smiles and childish words.” 

 
~Teodora Savu,

  Listen to the Leaves

 

 

I Don't Feel Like Talking, On This Autumn Day

 

“This inhuman place makes human monsters.”
~Stephen King,

  The Shining 

 

I don't feel much like talking today.

 

You get it.

 

 

Halloween Countdown Film #23... Poltergeist

 

Dr. Lesh...

Some people believe that when you die there is a wonderful light. As bright as the sun but it doesn't hurt to look into it. All the answers to all the questions you want to know are inside that light. And when you walk to it... you become a part of it forever. Now, some people die, but they don't know they're gone.

 

Poltergeist

 

 This ghost story had a fabulous cast! JoBeth Williams, Craig T. Nelson, Beatrice Straight, Zelda Rubinstein, and Richard Lawson! It's classic 1980's Steven Spielberg shtick, not as much in the scares and thrills, but rather spotting references to his other films. Let's see, there's a nod to Jaws, ET, Close Encounters Of The First Kind, A Guy Named Joe, which of course, wasn't a Spielberg film but, Always, which was based on, A Guy Named Joe, was, and can be seen on the tv in the Freeling home. But as 1980's ghost stories go it's amazing, with some, jump off the screen frights, but there are a lot of predictable ones too. It was always disappointing that this genre of movie had to show a gross scene to give itself relevance, but that was the 80's! It's a good movie, with a strangely poignant story, and I am glad that I just have to watch it, several times a year!

 

Bonus! Here is an interesting read about spookiness on and off the set of, Poltergeist. Did You know there was a curse surrounding the film? Is it an urban legend, or was it real? 

 

The Poltergeist Curse...

 Inside The Mysterious Cast Deaths And Oddities On The Set

 

 

Autumn Leaf Of The Day #19

 

“Autumn is a classical music; when it begins, the gravity disappears!”
 

~Mehmet Murat ildan 

 

Do you a fish? Maybe a salmon? That's what I see when I look at this autumn leaf! It comes from one of my favorite trees, the Judas tree, and I know of exactly one that is accessible, it sits in a Park and Ride in, Ione, California. I visit that tree yearly, just for the gorgeous leaves of all colors. And in the same lot, sits an equally lovely oak tree, and some grapevines. It's a great place for leaf peeping.

 

Yosemite In The Autumn Sun

 

"There can be nothing in the world more beautiful than the Yosemite, the groves of the giant sequoias...our people should see to it that they are preserved for their children and their Children's children forever, with their majestic beauty all unmarred,"

 

 ~Theodore Roosevelt. 

 

 

Yosemite was gorgeous yesterday! It's early in autumn, so there wasn't a lot of color, but there were dots of gold everywhere! I am hoping to go back in a month, depending on the shutdown, so hopefully I will have more color to share at that time. There were no waterfalls, and very little movement in the streams, so some rain would be great, but who knows? It was a little early for that, but just look at Half Dome! It stuns be every single time I see it. Oh, also, I met a fox! I didn't have the chance to photograph him, because he was shy, but he came up to say hello, and the trotted off. I guess he didn't want any of my chicken salad or soup! Anyway, I was happy yesterday, everything was beautiful.

 

 Just see...

 

“All of these excursions are sure to be made memorable with joyful health-giving experiences; but perhaps none of them will be remembered with keener delight than the days spent in sauntering on the broad velvet lawns by the river, sharing the sky with the mountains and trees, gaining something of their strength and peace.”

 

 ~John Muir,

  The Yosemite

Halloween Countdown Film #24... The Ghost And Mr. Chicken

 

"Atta boy, Luther!"

 

Luther Heggs: Calm? Do murder and calm go together? Calm and murder? Murder? 

 

 Luther Heggs: It was terrible. It was just terrible. I'll never get over it as long as I live.

 

There are way too many great quotes from, The Ghost And Mr. Chicken, to count! It's a great Saturday afternoon movie! I loved it as a kid, but I still love it today, at my very old age. It's a classic. I wish movies were still made like this. Simple, relatable, and yes, wholesome! I love of the way movies look and feel today, but I think the romance is missing, the nostalgia, and I miss the actors doing the work, rather than CGI. This film is a comedy, so you know everything will be okay in the end, but how will you get there? I love this movie for the cool way it shows that sometimes we scare ourselves too!

 

Watch this movie, and take a break from all the noise! 

 

 

Autumn Leaf Of The Day #18

 

“Autumn is a beautiful but sad poem that dying leaves recite with great enthusiasm so that the world will remember them as they bid farewell to the world!”

 
~Mehmet Murat ildan 

 

 

 

 

Halloween Film Countdown #25... The Changeling

 

“Just because something cannot be seen with one’s

 physical eyes does not mean it does not exist.”

 
~Megan Mary,

  The Dream Haunters

 

Questions to ponder...

 

Do you believe in ghosts?

 

Do you believe in the supernatural in general?'

 

Do you believe believe that ghosts are merely the manifestations of unfinished business for the living and, perhaps, the dead?

 

Are ghosts merely the memories we carry with us?

 

Are ghosts regrets, which we cannot allow to heal? 

 

Are ghosts the inability to let accept loss after grief occurs? 

 

What are ghosts?

 

 The movie, The Changeling, will make you ponder the bigger questions of the supernatural, while absolutely scaring the heck out of you! I went with friends to see this movie, all the way back in 1981, and as I said then, I will say now, it's one of the best ghost stories I have ever seen. 

 

Watch it, and ponder, but not alone!

 

Autumn Leaf Of The Day #17

 

“Leaves grow old gracefully, bring such joy in their last lingering days. How vibrant and bright is their final flurry of life.”

 
~Karen Gibbs 

 

I found this leaf, sitting on a footbridge, at the Cosumnes River Preserve River walkway. The late afternoon autumn sun made it shine with that special honey gold that you see only once a year. It was the last moment of the leaf's life, and it was going to die gracefully. I hope, when it's my time, I can manage that much tribute to my life lived!

 

The Birds Of Bodega Bay in Autumn

 

Semipalmated Plover

"If I were a bird, I would fly the earth

 seeking successive autumns."

 

~Hal Borland

 

Bodega Bay was, as usual, a feast for the senses! The smell BBQ Oysters at any one of several bay side restaurants. The sun displaying it's honey golden self, and the sound and sight of the migrating birds visiting along the shoreline, and out in the water. 

 

Marbled Godwit

 

Western Sandpiper
 

Least Sandpiper

 

White Pelican
 

Double-crested Cormorant
  

We added new birds to our list for this year, bringing our number 101! I am hoping to see some brand new birds to add to our life lists, when we visit Yosemite soon. How soon? Who knows, maybe today! Or maybe I went yesterday, I forget! I am tipsy with autumn, so I am a bit busy with all the plans I hope to get to in October!

 

 

 

 

Autumn's Shaggy Coat

 

“It was the golden time of year. Every day the leaves grew brighter, the air sharper, the grass more brilliant. The sunsets seemed to expand and melt and stretch for hours, and the brick facades glowed pink, and everything got bluer. How many perfect autumns did a person get?”

 
~Elif Batuman,

  Either/Or

 

MOOOOOO.

 There it was, a big field of these Scottish Highland cows, with the autumn sun illuminating them to a honey golden color, and just watching them chew on grass, and turn their heads toward the sun, made me feel better. Laugh if you will, but it fixed some deep anxiety in me. Just nature, doing it's thing, and autumn being beautiful. Marin County always brings me inner joy, I sure wish I still lived in the Bay Area, and could see it all the time. 

 

 

 

 

Halloween Countdown Film #26... Shaun Of The Dead

 

 

 “Blood is really warm,
it's like drinking hot chocolate
but with more screaming.”

 
― Ryan Mecum,

  Zombie Haiku: Good Poetry for Your...Brains

 

It's a comedy.

 It's a love story. 

 It's a buddy movie. 

 It's a bad roommate movie 

 It's an zombie apocalypse movie.

 

 It's a really great time!

  And best of all, it's not just a Simon Pegg movie, it also has the fabulous Bill Nighy in it!

 

We all need a little giggle right now, right? 

 

Autumn Leaf Of The Day #16

 

“If only humans could die like the autumn leaves,

 with a splash of beauty and the promise of another season.”

 
~Shana Chartier 

 

 

Halloween Countdown Film #27... Amityville Horror (1979)

Kathy Lutz: I just wish that... all those people hadn't died here. I mean... A guy kills his whole family. Doesn't that bother you?

 

 George Lutz: Sure, but... houses don't have memories.” 

 

 

Amityville Horror

Based on the book, by Jay Anson

 

 There's something just not right about the house at 112 Ocean avenue. Um, yeah... you think? Oh my ghosts and witches I love the Amityville Horror! As a kid I hung on any and all information about the famous haunted house, after I saw Ed and Lorraine Warren discussing it on the Mike Douglas show. I wouldn't say I am a fan of one killing one's family, but this case has always deeply fascinated me. Was it the drugs that Ronald Defeo jr. Defeo took, and it was that devil that made him do it? Was it greed? Or was it because Mr. DeFeo Sr. crossed the mafia? Of course it could have been the simplest of explanations, the house had one or two demons in it! Shrug. But the one explanation that I don't buy, is that the Lutz family lied for personal gain. None of that makes sense to me. So there's a lot to unpack about that situation, and maybe that's the point of making a horror movie, based on an actual incident. The Amityville Horror is a fun ride, unless you happened to have lived in that famous house. It's a great horror film, and if you like it, check out the Conjuring universe, which loosely follows the cases of demon hunters, Ed and Lorraine Warren, with a lot of familiar theatrics thrown in for effect, just like in the Amityville Horror! 

 

Watch the Amityville Horror with me tonight! 

I love being scared! 

 

Autumn Leaf Of The Day #15

 

"There's nothing in life quite like Autumn. Misty mornings and rainy afternoons.

 The crisp cool feeling that hangs in the air. A sense of warmth that comes from within.

 It's nothing less than magical, really."

 

~Unknown

 

 

 

 

 

Autumn Rice

 

“Today I felt the first brush of autumn as in these waning days of summer it gently leaned over an expectant horizon. And it is in having lived summer to the fullest that autumn is positioned to fill me to the fullest. And I think that if we would engage all of the differing seasons of our lives in a manner such as this, the appreciation of ‘what was’ would be magnified a hundredfold by the anticipation of ‘what is yet to be.” 

~Craig D. Lounsbrough  

 

I am trying to stay focused and see the beauty of autumn, like this wonderful, Great Blue Heron standing in a rice field, but world events make it very difficult fully step out of the muck sometimes. The harvest time in the San Joaquin valley can be a feast for the eyes! The tomatoes, the corn, the rice fields that help the ecosystem, the grapes ripening in rows at the vineyards along the back roads, and, yes, the arrival of every kind of bird you can think of! But always haunting me in the background is what scary, boneheaded move Trump will do next! It affects my photography. Stupid, right? And the thing is, I don't know why I just can't put it away? Monsters I suppose, we are in October after all. He has quite the zombie posse around him now, doesn't he?

 

Oh well, maybe I should take it slow. Wake up everyday knowing something might be upsetting and take some deep cleansing breaths. Cookie breathing. Read, The Complete Idiots Guide How To Getting Along With Difficult People. I bought that book years ago, but I think I need a refresher course, although I don't know if it will work against what amounts to an inanimate object! But on the plus side, I get up every day, that's better than I did during his first time in office. I have trips planned in October, to see new things. I am planning a trip to Sacramento, to tour the capitol. There is a lot of history that I have never seen. The Gold Rush ghost towns are waiting to be photographed, as are the autumn leaves in the western Sierra.

 

But tomorrow, when the alarm goes off, I will get up and try again. That's the season of things.

 

Halloween Countdown Film #28... Dark Night Of The Scarecrow

 

 “After watching too many scary movies it was hard not to have an overactive imagination, along with an inherent distrust of seemingly benevolent (and sometimes inanimate) things, like lawn gnomes.” 

 
~Kat Stiles,

 Connected

 

Tonight's scary movie is, Dark Night Of The Scarecrow. It was a CBS television movie, which aired on October 24th, 1981, and was originally written to be a feature film but was ultimately pitched to CBS. This movie stuck with me, and everyone I knew, for a long time. Watch it in the dark, with no distractions. And then let me know if you had to sleep with the lights on afterwards!

 

Dark Night Of The Scarecrow