Windmills And A Yellow Leaf

"The tall white windmills that came to her mind. How their skinny long arms all turned, but never together, except for just once in a while two of them would be turning the same way, their arms poised at the same place in the sky."

~Elizabeth Stout

Anything Is Possible

As we were driving across the Altamont Pass, earlier in the week, I was of course captivated by them, as I always am, while scoffing at Donald Trump's assertion that the noise from the gives you cancer. I can't pass them without thinking about that lunatic remark. If you can't get what you want any other way, lie about it, even if it makes you seem like, well, you're a lunatic! I mean just look at them! What's there to fear? I think they are beautiful, in fact, I was thinking the other day that this new sleeker type remind me of my favorite bird, the Snowy Egret. And before you say it, this kind of windmill was developed to be less dangerous to birds of all kinds. 

Windmills are a good thing. I will risk the cancer.

Something pretty from the natural world. A new leaf! 

January 14th 2020

Castro Valley Community Center

Nikon 

Mood: Happy

Me  :)

Photo By Request: Looking Up

"Autumn. It's crispness, it's anticipation, its melancholia, it's cool breezes replacing summer's heat. It's long days in the field, a harvest festival when works is done, a cheering crowd in a football stadium, chrysanthemums punctuation a somber landscape. It's Halloween high-jinx, pumpkins, grinning toothy smiles, the crack of pecan pressed against pecan. It's the first curls of smoke, fresh blisters from pushing a rake. It's crisp and fresh and mellow and snug, solemn and melancholy. And it's very, very welcome."

Good Housekeeping Magazine

I've been a little down lately, big surprise, right? It's been a touch few weeks leading up to this vacation, but it's time to do some "Looking Up" just in time for this week's edition of #PhotoByRequest subject, "Looking Up." Coincidentally, Karen chose this as our topic, and I am thankful for that, because it gave me a reason to try to pull myself out of the depression I am feeling. I knew starting a new project with my old Pal would be a good idea, and here I am, mood already lifted. I took the photo above, on Tuesday, while I was in Berkeley.

 It is a grove eucalyptus trees, that are just behind the Carousel, in Tilden Park. It's one of my favorite places in the park, a place I used to visit often when we still lived there. I miss it. I remember my friend Kat once telling me that when she moved from Berkeley, to the east coast, she found herself missing the smell of eucalyptus. I laughed a bit, because I never thought I would miss it, but guess what? I do. Very much. Funny how we can be so sure about what we will or will not miss, then one day, we are put in the position to fin out just how right... or wrong... we can be! It's all good though, I had a nice visit. It's becoming easier to drop into the Bay Area, without feeling absolutely defeated when I have to leave. 

It's now more like simply visiting an old friend,

 and that's a nice feeling. Most of these photos you will recognize from previous posts going back to 2004!

Golden Gate Bridge (Fort Baker)

San Francisco Ferry Building

"The Ring" Haight Ashbury

Legs of Haight Ashbury 

Altamont Windmills (11/25/16)

#18 Leaf of The Day

October 10th, 2019 

Berkeley, California

Nikon

 ~Mood: Happy

~Me  :)

By Land And Sea + The Leaf Of The Day

"Above all, life for a photographer 

cannot be a matter of indifference."

~Robert Frank

Photography is my passion. I work hard at it. I love it, I breathe it. I want to be really good at it. I am at my happiest, when I have a camera in my hand, and I am discovering a new bird, or landscape I haven't seen before, or even a random slant of light or shadow. But I have been becoming indifferent inside, sometimes to life itself, with Donald Trump in office. It's affected every aspect of my life. Things I used to look forward to, are now pushed away by me, into a box of quiet darkness. 

If this mess ever ends, I would like to resume my life again. I fight the depression with all I have, but a lot of joy is simply gone. As we begin our vacation next week, Alan and I have a couple things planned that may provoke some feeling again. I take groups of photos like these, to try and stretch my creativity muscle, because I know that depression is treated using a number of different elements, and art is one of them. So I really am trying!

This group of photos are not my best work, they just aren't, but they are an attempt at moving away from the sadness, and toward happiness. There was a time when I would rather take photos than breathe, but with Trump in office, I feel like all my energy is gone. Just gone. And if this weeks news hasn't been horrific enough, later today we will be getting a "Presidential Tweet" that tests the Emergency Broadcast system. And we are given NO CHOICE! The call will come, whether we want to receive it or not!

 Yet another intrusion from Donald Trump.  

Will it ever end?

Altamont Pass

By The Pacific Ocean

If how I feel inside couple be summed up by a photo,

 it would be this one. Foggy. Dark. Quiet.

#12 Leaf Of The Day

October 3rd, 2018

Ione, California

~Mood: Quiet

~Me