Autumn Leaf Of The Day #70

 

"The heat of autumn is different from the heat of summer.

 One ripens apples, the other one turns them into cider."

~Jane Hirshfield

Harvest Fruits

Autumn

The cheerful sundial;

it falls in the shadow

of they leaves.

There where your branches

brace themselves

against the gate of Heaven. 

~Kristian Goldmund Aurmann

While driving around Carson City last month, I saw a lot of amazing trees, and beautiful autumn leaves, some still on the trees, and some in big piles of harvest colors on the ground, but one of my favorite sights, was this apple, the very last one, still clinging to the tree. I'm pretty sure that if you touched it, even very gently, it would fall to the ground. Last year, I came across a deer in the same yard, eating the apples that had fallen, so I am pretty sure at some point after I left, that's exactly what happened again.

It's a nice thought that the beautiful, yummy apple, was enjoyed by a deer! They are such beautiful animals! It was the last apple of autumn for that tree, and every last bite would be enjoyed, not left to simply rot. I think next year, when I head to Nevada, to photograph the autumn leaves again, I hope I will get to see more deer, looking for apples to eat, from what's becoming one of my favorite trees of autumn to photograph!

I came across this persimmon tree, while leaf peeping in Knight's Ferry, California, in late October. It stopped me in my tracks! It was amazingly beautiful, and full of beautiful, ripe fruit! I have never eaten a persimmon, so I can't say if I like their taste or not, but when I was a little girl, my best friend and I used to sit under a neighbor's persimmon tree, and enjoy their scent. It was a great place to read books together, and play with puzzles, and our do our favorite thing of all, listen to all the fathers on the street, yell at their TVs, cheering on their favorite football teams, collage, and pro!

We laughed so hard at our dad's enthusiasm for football! Oh my, the fun we had all those autumns. We did this for about 5 years, and then he passed away, suddenly, in an accident the next February. He was hit by a car. It wasn't the drivers fault, he darted out into the street without looking. Our entire street changed, the other kids and rarely played together again. A part of us grew up very fast after he died, and I never sat under that tree again. I released the pain of losing my friend years ago, time heals, but now, when I smell ripe persimmons, I only have the best memories of my friend, and all the fun we had in those 5 autumns, under the beautiful tree, with the spicy, sweet scent.

#1 Leaf Of The Day

December 1st, 2017

Stockton, California

 Mood: Happy

~Me :)

An Apple A Day...

"Seasons of mists and mellow fruitlessness! Close bosom-friend of the maturing sun; Conspiring with him how to load and bless with fruit the vines that round the thatch-eaves run; To bend with apples the moss'd cottage trees, and fill all fruit with ripeness to the core."

~John Keats

Is there anything better, on a cold autumn night, like some freshly made apple cider? Add a little spice, and it's just the thing to soothe a weary soul. And it's pretty healthy too, which is just what I need after a month of fast food on road trips, and several bags of Trick or Treat candy! Ugg, I am eating the very last piece of the fun sized Milky Way bars we bought! Sometimes, it feels really good to know that vacation is over, and it's time for reality, and schedules, and normal hours for sleep and eating! All good things for any age, but especially for me right now. 

Late autumn, while beautiful and definitely my favorite season, when it turns from warm with a slight chill, to cold with little sun, my Fibromyalgia begins to scream at me. That's why it's good to get back to a more normal schedule, because getting out with the camera will probably be cut back, now to the weekends only. But with a little planning, I can make it work! And who knows, if a special opportunity presents itself, I might be able to fit in a photo jaunt on a weekday or two!

 #13 Leaf Of The Day

October 28th, 2017

Truckee, California

 

Mood: Happy

 ~Me :)

It Was The Sweetest Time!

"That's the problem with memories, you can visit them, but you can't live in them."

~Shaun David Hutchinson

We Are The Ants

Last month, when Alan and I were visiting Apple Hill, we stopped into one of our favorite farms, Bolster's Hilltop Ranch, to pick up a bottle of our favorite Apple Hill apple cider. Most of the farms produce fresh cider, but theirs has always been our very favorite! While we were there, we decided to browse their craft items for sale, when we came across this plate. It immediately caught my eye, because I used to own the full set of dishes in this pattern! I bought them just after Alan and I got married, because he wasn't fond of the clear set that we had been given as a wedding gift. 

We loved that set of dishes! The plates were large, and the bowls a bit wider and deep than most dishes. I didn't pay a lot for the full set, which was also nice, because we were still paying off the wedding when I purchased them. We used them for about 8 years, when we needed to move suddenly, and they went into storage temporarily. During that move, thieves broke into our storage unit and stole nearly everything we owned, including our set of cute country dishes.

I thought about that set over the years. I tried to find the pattern again, but I never did. Once they sold out, that was that! I had another set of dishes, that were done in a lovely impressionist pattern, with a French Cafe design. Also stolen. Both sets were very special to me, for different reasons. Those two sets of dinnerware were only a couple examples of the things we lost, and it was a sad time, but at the end of the day, it was just stuff! The items themselves simply represented memories. 

I have been thinking about the memories that were associated with the losses Alan and I have experienced in our marriage. Sometimes I can climb so deep into the memories of our first apartment that it feels like I am right there. I close my eyes, and I think to myself... if I just try hard enough... I will be right back there! It will be 1990, and nothing bad has happened, it's just a couple of newlyweds, amazingly happy, in a 3rd floor walk-up apartment in the San Francisco East Bay. Sometimes I can almost smell all the restaurants we lived near, and hear the traffic from the street below.

But that deep thought or daydream can only last a minute or less, and suddenly I am back to 2016. Today in 2016. The world is so different now. Yes, times change, but in all honesty, I don't know how things could have changed this much! We just went though a brutal time as Americans, and instead of the pain being over, it's all just beginning. The Trump presidency is going to be one of America's darkest chapters. Personally, I don't know if I will survive it! I guess I don't have a choice but to hang on, and pray we all make it through, but to be honest, I feel so hopeless right now.

How will it be when the deportation police tear families apart, at Trump's command? When will the next school shooting take place, as he does away with laws regarding guns at schools? Bullies and tormentors will have their day, so when will I be assaulted, for driving too slow, or for simply being a "woman driver?" Will Alan's job be safe in Trump's fantasy driven economic world? Is my health care about to end? Will the EPA exist a year from now? Will we face nuclear annihilation, from North Korea, or some other hostile government, because Donald Trump pisses off a world leader in the middle of the night, via his Twitter account?

It's strange how bad it can hurt when someone steals your things. Just because you like your possessions, doesn't mean you are necessarily materialistic. The items we fill up our life with are associated with memories sometimes. Like making dinner for your new husband, on pretty but inexpensive little dishes you picked out together. But when someone threatens not just the little everyday things in your life, but the lives of your families, friends, neighbors, and even strangers, it's a whole different thing entirely. What happens next?

I bought the little plate in Apple Hill last month, when I still had hope for the future. When I was anticipating a Hillary Clinton win. I planned to get a little plate stand, and put it on display in my home office. It was going to be a reminder of a gentle time in our lives. A time before our lives changed that awful day in 1999. The day I don't talk about. But now, I might just put it in with the rest of my odds and ends plates and dishes and use it once in a while so I can close my eyes, and just for a moment, pretend I am back in a different time, when life was a lot more fair. It was the sweetest time. Back when life was kind, and the world wasn't quite as cold as it had been, because America had encouraged the world to tear down a walls, and not build them.

It was the sweetest time! 

 It really was!

 Funny how we tend to take the best days and leaves for granted!

Days are like leaves, they only last a little while. 

And no two are ever the same. 

And once they are gone neither are we!

 Leaf Of The Day

November 14th 2016

Mood: Quiet

~Me  

A Taunting Dance

"It was a beautiful fall day. Gentle wind teases stubborn autumn leaves. Some defy the gentle wind and sway. A taunting dance. Come with me an look at the magnificence of the last dance."

~Fidekus O. Mkparu

Love's Affliction

Today's quote is perfect for this post, because yesterday was an exceptionally beautiful day, for doing my latest series of photos in Carson City, Nevada! The capitol of Nevada is stunning in autumn, and is always a favorite destination of mine, when I go searching for the perfect examples of western states autumn, to post on my blog! Yesterday was a gift! It was absolutely beautiful, and it seems like I will be able visit several more times before the end of the season, as it's getting off to a colorful, yet slow start! All the better for me! That means many, many photo jaunts that will end with me really tired, but deeply, and completely, happy inside! I love playing in big piles of autumn leaves! Who wouldn't? It makes me feel like a kid again! 

And look who decided to join me...  

Leaf Of The Day

October 23rd 2016

Mood: Happy

~Me :)

 

The Colors Of Apple Hill

"When everything looks like a magical oil painting,

 you know you are in Autumn."

~Mehmet Murat ildan

Alan and I paid a visit to Apple Hill yesterday, and the autumn life filled my heart with so much happiness! Everything kinda looked like it was covered in cinnamon and cloves, and the smell of freshly picked apples was amazing! Truly, it wouldn't be autumn for me, without a trip to Apple Hill, especially in October!

Can't you just taste those apples?

Sweet?

Tangy?

Juicy?

Delicious!

Leaf Of The Day

October 21st, 2016

Mood: Happy

~Me :) 

Pumpkin Goodness

"My favorite word is 'pumpkin.' You are a pumpkin. Or you are not. I am."

~Harrison E. Salisbury

Pumpkins. I LOVE pumpkins. I love the taste of them. I love the nutrition of them. I love that they make an amazing air freshner! True story... Alan and I purchased a new car back in the mid 1990's. A silver KIA Sephia. It was a great car, and we liked it very much, except for one thing... it smelled! Bad! The odor began a couple days after we purchased it. We took it back to the dealership, and they tried, but never found the source of the terrible odor. It was like the one episode of Seinfeld was written about us! 8 months goes by, and we had tried every cleaner known to man, with no luck in ridding the car of that awful smell. Finally we gave up and resigned ourselves to the fact that our car simply had

 BODY ODOR!

 What can you do?

 A couple months later came Autumn, and with it, all those lovely spices, leaves, pumpkins, and apples. It was AUTUMN and we learned to paid no attention to the smell. We go used to it. Then one day, about six months later, we noticed that the odor was, in fact, gone. It had finally run it's course. Yay! Or had it? You see, we found something strange in the trunk of our car, on Easter Sunday no less, buried deep beneath some papers and car cleaning cloths was a pumpkin, which had been long forgotten from last Autumn. Not a big pumpkin, but a pumpkin all the same. It was pretty gross to look at, but a dream to clean up, and it had, apparently, neutralized the offending smell of our beautiful silver KIA,

 in the months since Halloween!

Excellent!

After that, we occasionally bought small pumpkins, cut the top off, cleaned it out, and put it down in a piece of Tupperware, to hold it in tight, and put it under the passenger side seat, to let it do it's thing. We change it about once a month or so. You can also rub cinnamon or any kind of spice into the the inside walls of the pumpkin to have a nice spiced scent.If you want it to last longer, don't cut the pumpkin, just let it age naturally.

Apple Hill Pumpkin Gallery

 2014

:)

Leaf Of The Day

Great Pumpkin Resources

All About Pumpkins
 Pondly
PUMPKIN NOOK

Mood: Happy

~Me :)

Natural As Apples...

"Stories should be natural as apples, brief as lust, long as thought."

~Leonard Michaels

Apple Hill 

2014

Earlier this week, Alan and I made our annual trek to Apple Hill. Nestled just above Sacramento, and slightly north/west of Placerville, Apple Hill consists of 50 independent ranches featuring as many different kind of apples as you can name, and the amazing desserts that can be made from them. Pies, tarts, turnovers, and my personal favorite... Apple Cider donuts!

Especially the ones made at Rainbow Farms!

They are the best donuts on earth.

Period.

The good folks at Rainbow Farms make them when ordered, so each new order is always fresh from the deep fryer, and cooked to perfection! Slightly crispy on the outside, sweet apple and spice on the inside, it's autumn goodness melting in your mouth! We look forward to these donuts every year, and now it just wouldn't be autumn without them! If there is a heaven, these donuts will be there!

An Apple A Day Keeps The Doctor Away

If donuts don't happen to be your thing, you can always pay a visit to Denver Dan's Ranch, and partake of the amazing pies,

 tarts and turnovers.

YUM!

And if dessert really just isn't for you, well then, there are all kinds of wineries and spas where you can relax your cares away

 on a cool autumn day!

Apple Hill is open until just before Christmas, so check each farm for their hours and days of operation. You can also cut your own Christmas trees on many of the ranches as well! Just click the link at the top of this post to be redirected to the official website!

Leaf Of The Day

Mood: Happy

 

~Me :)

Art About Town: San Francisco, "Apples" By Gustav Kraitz and Ulla Kraitz

"There must always be two kinds of art: escape-art, for man needs escape as he needs food and deep sleep, and parable-art, that art which shall teach man to unlearn hatred and learn love."

~W.H. Auden

Another from the archives, but never before posted, "Apples" by artist Gustav Kraitz. It sits in the sculpture garden at the DeYoung Museum, in Golden Gate Park, in San Francisco. The DeYoung is my favorite of the San Francisco museums, although I do love the Legion of Honor as well! Oh my, art is my refuge, and I find myself needing more and more of it. I hope to get out with the camera this next week. I have located a few more from the Hearts In San Francisco series, and there is a new film scheduled to be shot in the city mid-week. 

Ant Man, which will star Paul Rudd and Michael Douglas. I can't even imagine how surreal it would be to actually run into Michael Douglas on a street in San Francisco, after growing up watching him starring as Inspector Steve Keller, on The Streets of San Francisco! LOL. How fun would that be? Maybe I should try to locate as many different types of art as I can find along my travels next week. 

Yeah... climbing into the art sounds like Heaven.

Good idea methinks.

It's a plan.

Mood: Quiet but Okay.

~Me :)

A Photo A Day For 6 Months: Day 150~ The First Bite

"Ducking for apples... change one letter and it's the story of my life."

~Dorothy Parker

Alan and I went to Apple Hill last week, guess which bite of autumn we tried first?

That's right... a crisp, fresh Gala apple. Next came a ripe, sweet, juicy, insanely delicious Bartlet pear.

I love this season.

More to come... stay tuned.

~Me :)

Today's Link...

JR
http://jrclinephotography.blogspot.com/2012/10/apadf6-148.html

Ellipsis Monday Photo Shoot #137: Apples

"Every thought is a seed. If you plant crab apples, don't count on harvesting Golden Delicious!

-Unknown












EMPS #136: APPLES. NOW CLOSED!
Golden Delicious. Red Delicious. Granny Smith. Pink Lady. Pippin. Gala. Jonagold. and that's just to name a few! An APPLE a day keeps the doctor away! They are healthy to eat, wonderful as juice and practically sinful as pie! This week we celebrate the APPLE! This is a perfect subject to think outside the box about! You can photograph an APPLE, such as this Pink Lady, or you can photograph an APPLE in another form. APPLE pies, APPLE Butter, APPLE ice cream, APPLE juice, even APPLE dolls will be just fine for this assignment!

Extra Credit: APPLES or oranges?If you had to pick, which would you choose?

Guidelines for Assignment Submissions...

1.The EMPS closes each Sunday evening at 9:00 PM (ET). No submissions will be accepted after that time.

2. Submit your entry by getting your photo, uploading it to you blog or website, and then comeback here and leave me your link in the comment thread. PLEASE REMEMBER... THE LINK YOU LEAVE MUST GO BACK TO AN ENTRY WHICH IS SPECIFIC TO THIS WEEK'S ASSIGNMENT! A general link to your site will not do, and will not be added to the list of those participating the following Monday. HYPERLINKS ARE NOT ACCEPTED!

3. Please be sure to provide a link back to the assignment in your submission, so your readers can find the assignment and join us. Everyone is welcome to play along!

4. Please keep in mind that the image you submit for the EMPS assignment, must be your own original photography. NO LIFTING!


Participation List for EMPS #135: Summer Sunsets. 08/08/ 2011

1. Freda
A red hot summer sunset, that makes me thirsty somehow. LOL.

2. Jama
A very beautiful sunset over exotic Singapour. I have always found sunsets over city skylines to be especially magical.

3. Hapzydeco
A beautiful golden sunset, with just a hint of blue. A very lovely twilight. :)

4. Karen
And to round things out we have a sunset that, at least to me, seems to be saying, "Okay, the hot day is over, but wait till tomorrow!" LOL It's not just a sunset, but a sunset, and a photographer, racing against time!

I loved all your submissions this week! Each of you took a completely different approach to the subject, and the end result was just perfect. The viewer really gets a true sense of all the different feelings a summer sunset can evoke. WELL DONE! You guys NEVER let me down!

-Carly