The Individual Known As One

#70 Leaf of The Day

November 30th 2018

Photographed November 18th 2018

Stockton, California

Samsung

"A tree thinks nothing of a leaf

once it has left home."

~ Anthony T. Hincks

I'm a little under the weather, it's just a head cold, but I am not 100% so I am going to take it easy, and hope the latest round of Trump bullshit leads to either an immediate resignation, or impeachment in time for Christmas. Let's all hope for the resignation, as I don't want to spend the next few weeks before Christmas dodging missiles from Iran, North Korea, Russia, or England. Oh fuck me, this is turning into a full post! Damn you Trump!

~Mood: Sick/Happy

~Me

 

Rhythm Of The Wind

"If you move faster than the music, it will look strange; if you move slower than the music, it will look strange! Be like autumn leaves which follow exactly the rhythm of the wind."

~Mehmet Murat ildan 

Sometimes in autumn, I like to post pictures of big piles of leaves, and here we have the first one of the season! There are oak leaves and Dogwood, and I think there might be a few Japanese Maple leaves mixed in, although that tree looked pretty green, so I am not really sure about that. Anyway, I am surprised to see leaves turning this early, I just hope there will still be color late into the season, and not all drop off by Thanksgiving. Cross your fingers for me, because I have a lot of day trips, and leaf destinations planned!

#9 Leaf Of The Day

September 30th, 2018

Stockton, Ca

~Mood: Happy

 ~Me

Floating On A Harvest Wind And The Leaf Of The Day

Harvest Moon Coneflower And Milkweed

"Ah, September! You are the doorway to the season that awakens my soul... but I must confess that I love you only because you are a prelude to my beloved October."

~Peggy Toney Horton

This is another gorgeous flower I spotted the other day, among the spider webs and Milkweed. I loved that three little pieces of the Milkweed are poised on the petals of the Harvest Moon Coneflower, they remind me of when I was a little girl, and a small fluffy weed would float by in the wind, and my friends would discuss whether it was good luck, to catch what we all believed was a random fairy, on their way to somewhere important. It was quite the debate among my fellow kindergartners. I didn't take a position, my ideas floated on the wind, just like the little weeds I thought were fairies, then one day my father sat me down and began to teach me critical thinking, and that is the day I began to grow up.

Dad said...

 Look at life from as many different perspectives as possible, and then make up your own mind, based on the information you gather. Know all the sides of an issue, so you can debate them with confidence. Play devil's advocate from time to time, so you can better understand the other guys perspective. It's work, but when you do make the really big decisions in your life, you will be more at peace with it, if you know you did your best, based on the information available to you at the time.

I'm paraphrasing, of course, but his advice turned out to be the best advice ever given to me. Lord, I don't think he saw this time we are living in coming, how could he? But I know he didn't really think the world was going to get any easier, when it came to politics. Although, when he passed away in 1995, he was very happy with Bill Clinton as president, and thought we were on the right track. He never really paid attention to the personal lives of presidents, he taught me that when you vote for a president, you aren't voting for a moral leader, you are voting for a politician.

Dad was right... and that's what I have done most of my adult life, but it's difficult to not bring my values into the political mix, when you have the evangelical community supporting someone who couldn't be farther from representing Christian values! I never gave Bill Clinton a pass for his skeevy behavior, but with Trump we are definitely in dangerous, uncharted territory, so my values are tested daily, and sometimes hourly. Sometimes I don't know what to do on the inside, when he scares me the way he did yesterday!

Hide? Pray? Get drunk? Close my eyes and pretend it's 1995, and speak to dad as if he were here? Yesterday, Trump gave an 88 minute rambling press conference, that was about as batshit as it gets. And all anyone could do was ride it out, and hope it would eventually end. And thankfully, it did, and without his beginning WWIII, but as I sat there praying for the presser to end, I realized the one thing I resented about dad teaching me critical skills, is that I know we have a dangerous president in the White House, and there seems to be no one who can stop him from acting on any impulse he has, no matter how dangerous that impulse might be.

I love, and miss my dad so much right now!

#6 Leaf Of The Day

September 27th, 2018

Cull Canyon, Ca

~Mood: Sad

~Me

Art About Town... Placerville, California ( Druid Memorial ) And The Leaf Of The Day

"The holy grove, carved a century ago by the druids, was designed to amplify emotion to a cathartic crescendo. You see, druidism (as did most early religions) realized the essential truth that faith is an emotional, rather than a logical, response to the world.

 They designed their places of worship around this fact. Love, fear, guilt, rapture, these are religious words. Believers feel their belief. Skeptics contemplate their doubt."

~Scott David Howard

Three Days and Two Knights

Placerville, California, is a strange place. For a town that only has a little over 10,000 people, it has a lot of stories in it's rich past! Firstl of all, the town has had four names, Old Dry Diggins, Dry Diggings, Hangtown, and eventually, Placerville. The Gold rush, as you might expect, played a big part of it's past. I will share some new photographs and describe it's "Old West" persona in a different post, because it is a truly fascinating place, with some quirky and off beat characteristics to it. A part of the town is even said to be haunted, and has been featured on more than one paranormal research and reality show!

 But for this post, it's all about an interesting memorial that sits on the opposite side of town. Alan and I must have passed this memorial a hundred times, over the years, as we went to Lake Tahoe or Apple Hill! But it wasn't until this past summer, that I took the time to check out what it was. As it turns out, it is a memorial dedicated to Fredrick Seig, who created the first Druid grove in California, in 1859. The memorial was presented to the city of Placerville, by the Fraternal Order Of Druids, on September 5th, 1926. While I know that memorials are not, technically speaking, public art, I think this memorial is so interesting and quite lovely, so I am adding it to my own Art About Town, public art series. It's fascinating, don't you think?

Like I said, Placerville is an Old West town, and I am thinking about taking a day in October, and just walking from one end of town to the other, just to see all the interesting details, and learn about it's past! There is a lot to take in, from the "Hangman's tree" to all the historic homes around town! There are some really great mid-century signs, mixed in with more modern buildings and businesses. There is a bell tower in the center of town, that was erected in the 1800's to alert firemen, should a fire breakout, and the town even has a link to John Studebaker, the automobile maker! So, there's a lot to look forward to, as I move through this autumn, searching for autumn leaves, and learning about the contribution of California to the history and lore of the Old West.

 #5 Leaf Of The Day

September 26th, 2018

Cull Canyon

~Mood: Creative

~Me