A Moment Out Of Yesterday

 

"Nobody has ever taken a photograph of something they want to forget. We can build a wall of happy Kodak moments around ourselves, a wall of our Christmases, birthdays, baby showers and weddings, but we can never forget that celluloid film is see through, that behind it, all the misery of life waits for our wall to collapse someday."

 

~Rebecca McNutt

 

On Thornton road, between the Woodbridge ecological Reserve, and the Cosumnes River Reserve, sits this picturesque old barn. I absolutely love it. I can think of about a hundred stories I could make up about it. Some spooky, some sweet and enduring, some that just make you scratch your head! The real history about this barn probably isn't all that profound. It's a barn, pure and simple. Most often barns are things of practicality... right? But every once in a while a truly wonderful story comes along that requires a barn as a co-star to it's main protagonist. Unfortunately, I am not a writer. I can barely write this blog. I am not sure what is wrong with my wiring, because I can write stuff in my head, but I have no talent for making it make sense of paper, or the pages of Ellipsis. As frustrating as that is, I am pleased to simply enjoy photographing cool structures like this barn, and let the bits of a 100 or so different stories bounce around my brain. Creatively, I am a visual person, but sometimes I wish I could write a story about a haunted barn, or a witch spending the night in an old barn because her broom was out of gas. Or maybe even something homespun, like The Waltons. You get the idea.

Mumpfh.

I wonder what the real story is about this gorgeous old barn?

 It's a really cool moment out of yesterday,

 and I'd like to know more about it!

Winter Orchard

~Carly

 

Country Things

"Country things are the necessary root of our life... and that remains true even of a rootless and tragically urban civilization. To live permanently away from the country is a form of slow death."

~Esther Meynell

Make NO mistake, I am a city girl through and through! I don't care for giant bugs, or spiders, both of which seem to really enjoy the open spaces of life in the country, not to mention their friends the rodents and scavenger birds. It seems like a strange system that all those creatures depend on each other to live. One feeds on the other. I guess that's just life... one thing feeds on another. 

 

It's all part of the food chain.

I try not to think too much about it, but since moving to a relatively rural part of California, one can't help but notice how nature works. I wish I had the courage to photograph those exotic creatures, but I don't and I am skeptical that I will be able to anytime soon, but at the same time, you never really know about these things. Before we left the Bay Area, I had started to come to terms with certain spiders I was encountering in my rose garden. Let's just say... we had an understanding! 

I wouldn't kill her, if she didn't crawl on me when I photographed my flowers! It worked out pretty good for most of one summer, until one day, she was gone. I am pretty sure she became a juicy tidbit for a Blue Jay, that began hanging out in our yard later that summer. I had been scared to death of that spider, but when she was gone I found I truly missed her. It was a strange feeling to miss something I had been so frightened of. 

Anyway, as time goes by, and I acclimate more to my surroundings out here, I see some intriguing opportunities to stretch my photography muscles, on subjects I haven't covered over and over,  like barns, cattle and all things country! There are fruit and vegetable stands everywhere, and its all quite lovely, in it's own way. The San Joaquin delta is quite lovely in places, and it goes on for miles. I am hoping to devote some time on vacation to hunting down little inlets and visiting some surrounding towns.

I spotted the barn, in the photo above, somewhere along Highway 37 between Novato, and Sears Point raceway, which runs along San Pablo Bay. All along that stretch of highway, you can spot some really interesting things, like one moment you are photographing a barn and the next moment you might see an abandoned boat! Which is kinda fun, because I took all these photos while we were driving! When I get the chance to investigate closer, I am sure they will be be more interesting, but still, considering I took them completely by instinct, rather than planned, but I think they capture the imagination, and they inspire me to want to see more! We'll see what comes from a whole world just waiting to be noticed, but I think it will be more barns and boats, and less about the spiders!

Famous last words... right?

And now...

Leaf Of The Day

October 2nd, 2017

Stockton, California

Mood: Hopeful

~Me :)