Half Way To October

 

“October knew, of course, that the action of turning a page,

 of ending a chapter or shutting a book, did not end the tale.
Having admitted that, he would also avow that happy endings were never difficult to find: "It is simply a matter," he explained to April, "of finding a sunny place in a garden, where the light is golden and the grass is soft; somewhere to rest, to stop reading, and to be content.”

 
~Neil Gaiman,

  The Sandman, Vol. 4: Season of Mists

 

 

 I have mentioned before, that I had never really seen clouds before I moved to the San Joaquin Valley, so every time I see a day as stunning as this, no matter what season it is, my heart skips a beat! I think the light is a little prettier in autumn, but its hard to deny that sunny days in April hold a magic all their own, days that rival the perfect days of October. If only there could be leaves of autumn, in all the earth tones of my favorite season, could be found in spring as well. All the trees are producing one color... green. A nice color, but not nearly as beautiful, emotional and filled of personality as autumn as the autumn leaves are. We are six months away from my favorite seasons return, and I can't wait, but in the mean time, this isn't bad either! I will just focus on the clouds and the wildflowers until October returns!

 

 

 

 

The Moon And The Clouds And My Camera

 

“The moon is a loyal companion.
It never leaves. It’s always there, watching, steadfast, knowing us in our light and dark moments, changing forever just as we do. Every day it’s a different version of itself. Sometimes weak and wan, sometimes strong and full of light. The moon understands what it means to be human.
Uncertain. Alone. Cratered by imperfections.” 

― Tahereh Mafi

  Shatter Me

 

There is nothing more to say, that is a magnificent quote. But I will add a little about this photo. It was done last Thursday, just as it appeared out my front door, using no special lens to refine the details of the moon. Frankly, I kinda liked the way the clouds looked as they crossed the moon. So I guess this post is mostly about how the clouds and the moon look together! What do you think?

 

 

Migrating, Perhaps?

 

“The wind makes you ache in some place

 that is deeper than your bones.” 

~Stephen King,

  'Salem's Lot

 

Just a couple months ago I was standing on the Bat Bridge, wishing for a cool breeze to float by, and now it is here. Not unusual for November, in fact I happen to love it, I just wish the wind would usher in more birds. So far the variety has been bleak, at least it seems that way to me. Maybe that's why I see a bird in those autumn clouds. A Bank swallow to be exact. I watched them fly in and out of their nests, under the bridge on, Thornton road, last spring, and now I see a big one soaring through the clouds on it's way to who knows where? Migrating perhaps. Do you see the bird shaped cloud? How about you? What do you see?

 

Now do you see the birdy?

My Happy Place

 

“Come, little leaves," said the Wind one day, "Come to the meadows with me and play. Put on your dresses of red and gold; For Summer is past, and the days grow cold.” 

~George Cooper 

 

 

“Squeeze your eyes closed, as tight as you can, and think of all your favorite autumns, crisp and perfect, all bound up together like a stack of cards. That is what it is like, the awful, wonderful brightness of Fairy colors. Try to smell the hard, pale wood sending up sharp, green smoke into the afternoon. To feel the mellow, golden sun on your skin, more gentle and cozier and more golden than even the light of your favorite reading nook at the close of the day.” 

~ Catherynne M. Valente,

  The Girl Who Circumnavigated Fairyland in a Ship of Her Own Making 

 

 

Close your eyes and imagine yourself surrounded by crimson red leaves dancing around in the air. Smell the scent of the raw earth, just after the corn is harvested. Geese and Sandhill crane flying by, singing for everyone to hear as they arrive high above Woodbridge road. Imagine a sky, filled with clouds that seem to go on forever, with just enough blue sky surrounding them to make you think of the ocean. That's what it's like here in Autumn, and no other season presents itself with that kind of beauty. This is one of my happy places. It's really helping my process my grief. I loved my niece and nephew, very much. I am so sorry they died and I miss them greatly, but being out in nature provides me a gentle relief from the stress and sadness. In an upcoming post I will tell you about some of the other sights I see on Woodbridge and Desmond roads. It's a truly amazing place.

 

 

 

 Take a moment to just daydream. 

#PhotoByRequest "In The Clouds"

"I could feel the bite of the autumn air, 

warning us all of the harsh winter that was on it's way."

~Jennifer Starzec

Determination

This week's edition is all about what's "In The Clouds." Which works out well, because we have been experiencing a lot of rainy days lately, much to my delight. I enjoy rain days, especially this time of year, and a I hope there will a lot more of them as we transition into winter. There's nothing sadder, at least when it comes to seasons, then to not be able to experience the best of what they are about. A hopelessly dry winter, that is nothing but cold, isn't much fun. Snow and rain must exist, and hopefully the past couple weeks of hard rain is a good omen of delicious things to come! California can use it, and so could my soul!

Just a few minutes later the sky looked like this... 

And the beautiful Cedar Waxwings loved it too...

 

#81 Leaf Of The Day

December 12th 2019

Sacramento, California

Nikon

~Mood: Happy

~Me     :)

The Last Saturday Of Autumn

"I cannot bear to waste anything so precious

 as autumnal sunshine by staying in the house."

~Nathaniel Hawthorne

October 10th 1842 

The American Notebooks

Last Saturday was beautiful. It was the final Saturday of September, and there was no way I was going to miss the beautiful clouds dotting the sky or the warm autumn sun. One thing I have come to really love about the Central Valley, is the ease of which photos of the sky can be accomplished. There are lots of cool rural roads, that provide an awesome open sky. I miss the hills in the Bay Area, but once I got used to a new system of photographing my chosen subject, I found the new way of doing things really rewarding. Last Saturday was a really good day with the camera, I was happy with the results, I found lots of leaves, and it felt good to step outside my head for a while!

Hey look... a puppy dog!

 #8 Leaf Of The Day

October 1st, 2019 

Photographed October 28th, 2019

Sacramento, California

Nikon

~Mood: Happy
~Me  :)

Memento Mori

"All photographs are memento mori. To take a photograph is to participate in another person's (or things's) mortality, vulnerability, mutability. Precisely by slicing out this moment and freezing it, all photographs testify to time's relentless melt."

~Susan Sontag

Memento Mori

(Remember You Must Die)

It's time to close 2018. It's so strange how every year has the same amount of days, with the exception of leap years, and yet each year can seem to defy reason and science, by appearing to go by faster or slower than what the calendar says. That's always been a true phenomenon, but never like the last few years. There is time and then there is Trump Time. Trump Time... where days seem like months, and months seem like years.

Trump time is exhausting, and kinda scary. I feel myself aging at a much different rate, but then again, maybe I am just feeling my age more as I grow older. I am not sure how I will feel when this mess is finally over with, and I am not even sure it will ever be over with, so all I can do, is the best I can do, to hold onto my sanity, and thank God that my camera helps me do just that! It helps me process what needs to be felt and done to move forward with life.

In looking through my photos for 2018, I found I had a lot more good days with the camera, than bad. This year was eye opening, in many ways, but nothing was more eye opening than having a Stockton Police officer, knock on your door, LOUDLY, at 7:30 AM, as they chased two carjacking suspects through your backyard and into your pool house! SHIT! At first, I thought it might be the Secret Service, pounding on my door, because of some mistaken remark I made online, led to an investigation of me for threatening the president! Had I gone and done it this time? Had I finally been too damn mouthy on Twitter? Was that third time calling the president a SHITGIBBON going too far? Was this, finally, my arrest?

It, of course, wasn't, but I can imagine the day that it could be that happening. Not that I go around threatening Trump, but what's in my head doesn't matter, it's how he chooses to interpret things, that matters, right? That's another scary, surreal thought, that anything that one says online, could be used against them in such a frightening way. I had to be dead, because everything was just surreal! It made for a bad day, but that day was a necessary evil, because that scary day finally got it through to me that I wasn't dead, and that everything happening in the world was, indeed, real. Including a carjacking suspect, hiding out in my pool house!

You see, that had been my assumption, since before Donald Trump became president, but especially after he took the oath of office! Every single day of his presidency has rolled from one surreal day, to the next, each filled with one FRESH HELL, after another. So one day, in a fit of exasperation, I said out loud to myself... "When did I die?" I felt in that moment that life had become so surreal, that I couldn't possibly be alive! And I went forth with that delusion until that fateful day, the carjackers went through my backyard!

Great! I'm alive. All This Is Real!

Well, autumn and vacation came around, about four and six weeks later, respectively, and it was time to pick up the camera again, for both my sanity, but for the love of all things autumn, which traditionally includes the annual cascade of leaves, our anniversary and our vacation. I couldn't have an autumn where I didn't search out leaves for my project,  and I felt like if I did skip a year, that it seemed like I would be giving up. I am not quite at that point yet, but I get tired, often, and just want to walk away and never look back! Stick my head into a book, and not come out. 

Never watch another news/political analysis show again. Never go back to Twitter. Never engage in the real world again, but I know I couldn't do that. Sometimes I feel stuck in reality, a place where being aware of life is a good thing, but in this case, is the last place I would ever want to be thinking straight. Fantasy, for too long a time isn't healthy. Reality, especially now, definitely isn't healthy for too long a period of time, unfortunately, that doesn't leave much time.

I guess photography is my best vehicle for surfing fantasy and reality. I did some photos this year that I really care about. Most of them done during autumn, but certainly not exclusively. I am going to try to do some kind of photography, at least once a week this year. It can be difficult to find the right subjects, so I am going to attempt some artsy photos of average, if not mundane, subjects around the house. If Andy Warhol can make art out of a soup can, why can't I?

 What I Saw In 2018...

In No Particular Order

Military Submarine Outlook Station 

Circa WWII

HWY 1 South of San Francisco

October 24th, 2018

The "Bijou"

Our home theater, finally finished.

July 15th, 2018

Rare Mammatus Cloud Formation

And A UFO?

December 24th, 2018

Stockton, California

There's No Mail, Like Snow Mail

Camino, California

March 2nd, 2018

My Favorite Autumn Leaf Portrait

November 17th 2018

Stockton, California

Beware Of Snakes In A Cemetery

Ione Public Cemetery

Ione, California

 October 24th, 2018

My Favorite Book Of 2018

"Fear" By Bob Woodward

Dippin Dots

Cannery Row

Monterey California 

October 17th 2018

My Favorite Autumn Sunset

October 24th, 2018

Ione, California

My Favorite Black And White Photo

June 10th, 2018

Stockton, California

My Favorite Leaf Of The Day

"Fleur-Di-Lis"

December 9th, 2018

Stockton, California

My Favorite Public Art Piece

"Peace" By Stephen Kaltenberg

 October 21st, 2018

Sacramento, California

My Favorite Church Photograph

Ione Catholic Cemetery

Ione, California

October 25th 2018

My Favorite Cemetery Photograph

Ione Public Cemetery

Ione, California

October 25th, 2018

 
Angel Monument

Ione Public Cemetery

Ione, California

October 25th 2018

The Old Frosty

Ione, California

August 25th, 2018

Blue Bunting

September 2nd 2018

Davenport, California

 Early Winter Sunset

December 24th 2018

Stockton, California

"Incoming"

Pacific Grove, California

October 17th, 2018

Art Deco Glass Panel

The Orinda Theater

October 11th, 2018

Orinda, California

Smoke From The Camp Fire (Paradise, California)

 Turned The Moon An Eerie Shade Of Red

A Bright Red Glow OF The Sun, Filtered With Smoke From The Camp Fire, Reflecting OFF The Bricks Of Preston Castle

November 11th, 2018

Ione, California

Happy Independence Day 

July 4th, 2018

Stockton, California

Open Window

October 24th 2018

Lockeford, California

And there you have it! The year 2018 in photographs. On to yet another year, but hopefully, the new year will bring a lot more good news, than bad, and maybe even some clarity and hope. You just never know what will be waiting for you. Maybe I will take my best photograph ever! Or perhaps I will be in the right/wrong place at the right/wrong time to capture an image that will be something truly unique or historic! Or maybe I will just continue to photograph things I love, and just try to make it through another year of my life. It's all good. But, I am reminded daily of, Memento Mori.

It's Life.

Happy New Year

2019

~Mood: Quiet

~Me :)