Well, THAT Wasn't On My Bingo Card

 

"Not only do we have the D.C. jail which is the D.C. gulag, but now we have Nancy Pelosi's gazpacho police spying on members of Congress, spying on the legislative work that we do, spying on our staff, spying on the American people."

~Marjorie Taylor Greene

February, 2022 

A lot of things happened in 2025 that were not on my bingo card, both in my private life, and in the world at large. Doge obtaining our personal information, with no oversite on what he was doing with it! Donald Trump nearly crashing the world economy with his tariffs, and "Independence Day" of fuckery. The murders of Charlie Kirk, and Rob Reiner, the Epstein Files rocking Washington D.C., the loss of my beautiful cat Hendrix, only 9 months after I lost Dylan. But nothing surprised me more than Marjorie Taylor Greene, growing up, right before our eyes! She found her real voice. Her honest voice. I guess. I mean... imagine that! I should have expected someone in congress to lose their mind and finally locate their brain, I mean, after all, Dick Cheney did! But MTG? Will her new found attitude hold? Will she extend her mea culpa in 2026 to reflect a better Christian walk? Time will tell! Personally, I wish her luck. I wish her success in her attempts to change from a politically toxic princess, to a mature seeker of truth. When the truth wins, we all do better.

Read the, New York Times, profile article here.

A Few Of My Favorites...

 

"You don't make a photograph just with a camera. You bring to the act of photography all the pictures you have seen, all the books you have read, the music you have heard, and people you have loved."

~Ansel Adams

Photography means a lot to me, but I sometimes sacrifice the quality of my photos, so I can get a picture in the moment. Bird photos sometimes have to be taken, before you think about whether the opportunity will be for the art, or whether it will be to build your yearly bird list. I try really hard to bring the two together, but oh boy, there are challenges. Weather. Birds that seem to fly at the speed of sound. I am getting older, so I am having a bit of a tremor in my hands, which might be from arthritis. There are a lot of factors. But here I want to share the ones I got right, or at least, okay. There is a lot of emotion here. They reflect happiness, sadness, serenity, wonder. It has been quite a year, filled with, you know LIFE. Each year I try to get a photo good enough to enter into the Audubon Photography Contest. Hopefully, 2026 will be my year!

My Year End Favorites

I Saw The Sign

"If you had a million days to do it in, you couldn't rub out even half the "Fuck you" signs in the world."

~J. D. Salinger 

I saw that sign the other day, and it reminded me of the song from the 90's. I immediately began humming it, and I have been humming it since! Don't get me wrong, I love, Ace Of Base, but I can't get the song out of my head! Of course if you drive around Stockton you will see all kinds of signs. Some seem more like omens, rather than a perplexing. The city of Stockton really needs to do better about things like this... and the crime rate. It's apparent the powers that be have missed the sign!

Speaking of missing the sign... folks really need to stop doing this. Park the damn car in the space. The hashmarks are not part of the space! This is becoming one of my favorite pet peeves. As a handicapped person, I have lost the ability to park in a space, because of fellow handicapped people engaging in this behavior. JUST PARK IN THE DAMN SPACE! To be fair, I see non-handicapped people parking in these special spots as well. Sigh. All I can say is... READ THE SIGN!

It is, what it is!

The Red-shouldered Hawk

 

The hawk was everything I wanted to be in life:

 solitary, self possessed, free from grief and numb to the hurts of human life."

~Helen MacDonald

H is For Hawk

I spotted this absolutely gorgeous, Red-shouldered Hawk, the other day, while we were on Woodbridge road. There aren't as many birds, in our usual places, as there should be, another sign that 2026 will be another difficult year for birding. It's okay. I know there are some hawks like this one, and a particularly chatting Belted Kingfisher along Woodbridge, and some Greater White-fronted Geese on Desmond, so we will start out okay, then it just might mean trips along the coastline for the seabirds and shore birds. Spring will bring the perching birds, and certain hawks in the summer. Pretty soon, I will sitting here again, just before the calendar turns to 2027 and I will be thinking about another year to come. For birds, health and life. But that's a long way off... and five minutes away.

Rainbows And Woodpeckers

 

"A lion does not flinch at the laughter coming from a hyena.

 A gorilla does not budge from a banana thrown at it from a monkey. 

A nightingale does not stop singing it's beautiful song, at the intrusion of an annoying woodpecker."

~Suzy Kassam

Rise Up And Salute The Sun: The Writings Of Suzy Kassam

The weather was a gentle mixture of sunshine, rain and rainbows. Well, I guess rainbows are more of a weather phenomenon then weather itself, but the point is, we didn't actually get all the apocalypse predicted. The Sierras, saw heavy snow, and the Bay Area was slammed pretty hard, but here in the San Joaquin country, we made it through pretty well! Louis Park was pretty today, that's where I photographed this gorgeous Acorn woodpecker, resting among the last leaves in the park. Birds were easier to find, as you might imagine, but I didn't get anything new, what I did get was beautiful, and it gives me an idea for what to plan for when we begin a new year of birding, on January 1st! There were lots of birders on the roads with us, which was nice, it's always good to see!

Tornados? On Christmas Eve?

 

"Do not be angry with rain; it simply does not know how to fall upwards."

~Vladimir Nabokov

Mammatus clouds

Stockton, Ca

December 24th, 2019

A tornado? On Christmas eve? Well, it's not unheard of! We had a small tornado touch down on Christmas eve in 2019. I went into World Market to do a little last minute shopping, and when I came out, I spotted some very strange clouds. Mammatus clouds to be exact! If you have never been directly under them, let me explain, they are the both spooky and gorgeous at the same time. But they are fine, they don't cause tornados or anything, they just let you know you should take shelter, because unstable air is imminent! Right now tornados are "possible at a lower risk", but stuff can change quick! I plan to be upstairs all day tomorrow, wrapping presents, and watching Donald Trump's fall, due to the Epstein files. There are a lot of windows where I will be, so I should be able to see it all coming. And maybe I will see the Mammatus clouds too! 

New York Times: Extreme Weather

I guess the storm will be heading straight into Stockton over night, and will stick around a few days. We'll see what happens, who knows, maybe I will get a few new photos! Below are what I think might be the last of the Sugar Maple in my yard. If we are getting as much wind as they are forecasting, they are only a few hours from falling from the tree. There is something sad about winter being this pushy.                

Ellipsis Christmas Movie Countdown #23

 

"Isn't that always the way? Whenever you have a body you don't want found, everyone falls all over it."

~Jules (Peter Ustinov)

We're No Angels

Three escaped convicts learn the meaning of friendship at Christmas. That's it in a nutshell! But a lot of great stuff happens along the way too. It's not like any other Christmas movie I've ever seen. I just love the old movies, and the values they bring. I don't want to say much about the plot, because if you haven't seen it before you should just jump in and enjoy the movie! That's all. I'm watching it again tonight because I just need some holiday spirit, and to get lost in the plot of this nearly perfect holiday film!

Dear Santa, Bring Your Umbrella

 

"December's wintry breath is already

 clouding the pond, frosting the pane, obscuring summer's memory... "

~John Geddes 

A Familiar Rain

Winter, where I live, is beginning with a fierce statement! It's going to rain for the next 10 days or so, as another atmospheric river makes landfall! Christmas eve, and Christmas day should be especially brutal! This should be an interesting week!

Autumn Leaf Of The Day #90

 

"Nothing dies as beautifully as Autumn."

~Ashlee Willis

A Wish Made Of Glass

This gorgeous leaf is from my yard. I have the most beautiful Sugar Maple in my front yard, I've told this before, but I live for this tree to turn each Autumn, and that's is most of the time around, mid-October. This year, however, it only turned after Thanksgiving, a full month later than it usually does! So I have very few leaves to share in the project. That made me sad, but even after the season ends, I will share what beauty is still left. I can't let it go, without sharing the last of it's in all it's glory!