His Autumn Colors...

 

“Sitting under a tree in a park in the summer,

 listening to birds and squirrels

 chirping while reading a good book is priceless.” 

~ Charmaine J. Forde

 

 

I was in my favorite park, Cull Canyon, checking on my favorite tree, the other day, and there he was, a Red squirrel, as well as several other of his friends, skittering about gathering acorns. Winter is coming. I don't really want to think about it. I am in Autumn, so why dwell on it leaving me two months from now? I am just going to live in the moment, and be grateful I have all that I love right in front of me at the moment. I just wish my sleepy tree would wake up and put it's autumn coat on. El Nino will be bringing heavy storms back to California this autumn and winter, and I'd like to see my tree in full autumn leaf bloom before the storms blow all the beauty to the ground. My fingers are crossed that there isn't too much damage. I really love that tree, and the pretty little squirrels that play around it!

 

 

Fun With Low Light Photography

"Even as a child, she had preferred night to day, had enjoyed sitting out in the yard after sunset, under the star-speckled sky listening to frogs and crickets.

 Darkness soothed. It softened the  sharp edges of the world, toned down the too-harsh colors. With the coming of twilight, the sky seemed to recede; the universe expanded.

 The night was bigger than the day, and in it's realm, life seemed to have more possibilities."

~Dean Koontz

Midnight

I was going through my folder from last month, and found some photos that really pleased me. They are dark, and have a presence that is true to the beginning of winter, and the cold darkness that comes with it. This week, we are getting the first of the El Nino storms. It's dark, as you might expect, but the sky just opens up, and DOWN comes the rain. Fiercely so! The snow pack in the Sierra range is at 139% of normal totals, which is awesome, but again, it's dark outside, and I am kinda loving it! I am not a day person, at all, I don't really begin thinking clearly until the late afternoon, and that has been my whole life.

 Alan snores. LOUDLY. And while there are other rooms I can go to, if my Fibromyalgia is particularly painful, or I just happen to need a little extra sleep, but most of the time I stay in the bedroom with him, and watch TV, or read, while he sleeps. I like being near him, snoring and all! And like I said, it has been a life time pattern for me to not sleep at night. I basically keep vampire hours. I cook, and clean, and tip-toe through the archives in search of a photo I might have overlooked. I have found many promising photos that way. Bring on the darkness! As long as El Nino is here, I might as well enjoy it!

Low-light photography. In natural lighting, and otherwise, has always intrigued me, so I am going to concentrate on that this winter. I know I will doing a lot more photography in and around Stockton, because of the storms on the way, which is nice, because I need to venture out around here. I love the mixture of rural and city here. It's quite unique to the rest of the Bay Area. Shrug. Darkness, in all the best ways is the goal. I hope you find the next series of photos pleasing, comments and opinions are always appreciated!

 You knew I was going to sneak in a photo from the last of the leaves... right? It's just that the last of the Dogwood had a poignant kind of beauty to it, as the last of the colorful leaves rested among the dark and dead leaves. There was something strangely pretty about it.

I tool this photograph out my kitchen window,

 using the screen as a filter.

 I kind of like the grainy effect. Thoughts?

Mood: Happy

~Me :)

A Change Of Direction

"Whether you take the doughnut hole as a blank space or as an entity unto itself is purely metaphysical question and does not affect the taste of the doughnut one bit."

~Haruki Murakami

A Wild Sheep Chase

Okay, so one night of NO sleep leads to a temporary postponement of our trip to Plumas. The leaf peeping is now rescheduled for this coming Sunday, October 24th! But all was not lost yesterday because we drove to Apple Hill instead. And our first stop, of course, was Rainbow Orchards for some fresh, hot, Apple Cider Doughnuts! It's just not really fall without them! Next we took a leasurly drive up the hill into South Lake Tahoe! It was cold, and dark... the perfect autumn day for enjoying the moodiness of autumn! The air was so cold and so clean, but the lake nearly broke my heart! 

There was no snow on the hills, and you could tell the lake had dropped. It wasn't it's usual pristine loveliness, instead it seemed like it was feeling the age of the year, just like I have been. The stress of the long, hot dry summer was showing. This drought is devastating! I hope the experts are right about the prediction of the coming El Nino. We need some rain to brighten our spirit and bring the color back to our trees, and our cheeks. Life has to take an upturn soon... right? I didn't see a single colorful tree along HWY 50! It nearly made me cry.

Let's just hope the coming El Nino won't do too much damage, as it rights the wrongs caused by the drought! God, when it rains... it pours!

 Leaf Of The Day

October 21st 2015

Mood: Okay

~Me :)