Autumn Leaf Of The Day #21

 

"Autumn questions: Does an autumn leaf have a dream? Does she want to return to her green tree again? Does she want to drift into the wind and travel the world? Or does she want to meet other dead leaves. Maybe she just wants to get into the frame of a photo, and become immortal."

~Mehmet Murat ildan

Autumn Leaf Of The Day #11

 

"Autumn is a second spring, when every leaf is a flower."

~Albert Camus

Autumn Leaf Of The Day #76

"When the leaves start to fall, our heart beat starts to rise."

~B.K. Sweeten

Autumn Leaf Of The Day #71

 

"Autumn burns brightly, a flame running a flame through the mountains, a torch flung to the trees."

~Faith Baldwin

Autumn Leaf Of The Day #61

 

"Life starts all over again, when it gets crisp in the Fall."

~F. Scott Fitzgerald

Autumn's Pavements

"You make an autumn mist taste like champagne

and turn winter rain into the elixir of life itself."

~Sanober Kahn

I just love walking, or rather wheeling around,

 in my wheelchair, in autumn.

Autumn Leaf Of The Day #57

 

"The heat of autumn is different from the heat of summer. One ripens apples, the other turns them to cider."

~Jane Hirshfield

Autumn

It's been cold and rainy the last few days. I think the rest of autumn is going to be cold. We only have around a month to go, and it will be snowing down as low as 4,000 ft later this week. The Sierras are going to be beautiful! Lordy, where did I put all my sweaters?

Autumn Leaf Of The Day #13

 

“November is usually such a disagreeable month...as if the year had suddenly found out that she was growing old and could do nothing but weep and fret over it. This year is growing old gracefully...just like a stately old lady who knows she can be charming even with gray hair and wrinkles. We've had lovely days and delicious twilights.”

~L.M. Montgomery,

 Anne of Avonlea

This autumn's November, has leaves that are much more muted than in previous years, but there are also trees making a big show of the bright vivid colors hiding among it's other less showy colored leaves. Dogwood trees do that, as do Liquid amber, but I can always count on a particular tree, in Cull Canyon park to provide these lovely shaped yellow leaf clusters. They go from a dull greenish color of summer, to this bright, happy, Meyer lemon color. I wish I knew the name of the tree. I really need to try harder to learn my leaf identification. Hubby even suggested adding the names of the tree the leaves come from, to my leaf portraits next autumn. Good idea! But I better start learning them, beginning on the first day of winter!

Autumn Leaf Of The Day #10

 

“I learnt from the autumn leaves, the formula of healing.
every year, they break, fall off the trees and die.
and then again in a few months, they find their way back home.
reborn, living a new life just to die again.
but never did that stop them growing again.
so why can't we humans just live up to them.
fall, get hurt, bear pain but have enough
courage and energy to stand up and fight back again.”

 
~Renesmee Stormer

                         

Autumn Lead Of The Day #37

 

“For these beings, fall is ever the normal season, the only weather, there be no choice beyond. Where do they come from? The dust. Where do they go? The grave. Does blood stir their veins? No: the night wind. What ticks in their head? The worm. What speaks from their mouth? The toad. What sees from their eye? The snake. What hears with their ear? The abyss between the stars. They sift the human storm for souls, eat flesh of reason, fill tombs with sinners. They frenzy forth....Such are the autumn people.”

 
~Ray Bradbury 

 

 

Autumn Leaf Of The Day #91

 

“He'd grown unused to woods like this. He'd become accustomed to the Northwest, evergreen and shaded dark. Here he was surrounded by soft leaves, not needles; leaves that carried their deaths secretly inside them, that already heard the whispers of Autumn.

 Roots and branches that knew things.”

 
~Michael Montoure,

  Slices

 

Here is the final numbered leaf on my Autumn leaf project for 2023! I am still collecting beautiful leaves as I come across them, because for me, in my fantasies, it's always Autumn. Oh my, monster cakelets, pumpkins, days with rain and sunshine at the same time, the color of the sun, the annual migration along the Pacific Flyway, the smells of pies and roast turkey and Autumn Boiled Ham. The Harvest Moon. The holiday shows and movies, while cuddling on the couch. The Macy's parade. When Harry Met Sally and St Elmo's Fire. My warm cozy sweaters. Sweet Potatoes! So many little things like tiny candy bars and the silly Christmas elves I have on my Christmas tree... it's all Autumn, and I will miss it like an old love, because it is, one of the great loves of my life! 

 

Every single leaf I collect, represents a day, no a moment, that Autumn gave me. The leaves I post are very special to me. I hope you enjoy them. This is probably the last year I will be posting them to Twitter X. It has become a depressingly abusive place to be, and sharing my photography on that site just feels wrong. I think that Facebook will be the new home for my photography. We'll see. Anyway, it's was a really pretty year for leaves, lots of red, as if Autumn was singing a power ballad this year! 

 

I am forever grateful!

 

 

The Little Yellow Butterfly

 “And the yellow sunflower by the brook, in autumn beauty stood.” 

~William Cullen Bryant 

 

Eurema Lisa, or "Little Yellow Butterfly" are so tiny, that it took the whole summer of practice with the camera to get a decent photograph. Fortunately I finally got one I was satisfied with, while I was on  Woodbridge road, on the last day of September. Then my second photo was done at Yolo Bypass, a couple days later. It was such a pleasant way to end the month of September and to begin October.

 

 Autumn... the great healer!

Autumn Leaf Of The Day #9

 

“September days have the warmth of summer in their briefer hours,

 but in their lengthening evenings a prophetic breath of autumn.” 

 

~Rowland E. Robinson 

 

It's the last day of September. Sigh. That always feels bittersweet to me. I like the month of September. Don't get me wrong, October will always be my favorite month, but September smells like pencils. Ticonderoga #2, to be exact. Mmmm. Oh my... the memories of back to school time. It's makes me want to take a class in brain surgery or something. 

;)

Autumn Leaf Of The Day #5

 

 “Aprils have never meant much to me,

 autumns seem that season of beginning, spring.” 

 
~Truman Capote,

  Breakfast at Tiffany's and Three Stories

 

 

You Expected To Be Sad In The Fall

 

“You expected to be sad in the fall. Part of you died each year when the leaves fell from the trees and their branches were bare against the wind and the cold, wintery light. But you knew there would always be the spring, as you knew the river would flow again after it was frozen. When the cold rains kept on and killed the spring, it was as though a young person died for no reason.”
 

― Ernest Hemingway,

 

  A Moveable Feast

 

We are barely into Autumn, and look at all that amazing pallet of colors! I am afraid I will need to be gathering leaves a lot earlier for my project, because I think the leaves will all be gone before Thanksgiving. I hope not. I love it when leaves continue late into the year, it just makes everything so festive. The color of the leaves, and then the colors of Christmas and New Year's. Unfortunately, I don't write the book, Mother Nature does, I better gather them and save all the beauty I can now, after all next year we will be in the middle of yet another national election, where Donald Trump is running for president, and I know my mood will deep and probably dark. Let's say it, I will be depressed. It's a depressing situation. And a scary one too. But that is a year away, there is no way to really plan for it, I can only plan for the leaves next year, and hope for the best on all other matters.

When I look at those colors, and hear the sound of migrating geese, I feel calm and peaceful inside. Life is good. But lately, beginning over the summer, I start to feel especially anxious. Racing thoughts and memories, and I haven't been sleeping well. My therapist and doctor have tried adjusting my medications, and none of what we have tried has done much for my sleeping. In the past I would take a Valium when DT would trigger some anxiety for me, but Kaiser doesn't want to prescribe Valium anymore because it is now considered "the big bad" due to it's addictiveness and America's past of over prescribing it. So, what would ordinarily help me stop the anxiety in the moment, and lead to a better pattern of sleep, is not available, but boy are they willing to put me on other drugs, antidepressants mostly, that don't work as efficiently as what I know does. Not everyone's body or psychological dispositions are the same, but Kaiser has always tended toward treating everyone the same. Like whats being done with my codeine. 

We do indeed have an opioid epidemic in America. Lots of tragedy has taken place, and with the synthetic drug Fentanyl on the street, which only takes one pill to kill you, in some instances, things have gotten pulled back dramatically for folks with chronic pain. When one guy does it, we all get blamed, shamed and otherwise punished. So, there is nothing I can do but wait for the grief to pass, pretend the chronic physical pain isn't there, accept not sleeping, and hope the temporary highs of visiting parks looking for leaves, and wildlife reserves looking for birds, will give me something to focus on as opposed to drowning in anxiety and sadness. And I have to admit, my doctor did suggest an over the counter option, Melatonin for sleep. I tried it, and to my surprise it does help me sleep somewhat better. So, there you have it. Life is never just about one thing, right? It's all an adventure. At least this chapter is being written in Autumn, when love and beauty is all around me.

Autumnal Sunshine

 

“I cannot endure to waste anything so precious

 as autumnal sunshine by staying in the house.”

 

 – Nathaniel Hawthorne

 

We have already turned a weather corner. There is an really big, early Autumn storm slamming California tonight and tomorrow. Another Atmospheric river like the ones that plagued us earlier this year! Fortunately for us, it will be mainly well north of the Golden Gate. I am trying to not think about what lies ahead when it comes to weather this autumn and winter. We have officially entered another El Nino, so that means another pattern of wetter than usual conditions, and if it is already beginning up north, well, hold onto your hats and umbrellas because your gonna need them! I am trying to not think about it too much. Like that dragonfly, I just want to enjoy the last of the warmth while we have it. It was in the mid 80s today, and there is a little wind outside, so it's just about perfect. I am putting an extra blanket on the bed tonight, which is about as delicious as it gets!

Happiness!

 

 

Welcome Aboard It's Love

 

"On my tombstone I want it written,

 'He never did The Love Boat'".

 

~Orson Welles

 

OMG, can you imagine if Donald Trump had done an episode of The Love Boat? I found myself pondering that for about 30 minutes the other day, after I spotted that meme of Trump's mug shot. His dumb puss is now on t-shirts, hats, posters and, as you might imagine, mugs. He had made the t-shirts available for order before he even got back on his plane to return to New Jersey, after his booking! He has no dignity. He will continue making money off his own mug shot, demonstrating what truly matters to him, the almighty dollar. Although I suppose if ever there was a time to cash in on his image, now is it!

 

But the cheesy slogan, "Never surrender" is nothing short of a bad joke, because he literally had just surrendered! And to add an additional bit of snicker to the whole situation, Chris LaCivita, whose one of Trump's top advisers, threatened to "go after" anyone who markets Trump's mugshot image in anyway. That silly man thinks he owns his own mugshot image? And he was president? And his "top advisor" didn't know any better either? So all things considered, I think the title of The Love Boat episode would be, Never Surrender. Which let's face it, sounds a lot like the title of a drugstore romance novel, and Trumps co-stars would be 282 Electoral Collage votes he managed to receive in the 2020 election.

Does all this finally answer the question of how we got here?

 

 

Love boat

By Jack Jones

 
Love, exciting and new
Come aboard. we're expecting you.
Love, life's sweetest reward.
Let it flow, it floats back to you.
The love boat soon will be making another run
The love boat promises something for everyone
Set a course for adventure,
Your mind on a new romance.
Love won't hurt anymore
It's an open smile on a friendly shore.

The love boat soon will be making another run
The love boat promises something for everyone
Set a course for adventure,
Your mind on a new romance. (1st time end)
Love won't hurt anymore
It's an open smile on a friendly shore.
It's love! it's love! it's love!
It's the love boat-ah! it's the love boat-ah!

 

 

 

 

A Blossom And A Bee

 

"Or maybe spring is the season of love and fall the season of mad lust. Spring for flirting but fall for the untamed delicious wild thing."

 

~Elizabeth Cohen

The Hypothetical Girl 

 

I love this quote. Honestly, I have never really enjoyed spring, but I am beginning to climb out of my depression, so I am actually looking at spring a lot differently, from more of a creative standpoint. I wish I was in the Bay Area, almost all the time, but I am settled in the valley now. It's just that the Bay Area has so many wonderful places to photograph, no matter what season you are in. The tulips should be in full bloom now at Queen Wilhemina windmill garden, in Golden Gate Park. The Japanese Tea Garden is probably filled with cherry blossoms now too. Oh my, I miss San Francisco so much. I am okay though, I have my birding now, and I am absolutely certain that if I had to move from here suddenly, I would miss it the way I do my home in the East Bay. When I finally put down roots, they go deep. I think I might finally be happy, or at least content. And hey, look what I found in Lodi! And get this... it was in the parking lot of a gas station! It's reminding me that it's way past time for me to be searching with a purpose, because around every corner, there is something waiting to be noticed. Stuff folks are so used to, that it's never really seen. My camera helps me to see things, I think I would miss entirely, if I didn't have the perspective of life through a lens. It makes the little things matter to me. Like the beauty of a bee on a blossom. I am hoping to do a lot more spring photography this year. There is a lot of beauty to be seen.

 

 Spring makes the same amount of noise that autumn does,

it just does it in pastel colors! Spring is the promise of an autumn to come. That thought makes me happy. It's life.

 

~Carly

Happy Holidays

'Truley, Autumn is my season," the scarlet beast chorted. "Spring and Summer and Winter all begin with such late letters! But Autumn and Fall, I have loved best, because they are best to love."

~Catherynne M. Valente

The Girl who Circumnavigated Fairyland

 In A Ship Of Her Own Making 

Thanksgiving is over, and it's time for all the worlds of autumn to come together! Christmas really should be the last party of autumn, as it belongs to winter for only a few days! It's always seemed to be that autumn got cheated by that, but to me, it is an autumn holiday, no matter what the calendar says! I tend to have all my holiday shopping done by December 20th, so I can spend the last few days before the big day to relax, and enjoy the decorations, and all that goes with the holiday, like baking yummy things.

We tend to celebrate Christmas Eve, with more enthusiasm, than Christmas Day. We make special snacks, play board games, or card games, listen to music, and sometimes get silly singing! Not necessarily Christmas songs, as actually there are very few of those I can actually stand, but any song that makes us laugh and enjoy! Then on the day, we do what most families do, we open our gift bags, and have a good time watching the furry people play with their new catnip toys. We are an unconventional family to be sure, but I bet a lot of families have more going on than we do!

I was born Jewish, but raised Methodist. So, Alan and I honor both holidays. I imagine there are a lot of families like ours that celebrate both holidays, which is why I find it amusing that anyone would claim that there is a "War On Christmas!" All these people who claim Christmas has become, too commercialized, and that saying "Happy Holidays" somehow takes the focus off Jesus, are just more people trying to, literally, sell you a bill of goods." They want you to buy their books about the commercialism of Christmas, which is amusing, but also infuriating at the same time, because year after year, we have to hear about the same old, non-existent war, for the sole purpose of demanding religious conformity, and yes, getting rich off fear and hate! 

Sarah Palin, Bill O'Reilly and Donald Trump, among others, have now all sold products aimed at putting the Christmas back in Christmas! With the first two, it was all about selling books that declared that there was a war on Christmas, being waged by anyone wishing you, or anyone you know, a "Happy Holiday." Also, the whole holiday is one big shopping scheme, created by companies, to take the Jesus out of the season! So be good, for goodness sake, and yell at the next person wishing you a Happy Holiday, and be sure to by another book that explains how you can help, by not over shopping! Because nothing says noncommercial, like a $40 "MAGA" hat that says "Merry Christmas" on the back! Because, now, finally, with Trump in office, we can now say Merry Christmas again! Whew! What a relief!

I'll just be frank here... these people are full of shit!

Especially President "Anything For A Buck."

There. I said it.

Christmas is about as commercial, as you personally choose to let it be! If you want to go out and lavish your family with gifts, go for it! If you want to stay home, and make handmade pillows or blankets, great, have at it, but don't hide behind your "Christianity" as a way to rob anyone else of their religion, their manners, or their joy, or simply, their traditions, during what should be, the one time of year that we can really reach out to one another, in kindness, friendship, and best of all love. We have it in us, but sometimes we have so much noise going on around us, and so many people trying to tell us what to think, that we can't hear ourselves love. Let yourself feel the love in the words, HAPPY HOLIDAYS, because it's up to you to decide if you want to hear with ears of love, or ears of hate.

That. Is. On. You.

Here's a bit of advice... Don't Let Hate Win!

#24 Leaf Of The Day

November 24th, 2017

Knight's Ferry, California

Mood: Happy

~Me :)

 

Autumn Fenced In...

"Autumn stomps around outside the house like

 an annoying little sister, tapping on all the shutters, 

kicking up the piles of leaves you rake,

 pretending to howl like a wolf.

 But I'm glad she's here, so we can cuss at summer together, pretending we don't even remember her name."

~Karen Finneyfrock

The Sweet Revenge Of Celia Door

Some folks don't agree with me at all about autumn! The leaves that are glorious, messy and loud with color and joy for me, mean a dirty, time consuming, mess for others. Rather than being a giantic party of colors, the leave rather represent a sad notion that soon the world will be covered in snow, and the trees that are so vibrant right now, will turn to mere skeletons. Stick figure ghosts of their former selves. The world will become cold, lonely, and perhaps the thing of a Stephen King novel. But I am happy to see the dark days come, and bring with it shadows that I can build nightmares on! Maybe that's why I love horror movies so much, it reminds me of autumn, even in April!

Autumn Fenced In...

I love doing fence line photography, 

and I hope to do more this season!

Leaf Of The Day

October 24th 2016

Mood: Happy

 

~Me :)