The First Robin Of 2024

 

“If I can stop one heart from breaking,
I shall not live in vain;
If I can ease one life the aching,
Or cool one pain,
Or help one fainting robin
Unto his nest again,
I shall not live in vain.” 

~Emily Dickinson 

 

This was not the first picture I took for the year, but it is the first picture of a bird I took for year. The first picture I took was of a dumpster with a refrigerator sitting next to it. It looked like it had been a pleasant enough appliance at some point, but now it was a discarded old fridge that probably had stored many a New Year's Eve snack. What a way to treat a faithful old pal like that. And on New Year's Day to be exact. On the other hand, I once had a refrigerator that I hated so deeply, I begged my husband to let me personally throw the damn thing down the garbage chute at the dump myself. But I save that story for a different day. Right now it's all about the birds, and as I sit here, I am a happy girl. We have almost 50 birds in the 2024 album, most of them from yesterday, so the year is off to a wonderful beginning, and we are planning on visiting Bodega Bay later this week. A lot of gorgeous stuff has been reported in the last couple days, and hubby and I are both really excited for the possibilities. Who knows, maybe we will make this a really BIG YEAR and top our number for 2023. We ended at 163 birds, many of which were new sightings, like the Black Oystercatchers and Caspian Tern. Maybe 2024 will be there year that we spot a California Condor and a Snowy Plover!

I have To Admit I'm Getting Better Every Day And Autumn Leaf #20

 

"When autumn meets tranquility,

 there you can see the King of Sceneries!"

 

~Mehmet Murat ildan

 

It's just a fact, I am feeling like myself again. I have a lot of learning about my new camera, and autumn light, but one irrefutable fact is that I am getting healthier every day, and that makes the learning easier! I ate a sandwich today that had mayonnaise on it, and while I felt a bit queasy afterwards, I didn't get sick. That is REAL progress toward being finished with Long Covid. I'm crossing my fingers about things, but hey, it had to happen sometime, right? And yes, that is a Sandhill Crane, not a seabird, but Bodega Bay is still on this week's schedule, as is the Sierra. My faith in things needs a little work. Every day when I get up, I promise myself I will try a little harder, to remember who I once was, and move on with the best part of me focused on the future and whatever time I have left on earth, because there will never be enough time to watch, and appreciate, the beautiful things in my life.

 

Greater White-fronted Geese...

~Me

 

 

Creative Light And Dark

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

~Ansel Adams

One thing I love about working with new cameras is discovering all the new things it's capable of. I haven't had a really serious camera like this new Nikon in a long time. My Samsung, which is attached to my phone does okay... I mean really okay... for a phone with a camera. In fact, it's a better camera then it is a phone, so I know I will continue to use it for as long as it works, but I just needed something a camera that was a little more sophisticated, and I found that with this new one. So far I am very happy with the night and low light shots. My next test for it will be a full moon, which comes up on December 13th, if the sky is cloud free of course! It's something positive to look forward to as I fight this depression I am in. If you have fought depression like I have, you know the drill, set small, attainable goals, and work toward them.

 Okay. I'll Try.

Funny thing about that quote by Ansel Adams, you bring all those things to your depression too. Maybe that's why so many really creative people have spent their life fighting depression like I have.

Leaf Of The Day

November 29th, 2016

Mood: Quiet

~Me  

Saturday In San Francisco

"It's simply a very romantic place. Just one look at any of those streets, and you couldn't be anywhere else... it's so beautiful, and there's that location, and the sense of the free spirit.

 Who couldn't become ravenous in such a place?"

~Julie Child

Last month, early last month, Charles and I made the trek across the Bay Bridge to take a ride on the San Francisco Bay. We had tickets to ride the Rocket Boat. I told you all about that in a post a month ago, so I won't bother with those details. This post is all about a challenge I have given myself, which is to take the best photo of San Francisco I can, while crossing the San Francisco Bay Bridge. It's something I came up with years ago, and I have been working toward that goal ever since!

 The traffic on that particular day, October 4th, was quite heavy, so we weren't moving as fast as the usual traffic flow. Saturday, in the city, are always busy, particularly when the weather is as glorious as it was on that day. It was beautiful! Still, I didn't get that perfect picture I have been striving for, but it's okay, I never get tired of trying.

God I Love It Here!

Leaf Of The Day

 

Mood: Happy

~Me :)

Happy New Year 2012

"Hope smiles from the threshold of the year to come... whispering... it will be happier."

~Alfred Tennyson

My dates for New Year's Eve!

 

As we begin a sparkly, snarkly new year, I wish you all the best! Hold on tight, 2013 will be a bumpy one methinks.

*New on Ellipsis in 2013...

The return of the Ellipsis Weekly Poll! There is a brand new one on the sidebar now, so, take part!
 

Q. If You Could, Would You Go Back And Change Your Vote From Last November?
Go answer on the sidebar. You know you want to. :)

~Me :)

A Photo A Day For 6 Months: Day 48~ Palace Of Fine Arts

"There are three forms of visual art: Painting is art to look at, sculpture is art you can walk around, architecture is art you can walk around."

~Dan Rice

 

The Palace of Fine Arts in San Francisco is one of my favorite places to do photography. The grounds are so lovely and peaceful, I have found myself getting lost in the beauty of the place many times. When I am not enjoying it for it's trees and plant life, I am often amused by the birds. I have photographed many ducks, egrets and a heron or two, but the swans are the royalty of the palace. Its a lot of beauty to appreciate. It has a rich history in that it was built in 1915 for the Panama-Pacific Exposition, as a place to display works of art, and later becoming an and a 966 seat Exploratorium theater.

"Architeture, of all the arts, is the one which acts the most slowly, but the most surely, on the soul."

~Ernest Dimnet

The earthquake retrofitting that was being done a few years back was finished in 2009, so now it's time to go back over to the city and revisit the palace and do some more photos of this amazing place. I CAN'T WAIT. As I have been revisiting all these photos from my archive, I had a really good idea where I want to jump back in with my photography. San Francisco has NO end to the wonderful places to take the camera. I completely love it here. Gas prices are stabilizing. My health is doing better, and I am ready to get my groove back. So, the first week in August is it. New Photos. New experiences to share. New adventures. No more excuses. Hold me to it... okay?


;) 

"The mother of art is architecture. Without an architecture of  our own, we have no soul of our own civilization"


~Frank Lloyd Wright

My friend Steven, who I miss very much, every day, once told me, that if I couldn't get out daily to do photography on a grand scale, then try backyard photography. Flowers, bees, birds... . He said it would help me keep moving forward. He was right. I wish I could tell him. I wish I could say THANK YOU. I hope wherever he is, he knows how much I appreciated his advice and friendship.


~Me:)

Now, here is where you can find JR and what he is seeing today...




JR
http://jrclinephotography.blogspot.com/2012/06/apadf6-47.html

January 1st 2008

With the rose, the butterfly's deeply in love
A thousand times hovering round;
But round himself, all tender like gold,
The sun's sweet ray is hovering found.

-Heinrich Heine, "New Spring"

It's beautiful today in the Bay Area, and I thought I might go out with the camera to take my first photos of 2008, but it just felt too nice to laze in bed today. It's comfy warm under the covers. :) I am happy right now, much happier then I was a year ago. I guess that's why I have spent so much time today, daydreaming about what the next few months might be like.

I have some big plans. Really big plans. The first of those big plans is to get back into my walking and stretching that I have been ignoring lately. It's so easy to slack off in the winter time, especially when my Fibromyalgia gives me an excuse. But I have a certain goal I am working toward, so I want to be in shape for when the time is exactly right for hiking up Mt. San Bruno, in my quest for the Mission Blue Butterfly.

That's it in the above photo. Isn't she amazing? I have been wanting to photograph her for a long time, and I have done some extensive research into where and when to start looking for her. She is still on the endangered species list, but in recent years they have been coming back strong.

Apparently the only place in the world you can find her is right here in the Bay Area, mostly along the San Mateo coastline, atop Mt. San Bruno, and sometimes she can be seen on Twin Peaks in San Francisco. I have a small window of opportunity between late March and early July, and then she will be gone for another season. She is a tiny little butterfly, but that color, she just amazes me. Hopefully while I am up there I might also find the San Bruno Elfin butterfly as well. :)

San Bruno Elfin

I am starting out the year with a few other small goals. I need to do more with my YOGA, so I will probably be signing up for a class in a couple weeks, and I want to take another online class through the Disney Family Learning Center, and probably the biggest of the small goals, I want to take a pottery class that's being offered nearby. That's a big one for me, because I haven't done much in the way of craft projects in the last few years. But it seems like it would be fun, so why not try something new?

I have plans for my garden this year, but I can't really do much with that right now, it's all kind of a matter of hurry up and wait at this point, but I am doing some research into vegetables and flowers, so I kinda have some idea of who, what, where and when. I am probably going to focus on the roses and the small vegetables like Grape tomatoes and maybe some peppers. It will be fun. I might plant some flowers to draw in the butterflies, I got a late start last year, so not much happened, although I had a ton of skippers. It must have been a good year for them! :)

Red Admiral

Common Gray Hairstreak

So, wish me luck. I found and photographed the Grey Hairstreak and the Red Admiral butterflies this past autumn, both new butterflies to me, so now I just need to find that Mission Blue. :) I know she's there, just waiting for this crazy lady with the camera to find her. :)

Blue-Butterfly Day
By Robert Frost

It is blue-butterfly day here in spring
And when these sky-flakes down in flurry on flurry
There is more unmixed color on the wing
Than flowers will show for days unless they hurry.

But these are flowers that fly and all but sing
And now from having ridden out desire
They lie closed over in the wind and cling
Where wheels have freshly sliced the April mire.

-OndineMonet