Love Love Is The Best Time Of Day

 

My kitty was pure love. I will speak more about Hendrix soon, but right now, I just can't. His passing came quite suddenly last Monday morning, and I just need to catch my breath. I was incredibly lucky to know him, and be his mother. He always let me know. I was loved.

 

I miss you, Love Love.

 

 

 

 

 

Autumn Leaf Of The Day #1

 

“Aprils have never meant much to me, 

autumns seem that season of beginning, spring.” 

~Truman Capote

  Breakfast at Tiffany’s and Three Stories

 

Can you believe it? We have finally arrived at the first day of autumn! A welcome old friend. I photographed this leaf in Castro Valley yesterday, after I dropped off some unused food and a test kit Dylan never got to use. Oh my. Autumn will have a much different feel to it this year, but as I have always said, and believe even now, autumn heals me like nothing else, and I am grateful for that! Hopefully it will fill my heart with every beautiful thing, and I will see beyond this overwhelming sense of loss. Sorry to be so maudlin, I won't be like this every day, I promise, but autumn is the season of letting go after a life well lived, isn't it? And all things in their time.

Autumn Begins

Sunday, September 22nd, 2024

5:43 a.m. PDT

 

Goodbye Super Kitty

 

"There will come a day, I promise you,when the thought of your son or daughter, wife or husband brings a smile to your lips before it brings tears to your eye. It will happen. My prayer for you is that day comes sooner than later."

 

~Joe Biden

 

I said goodbye to Dylan yesterday. He died peacefully and we loved and loved each other deeply, as we made eye contact with each other, as he began to slip away. I always knew he would need me at the end, just as he needed me when we made eye contact when I first met him. We always needed each other. And we were there for each other throughout the years. He made me laugh, oh my god how he could piss me off, but he was also a lot of fun to snuggle with, and we shared biscuits with butter. He loved butter. He had a full personality, sometimes he was Dillybean, other times he was Mr. Pissypants!He was complicated, but we found our way. Eventually, in 2020, he began to have health problems, and the end came when he was 16 years old. That's 81 in cat years. He lived a long safe life with us, and his brothers, Hendrix and Joey. There is never a good time to say goodbye, and I will miss him forever. But he lives deep in my heart, and one day we will see each other again, and we will play our favorite game, Super Kitty. 

 

Super kittttty. He flies to the east, and he flies to the west.

 

Heee's Supppper Kitty

 

Goodnight my baby.

 

 

 

The Goddess Of The Season +Autumn Leaf Of The Day #79

 

“It's autumn," I said. "I can see the trees turning through the windows."
He tucked a strand of hair behind my ear.
"It's going to be the Day of the Dead soon," I said.
"Sounds gruesome."
"It's a festival." I looked at him over my shoulder. "The only one that gentry and peasants share. We celebrate Persephone going down to Hades for the winter, they remember Tom-a-Lone getting his head cut off by Nanny-Anna. Everybody makes grave offerings, then there's a great sacrifice to Hades and Persephone, and that night there's a bonfire and they burn a straw Tom-a-Lone dressed up in ribbons.”

 
~Rosamund Hodge,

  Cruel Beauty

 

 

I am doing a lot of reading about the Goddess, Demeter. She is the goddess who governs Autumn and the harvest. Until yesterday I hadn't realized that there was a specific goddess devoted to the seasons, which is embarrassing because of course a higher god, or goddess would watch over the harvest, it's just that I always focus on the god, GOD, as being the one who does all the work to bring my favorite season to life. Shrug. But I love reading about mythology, always have, learning about her is a good and fascinating thing to do. I grew up with the movie Xanadu, which tells the tale of one the 9 sisters of the arts and science, the daughters of Zeus and Mnemosyne.

 

 Olivia Newton-John played the muse, Terpsichore, the muse that inspired dance. The film was a was a homage to the wonderful 1947 film, Down To Earth, which starred Rita Hayworth as Terpsichore. Both films are great for different reasons, but hey, what about Demeter? What an amazing tale that would be to watch. She has been imagined in the arts, mostly, as an older woman, and I could see anyone from Meryl Streep in the role. She has truly mournful story. You can read about her life here. It's worth a look see. That leaf is absolutely gorgeous. So pretty it took my breath away. And it's a very nice thought that a lady like me created it, and appreciated all the things about Autumn I do, I think she would also understand my grief as well. That's comforting. Really, Hollywood should do less from the Marvel Universe, and more from mythology.

 

Autumn Leaf Of The Day #31

 

“Their leafy whispers delighted her, and she promised her confidentiality by gently touching the trunks of both trees. They had held her secrets close to their hearts, she could do no less.” 

~Jesikah Sundin,

  Legacy

 

Have you ever just stopped in autumn and listened to the sound of leaves as they glide to the earth? It is music. And it isn't a mere instrumental, it has lyrics too! It's a love song one minute, and the next a marching band. Mostly though, it whispers of love and the joys of a life lived to the fullest. Of no moment left unnoticed and no season taken for granted. I wish I would have lived my life with as much grace as a tree does. I wish I would have allowed myself to learn the timely lessons of letting go, and the healing and renewal that comes from it.

 

 

Sticks And Stones

 

“I know not with what weapons World War III will be fought, but World War IV will be fought with sticks and stones.”

 
~Albert Einstein 

 

Hundreds Killed. President Biden will arrive in Israel in a couple hours, to meet with Benjamin Netanyahu and to, I assume, try to lessen tensions. But with this event having taken place, I am not sure it will happen. Nothing is inevitable, but it seems like we are closer to catastrophe, than understanding and resolve.

 I pray for the president's safety.

 I pray that he can help make this stop.

 

 My faith is in him.

 

Shadows

 

“That country where it is always turning late in the year. That country where the hills are fog and the rivers are mist; where noons go quickly, dusks and twilights linger, and midnights stay. That country composed in the main of cellars, sub-cellars, coal-bins, closets, attics, and pantries faced away from the sun. That country whose people are autumn people, thinking only autumn thoughts. Whose people passing at night on the empty walks sound like rain.”

 
~Ray Bradbury 

 

I decided to do two versions. I really liked the way the plant in the color version looked with the shadows across from it, but it was late in the day, and the color was not photographing very well. So two versions it is! Both have a vibe all their own, so I just suppose it depends on mood. At the moment I am leaning toward black and white. I am in a quiet mood. Not depressed, just quiet. I am a bit weary. With the brewing war in the Middle East, a difficult summer has carried it's cruelty into Autumn. I dunno, maybe that was why Autumn gave me the gift of beginning early. The Autumn sun was beginning in the first week of August. We found 2 Snow geese at the Cosumnes River, Desmond road, but they shouldn't have been there for a couple months or so. Just stuff like that. Shrug. But here we are. A cruel middle east, and me missing my niece and nephew so much I can barely breathe. God I feel old. I guess that's why the shadows appealed to me so much. In both color and black & white. Both versions definitely say Autumn to me.

I am okay. Just weary.

Autumn Leaf Of The Day #4

 

“And all the lives we ever lived and all the lives to be

 are full of trees and changing leaves…”

 

~Virginia Woolf

 

 A peach colored leaf. It reminds me of the delicious peaches we bought just a couple months ago. I guess summer does have a few redeeming qualities. The amazing fruit. I love fresh peaches and strawberries. Alan has always loved watermelon. Truth be told though, we both love a big fruit salad with something decadent, like sherbet or ice cream. There used to be a restaurant called, Lyon's, and many a summer evening we would walk from our apartment, a third floor walk up, to the restaurant just a cross the alley. We were just married, and made fun out of something as simple as walking to the restaurant or theater, which sat the same amount of steps in the opposite direction. It's a nice memory of being 28, happily married to the love of my life, and enjoying the best of it all in peace. See, that's what my leaves do for me, they help me remember the best of times. I need that right now.

 

 

On The Last Full Day Of Summer... Reflections

 

Mockingbird

Bruceville, Road

September 2023

 

“I think the sun is a flower.
That blooms for just one hour.” 

~Ray Bradbury

  All Summer in a Day

 

Today is the last full day of summer, and strangely, I am not as happy about it leaving as I have been in past lifetimes. I am not sure how I feel about it all. It was a dreadful summer in ever usual sense, and in the sense that I my niece and nephew passed away, way too young. The temperature outside didn't seem as hot as in past years, or perhaps it was just me, floating in a sea of cold thoughts that gave me the chills every night. After we got the news, I wanted more out of the summer, something to make me forget the pain and to help me avoid the sudden bursts of grief that would not only haunt my daydreams, but my sleep as well. But there was very little to fill that need. Although, happily, and quite by misadventure, I went looking for birds on Desmond road one day, only to not find a single one! On the way home, I did find a bridge, with several thousand Mexican Free-tailed bat emerging from beneath!

 

The Mexican Free-tailed bat is NOT a bird, it's a bat, but it was a winged creature and I was intrigued! I came home, did my research, thought about it, and the next night hubby and I went back to see and stand among them as they ventured out for the night. And venture out they did! You know. I posted about it a few posts back, I met the challenge of being around a scary bat, without fear! I got to feel proud of myself, have a lot of fun, and even forget, for just a moment, about the pain I was in. It was a summer gift! Imagine that! Summer has a glorious redeeming gift that I can now revisit every night in July and August next year, if I want, but really, I think a few nights next summer will do! Why not every night? Well, as it turns out I am allergic to mosquito bites. It's called Skeeter syndrome. The bite reactions are itchier and more painful then most folks feel. They also blister. ITS NOT FUN! But Benedryl Gel is excellent for healing them should they blister, so it was all ultimately worth it!

 

So that was my summer adventure. We now kiss summer on the cheek, and send it off to it's well earned sleep. Goodnight summer.

 

 

Limp

“You will lose someone you can’t live without,and your heart will be badly broken, and the bad news is that you never completely get over the loss of your beloved. But this is also the good news. They live forever in your broken heart that doesn’t seal back up. And you come through. It’s like having a broken leg that never heals perfectly—that still hurts when the weather gets cold, but you learn to dance with the limp.” 

  ~Anne Lamott  

 

A lot has happened since we last spoke. The next few posts will explain, but this post is about being tired. I am tired of settling this condo. I feel like I have been packing and unpacking for two years, and there is a reason for that... I HAVE. Trump makes me tired every day, which is really nothing new, and add to it all is a feeling of incredible loss and deep grief over the death of a man very special to the world and to me personally. Grief is such a personal thing, we can all feel it, but we do so in such different personal ways. As I said, I will speak more about all this in the coming days, but for right now, sigh, I just have a headache and my eyes hurt, and I just need to rest and clean my house, and yes, continue with my project of unpacking and letting go of all the things preventing me from moving on to a healthier place.

OUATIH

 

"Nah, it was dumber than that."

~Cliff Booth (Brad Pitt) 

Once Upon A Time In... Hollywood 

 

Warning: Spoilers Below

 

Hair will always be my favorite movie, full stop, but in 2019 a new movie came along that floored me, and I find myself watching about as much as I do Hair. It's the 9th film from Quentin Tarantino, Once Upon A Time In... Hollywood. It's smart, funny, violent, gory, sweet, shocking, and downright chilling. In other words, it's a movie by Quentin Tarantino, so as you might expect, it's complicated. But what Tarantino did was to give the audience, his audience, a chance to visit the night of August 8th,1969, and dream of a whatif scenario, like any of us of a certain age did, since the tragedy happened all those years ago. I was 8 years old when the murders occurred. I had been in Los Angeles the year before when my sister and I visited Disneyland with my sister-in-law.

 

 We drove around all over Tinseltown, and marveled at the lights along the Sunset Strip. I will never forget the lights of the city. We drove to Malibu and through some of the canyons on day 2. Benedict Canyon was one of them! Our 5 day vacation was exciting, and wildly fun, and I still daydream about it to this day. My sister and I bonded that trip, and spent some time talking about our bother who was serving in Vietnam. Sis and I had never been particularly close, and we still aren't, in fact we haven't spoken in 25 years, but our first vacation away from our parents was filled with so much innocent fun that I feel a little sad that she and I are no longer friends, or family for that matter, because life is short.

 

Sharon Tate only lived 26 years. She had a younger sister too. Unfortunately they never got to live a lifetime of sisterhood, and here my relationship ended over so much self-inflicted indifference and deliberate malice that it's obscene. My heart aches for the life Sharon Tate never got to have, because of individuals filled with rage, drug induced paranoia and societal indifference. My sister acted out for similar reasons. Sharon was gorgeous, so much so that it's rumored that she was the inspiration for Malibu Barbie! And it's easy to believe, as there was a pretty strong resemblance between the actress and the doll. It's kind of a nice thought. I was a fan, even as a child. When I heard the news of her death, I was so sad, I remember discussing it with my friend Jimmy, my best friend, who would pass away himself a few short months later. 

 

His death left a huge hole in my life, and in the hearts of everyone on our street. The kids didn't play together anymore, and the parents stopped having friendly cookouts together. No dads watching football together, or moms meeting after PTA meetings for gossip and a quick drink before the menfolk got home from work. So many times over the years I have thought about those two uniquely devastating events, and what it would be like had neither had occurred. I have played it over in my head about a million times, but it always ended up the same, that poor lady passed away, and my friend was gone at 8 years old. The End. But as it turned out, there was someone, somewhere, about my age thinking about tragedy too, and in 2019, he gave me an ending I could get lost in, to a great deal of satisfaction. It's fiction. Sharon Tate's story did occur, but as I sit here, an old lady of nearly 60, watching as tragedies happen almost daily, I am grateful to Quentin Tarantino for giving me an alternate reality to step into for a bit of relief. He couldn't bring my friend back and change the events that led to his death, but he did give Sharon Tate a different story.

 

Once Upon A Time In... Hollywood.

 

If you haven't seen OUATIH watch it.

 I can't recommend it enough.

 

As Sudden As Winter

 

"Grief is always sudden as winter, 

no matter how long the autumn."

 

J. Aleksandr Wooton

Forgetting: Impressions From The Millennial Borderland

 

Autumn is slipping away. I have more feelings, or I should say, more complex feelings, about autumn 2020 than any other autumn I can remember, including the autumn Alan and I spent apart. But don't get me wrong, it's not all bad, it's just been a very strange year, that has left me over-feeling everything. It will straighten itself out. And I am happy. I am okay. Life is good. And hey, here comes winter. New things to photograph. New doors open, and soon, in just 10 months, autumn will be back, and who knows what adventures will happen between now and then! Plus, my dear Twitter pal, Joe, has agreed to continue our weekend autumn image sharing. It is great to have a friend who enjoys autumn as much as I do, and it really did help to make 2020 a lot easier to deal with! A LOT EASIER!

 

~Carly

December 6th 2020

Stockton, California

Rest In Gentle Peace Notorious RBG

"Fight for the things that you care about.

 But do it in a way that will lead others to follow you."

~Ruth Bader Ginsburg

Rest In Gentle Peace.

Thank you, so much!

~Carly

Stockton, California 

September 18th 2020

Harvest Fruits

Autumn

The cheerful sundial;

it falls in the shadow

of they leaves.

There where your branches

brace themselves

against the gate of Heaven. 

~Kristian Goldmund Aurmann

While driving around Carson City last month, I saw a lot of amazing trees, and beautiful autumn leaves, some still on the trees, and some in big piles of harvest colors on the ground, but one of my favorite sights, was this apple, the very last one, still clinging to the tree. I'm pretty sure that if you touched it, even very gently, it would fall to the ground. Last year, I came across a deer in the same yard, eating the apples that had fallen, so I am pretty sure at some point after I left, that's exactly what happened again.

It's a nice thought that the beautiful, yummy apple, was enjoyed by a deer! They are such beautiful animals! It was the last apple of autumn for that tree, and every last bite would be enjoyed, not left to simply rot. I think next year, when I head to Nevada, to photograph the autumn leaves again, I hope I will get to see more deer, looking for apples to eat, from what's becoming one of my favorite trees of autumn to photograph!

I came across this persimmon tree, while leaf peeping in Knight's Ferry, California, in late October. It stopped me in my tracks! It was amazingly beautiful, and full of beautiful, ripe fruit! I have never eaten a persimmon, so I can't say if I like their taste or not, but when I was a little girl, my best friend and I used to sit under a neighbor's persimmon tree, and enjoy their scent. It was a great place to read books together, and play with puzzles, and our do our favorite thing of all, listen to all the fathers on the street, yell at their TVs, cheering on their favorite football teams, collage, and pro!

We laughed so hard at our dad's enthusiasm for football! Oh my, the fun we had all those autumns. We did this for about 5 years, and then he passed away, suddenly, in an accident the next February. He was hit by a car. It wasn't the drivers fault, he darted out into the street without looking. Our entire street changed, the other kids and rarely played together again. A part of us grew up very fast after he died, and I never sat under that tree again. I released the pain of losing my friend years ago, time heals, but now, when I smell ripe persimmons, I only have the best memories of my friend, and all the fun we had in those 5 autumns, under the beautiful tree, with the spicy, sweet scent.

#1 Leaf Of The Day

December 1st, 2017

Stockton, California

 Mood: Happy

~Me :)

The Essence Of Autumn

"Listen to the trees as they sway in the wind.

 Their leaves are telling secrets. Their bark sings songs of olden days as it grows around the trunks.

 And their roots give names to all things.

Their language has been lost.

But not the gestures."

~Vera Nazarian

The Perpetual Calendar Of Inspiration

I have a pair of favorite trees. They are in the tiny park of Cull Canyon in Castro Valley, California. I have documented them each autumn for the last 10 years, long before I began posted my autumn albums. When I lived in the East Bay, I would visit them from time to time, usually in the autumn, but in the summer months as well. I would pack a lunch, and a few cameras and I was on my way. I can't even count the number of leaves I have photographed under those trees, most of which didn't make it into by albums, but are still in my files all the same.

On September 16th, of this year, I took my first jaunt down to Cull Canyon, just to see how my trees were doing, and if they had begun to show their beautiful colors. Liquid Amber produces some of the most beautiful colors in autumn, and they really give Ginkgo and Sugar Maples a run for their money in dazzling cinnamon and deep purple colors! Unfortunately, as I turned the corner that leads into the park my heart just sank! It seems one of the trees had apparently died over the summer, and instead of the beautiful colors of autumn, there were only dry brown leaves and some ugly green moss left on it's brittle grey branches!

Last year, almost to the same date, that tree looked like this...

... and I continued to photograph it well into January, as the last of autumn faded away. By that time, there were about a million or so leaves under that tree, well, maybe not a million, but there were so many that I wished I had more time to visit, because I could have photographed every individual leaf! They were absolutely stunning! It makes me incredibly sad to think I won't see this tree continue to grow, or the colors that it would have produced this year! No tree should ever die... right? But the conflict is, ironically, also the very concept of autumn. 

The sweet, delicious, passing of yet another year of life, and I see the beauty in that death, and I also mourn that same death, when the last leaf falls, and the air turns to the bitter cold winter. Life has it's seasons, and time passes, and so passes even the most vibrant beings... sometimes well before we are ready to let go, but in it's own time. I will miss my beautiful tree, but it's older, bigger brother still thrives on, like a vibrant, feisty old friend, so I will continue to photograph his progress, and be glad to know it's beauty shines on!

The Leaf Of The Day

September 16th 2017

Cull Canyon, Castro Valley, California

 Mood: Sad

~Me

It Was The Sweetest Time!

"That's the problem with memories, you can visit them, but you can't live in them."

~Shaun David Hutchinson

We Are The Ants

Last month, when Alan and I were visiting Apple Hill, we stopped into one of our favorite farms, Bolster's Hilltop Ranch, to pick up a bottle of our favorite Apple Hill apple cider. Most of the farms produce fresh cider, but theirs has always been our very favorite! While we were there, we decided to browse their craft items for sale, when we came across this plate. It immediately caught my eye, because I used to own the full set of dishes in this pattern! I bought them just after Alan and I got married, because he wasn't fond of the clear set that we had been given as a wedding gift. 

We loved that set of dishes! The plates were large, and the bowls a bit wider and deep than most dishes. I didn't pay a lot for the full set, which was also nice, because we were still paying off the wedding when I purchased them. We used them for about 8 years, when we needed to move suddenly, and they went into storage temporarily. During that move, thieves broke into our storage unit and stole nearly everything we owned, including our set of cute country dishes.

I thought about that set over the years. I tried to find the pattern again, but I never did. Once they sold out, that was that! I had another set of dishes, that were done in a lovely impressionist pattern, with a French Cafe design. Also stolen. Both sets were very special to me, for different reasons. Those two sets of dinnerware were only a couple examples of the things we lost, and it was a sad time, but at the end of the day, it was just stuff! The items themselves simply represented memories. 

I have been thinking about the memories that were associated with the losses Alan and I have experienced in our marriage. Sometimes I can climb so deep into the memories of our first apartment that it feels like I am right there. I close my eyes, and I think to myself... if I just try hard enough... I will be right back there! It will be 1990, and nothing bad has happened, it's just a couple of newlyweds, amazingly happy, in a 3rd floor walk-up apartment in the San Francisco East Bay. Sometimes I can almost smell all the restaurants we lived near, and hear the traffic from the street below.

But that deep thought or daydream can only last a minute or less, and suddenly I am back to 2016. Today in 2016. The world is so different now. Yes, times change, but in all honesty, I don't know how things could have changed this much! We just went though a brutal time as Americans, and instead of the pain being over, it's all just beginning. The Trump presidency is going to be one of America's darkest chapters. Personally, I don't know if I will survive it! I guess I don't have a choice but to hang on, and pray we all make it through, but to be honest, I feel so hopeless right now.

How will it be when the deportation police tear families apart, at Trump's command? When will the next school shooting take place, as he does away with laws regarding guns at schools? Bullies and tormentors will have their day, so when will I be assaulted, for driving too slow, or for simply being a "woman driver?" Will Alan's job be safe in Trump's fantasy driven economic world? Is my health care about to end? Will the EPA exist a year from now? Will we face nuclear annihilation, from North Korea, or some other hostile government, because Donald Trump pisses off a world leader in the middle of the night, via his Twitter account?

It's strange how bad it can hurt when someone steals your things. Just because you like your possessions, doesn't mean you are necessarily materialistic. The items we fill up our life with are associated with memories sometimes. Like making dinner for your new husband, on pretty but inexpensive little dishes you picked out together. But when someone threatens not just the little everyday things in your life, but the lives of your families, friends, neighbors, and even strangers, it's a whole different thing entirely. What happens next?

I bought the little plate in Apple Hill last month, when I still had hope for the future. When I was anticipating a Hillary Clinton win. I planned to get a little plate stand, and put it on display in my home office. It was going to be a reminder of a gentle time in our lives. A time before our lives changed that awful day in 1999. The day I don't talk about. But now, I might just put it in with the rest of my odds and ends plates and dishes and use it once in a while so I can close my eyes, and just for a moment, pretend I am back in a different time, when life was a lot more fair. It was the sweetest time. Back when life was kind, and the world wasn't quite as cold as it had been, because America had encouraged the world to tear down a walls, and not build them.

It was the sweetest time! 

 It really was!

 Funny how we tend to take the best days and leaves for granted!

Days are like leaves, they only last a little while. 

And no two are ever the same. 

And once they are gone neither are we!

 Leaf Of The Day

November 14th 2016

Mood: Quiet

~Me  

Altamont Sunrise

"I love that this morning's sunrise does not define itself by last night's sunset."

~Steve Maraboli

Heartwork

By Suzy Kassem

Each day is born with a sunrise

and ends in a sunset, the same way we

open our eyes to see the light,

and close them to hear the dark.

You have no control over 

how your story begins or ends.

But by now, you should know that

all things have an ending.

Every spark returns to darkness.

Every sound returns to sleep

with the earth.

This journey of the sun

and moon is predictable.

But yours is your ultimate ART."

Isn't that a stunning sunrise, and don't the words of that poem fit it nicely? That is how the sunrise looked over the Altamont Pass yesterday morning. I got to enjoy it for about 40 minutes or so, and the colors kept changing first from a soft, almost depressing shade of violet, into this vibrant red/gold sky that reminded me of a type of rose I had grown while living in Berkeley. It's hard knowing I will probably never be able to afford the home prices in the Bay Area again, but at the same time I am coming to terms with that fact, and it hasn't killed me. In fact, I seem to be finding the art in my sadness and that is the best therapy of all! Picking up the camera makes me feel better in a very personal way. It helps me see the ART in the sadness! I will be posting more sunset photos as we go along, so stay tuned!

Leaf Of The Day

November 10th 2015

Mood: Encouraged/Artistic

~Me :)

Art About Town: San Francisco... "Always Hope."

"Be still, sad heart! And cease repining;

Behind the clouds is the sun still shining;

Thy fate is the common fate of all,

Into each life some rain must fall"

~Henry Wadsworth Longfellow

The Complete Works Of Henry Wadsworth Longfellow

Okay, still a little tender, but doing better... just not enough to get out with the camera. Someone was a bad kitty (cough...DYLAN) and meowed LOUDLY after Alan left for work this morning, which made my attempt at sleeping nearly impossible. Good LORD that cat hates to see Alan leave for work! The naughty kitty finally came to his sense around 8:30 AM. By then I was exhausted... again... so I caught a couple more hours sleep before baby cat Joey woke me so I could give him a big bowl of crunchy cereal for cats, also know as, Purina Cat Chow Indoor Formula.

So, it was a day of cleaning, feeling sad, and tip-toeing through my archives. In an effort to help myself out of the funk I have been in, I have been revisiting some of my favorite photography subjects from years past. A big help in times like this are the photos I have done of Bay Area public art exhibits. One of my very favorite being the, San Francisco General Hospital, Hearts In San Francisco project!

Each year since 2004, the hospital puts out a call to local artists to design different themed hearts, which are then put on display throughout San Francisco. The hearts are eventually auctioned off, with the proceeds going to fund programs at at the hospital. It is their mission to... "... provide life-saving care to anyone in need, regardless of ability to pay." What public art project could be more life affirming and heart warming than that?

Here are two of my very favorite...

"I Left My Heart And Shoes In San Francisco"

2007

"America's Greatest City By The Bay"

2004

Designed By Tony Bennett

The call for artists to submit their heart designs for 2015 closed on August 1st, 2014, and the designs that are chosen will go on display throughout the city next February, just in time for Valentine's Day, and American Heart month! Excellent... I am already looking forward to putting on a lovely red outfit, to help promote Women's Heart Awareness, grabbing my hubby Alan and taking him for a heart friendly mean, before we go in search of the Hearts Of San Francisco!

It's A Plan!

Mood: Encouraged! Inspired! And Getting Better All The Time!

 "Always Hope"

~Me :)

To visit the official website, and see the galleries from past years click here.