Goodbye/Hello

"It seems everything sleeps in winter,

 but it's really a time of renewal and reflection."

~Elizabeth Camden

Until The Dawn

The Autumn Equinox ends today,

 and the Winter Solstice begins!

While I took both of these photos during autumn of this year, the one I chose to welcome autumn with, was taken during the last third of the season, on November 25th, and as you can see, the beautiful egret already has it's Winter plumage on! It's such a lovely bird, that I thought it would be a lovely, quiet way to welcome in Winter 2017! I will miss autumn, and mourn it for a while, and then I will find some new subjects, hopefully, that will see me through the necessary seasons until it comes around again next year! I am sure it will bring a lot of beauty, and life, and I just can't wait to see what it brings!

#21 Leaf Of The Day

December 21st 2017

Cull Canyon Park

Mood: Happy

~Me

 

On The Last Full Day Of Autumn 2017...

"Autumn that year painted the countrysie

 in vivid shades of scarlet, saffron and russet, 

and the days were clear and crisp under harvest skies."

~Sharon Kay Penman

Time And Chance

It's the last full day of autumn, 2017.

 And as such, it's not about me, it's all about the leaves...

"The gold and scarlet leaves that littered the countryside in great drifts whispered and chuckled among themselves, or took experimental runs from place to place, rolling like color hoops among the trees. It was as if they were practicing something, preparing for something, and they would discuss it excitedly in rusty voices as they crowded round the tree trunks."

~Gerald Durrell

My Family And Other Animals

I could have sat under that autumn tree forever!

#20 Leaf Of The Day

December 20th 2017

Redwood Road, Castro Valley

Mood: Happy But Quiet

~Me :)  

Three Birds In One Late Autumn Day

Lesser Goldfinch

December 18th, 2017

Cull Canyon Park

"It was a beautiful autumn day,

 with air like cider and a sky so blue you could drown in it."

~Diana Gabadldon

Outlander

Yellow Rumped Warbler

December 18th, 2017

Cull Canyon Park

We are nearing the last day of autumn. Just two more days to go, a day-in-a-half really, and most of my favorite trees have but a few leaves remaining! In my travels, however, I did come across one or two trees, that seem to just be just getting started, so I will be visiting them during winter, as much as possible. I like to continue photographing leaves for as long as I can, but they aren't included in each individual year's autumn leaf gallery. But this year, I have decided to consolidate all of my leaf photos, from all the past years, into one album, so the full collection is available in one place. I will post a link to it, when I have it set up, which hopefully will be sometime around New Year's Eve!

 Yesterday, while out and about, searching for the last little whisper's of autumn leaves, I came across some gorgeous little birds, with their winter plumage on, just waiting for that cold winter weather to begin! Maybe I will take on birds for a winter project. It's been chilly the last few weeks, but not winter cold, it has been autumn cold. Cold air, bright sunshine, and the deepest bluest skies Ive seen, since, well, since late last autumn! LOL. In other words, another season has come and gone, just like it should! I love finding new birds, and yesterday, I found three new ones for my bird gallery! That made me quite happy!

 There are plenty of places to go birding in the Central Valley, it's just a matter of doing a little research! The Delta is a great place to start, and I have heard that there is a large population of Egrets there! And there are also some rare birds to be found, so it's kind of an exciting thought! And while I am busy with my quest for pictures of the Summer Tanager, and the Vermilion Flycatcher, Autumn will be back before I know it! Just a mere three seasons from now, and I will be here, eagerly awaiting it's return, pretty much from the beginning of summer, but spring has all those gorgeous blossoms, so don't think I am forgetting that! So, with a little luck, I will be a busy girl with the camera in 2018! 

Lesser Goldfinch

December 18th, 2017

Cull Canyon Park

Society Finch

December 18th, 2017

Cull Canyon Park

#19 Leaf Of The Day

December 19th, 2017

 Castro Valley Community Center

Art About Town: Sacramento (Untitled) Dart Golden 1 Center

Untitled

By Gale Hart

Golden 1 Center Public Art Collection

Sacramento, California

December 11th, 2016

"It is good to love many things, for the therein lies the true strength, and whosoever loves much performs much, and can accomplish much, and what is done in love is well done."

~Vincent Van Gogh

Sacramento has an amazing amount of public art. I don't know why I don't get up there more often, but I am going to try to explore around the capitol in 2018. I know, I know, I have said that before, and then I get bogged down with other things, and I allow the depression to dictate what I do, but I love public art, and the truth is, San Francisco is a lot for me. The drive, the time it takes to get there... it's a lot for someone with Fibromyalgia. Sometimes the pain is more than I can take, and then I am flat on my back for several days. Usually it's worth it, just to be back in my favorite neighborhoods, and at my favorite places around the city that makes me so happy, but this past year, well, it has become apparent that I need to explore the beauty closer to my new home.

I think I have to make myself accept the fact, that I don't live in the Bay Area anymore, and I need to enjoy Sacramento for all the fun it offers, the comedy clubs, the bookstores, the Gold Rush history, the train museum, not to mention, the amazing public art, that makes me so damn happy! I took this photo last year, and this is my first time posting it. I am kinda glad I held onto it, because today, I came across it, while looking through my archives, and for some reason, I saw it through different eyes, than when I first photographed it. I had a new attitude I suppose! Life out here in the valley isn't so bad. It's not San Francisco, but it's got it's own charm, and I need to make friends with it!

Today's Leaf As Seen From Two Different Perspectives...

#18 Leaf Of The Day

December 18th 2017

Stockton, California

Mood: Happy

~Me :)

At Christmas... Wrong Will Fail, Right Will Prevail

"And in despair I bowed my head;

 'There is no peace on earth," I said; 'For hate is strong,

And mocks the song

Of peace on earth, good-will to men!'

The pealed the bells more loud and deep:

'God is not dead, more doth he sleep!

The Wrong shail fail,

the Right prevail,

With peace on earth, good-will to men!'"

~Henry Wadsworth Longfellow

 Christmas Bells

We did it! We put up some Christmas decorations! A little scaled back this year, but the tree is up, and the teddy bears are on the job, and we both feel a little better! The holiday blues are fading a bit, but we both know this coming week will be a bit hectic! We have some business in the Bay Area. Neither of us have done our Christmas shopping, and as you probably know, there is a rumor on Capitol Hill, that Trump will commit the ultimate act of Obstruction of Justice, by firing Robert Mueller!

So much is simply out of our control. We can't make Trump, suddenly give a flying Gingerbread Man about his country! If he makes a move to fire Mueller, it could very well turn into a Saturday Night Massacre, ala, Richard Nixon. The difference is,  more and more Republicans are bowing down to Trump, and ignoring the Constitution. Also different, Nixon didn't have it's own propaganda network, financing his delusions of innocence. And finally the scariest of all... Nixon was the leader of a cult, HELL BENT on accomplishing the Apocalypse or a civil war, whichever comes first! Not to mention, Nixon actually loved his country, Trump has NO IDEA what love is, be it love between family, or love of country. He is all about the money.

Merry Christmas!

I guess all we can do is forge ahead, and hope the rumors are wrong, but firing Mueller on December 22nd, is just the kind of pussy move Trump would make. He is the biggest coward to hold any political office, let alone the presidency. I guess when it comes to him ever being held accoutable for his misdeeds, we will just have to wait and see, and hope for the best outcome. I wish his cult followers could love their country, more than they do their fantasies of a neoconfederacy. Oh well, like my Ommy used to say...

"If wishes were horse, beggers would ride."

I guess the updated version would be...

"If wishes were horses, Roy Moore would have ridden well."

And, by the way, why hasn't that jackass conceded the election yet?

#17 Leaf Of The Day

December 17th, 2017

Knight's Ferry, California

Mood: Guarded

~Me

 

Here's Your Fucking Christmas Card ( Rated R For Colorful Language )

"Money's scarce and times are hard

 so here's your fucking Christmas card."

~Phyllis Diller

Disclaimer: If colorful language gives you the vapors, move along, because there is enough in the post to... well... give you the vapors!

I wish I hadn't waited so long to come across that quote, because I swear I would have sent Trump as nice Christmas card, with just that quote written inside! Do I dare and Tweet it to him on Christmas Eve? Will the Twitter gods, kick me off Twitter for a third time? Can you believe it? I have been put in a Twitter corner twice, for being disrespectful to our DEAR LEADER. Honest to Gingerbread men, what the actual fuck? We have free speech in America, at least we did. Honestly, I don't know about that anymore. He routinely breaks their TOS, but no one else can. Sometimes it feels like Twitter is one of Trump's biggest enablers, and in a way, they are. He can't be kicked off their platform, because the president's tweets are newsworthy. I guess it will be newsworthy when he bombs the shit out of North Korea, provided there is anyone around to read about it on Twitter... if Twitter still exists.

But that wasn't what this post was going to be about. I was going to write about how much I enjoy sparkly Christmas ornaments, and how much I would like to be able to collect enough to fill the Christmas tree eventually, but once again, all I can think about is the horror that sits in the White House, and who insists there is a War on Christmas, which of course, there isn't! But the insane GOP Right in this country insist it does, and each year, into battle they go, and then they make a stop at Amazon.com, to purchase a Trump, MAGA/Made in China, piece of shit ornament! Because everyone knows that the three wise men brought the baby Jesus, gold, frankincense and myrrh, and an ornament from the Trump campaign store!

Sorry, as I said in my last post, I am not feeling the holiday spirit.

But I wish I was.

Tomorrow, when I wake up, I'm going to try again. Really I am.

#16 Leaf Of The Day

December 16th, 2017 

Berkeley, Ca

 Mood: GRRRR

~Me 

Dance Of Depression Plum Fairies

"THE HOLIDAYS ARE RUINED!

This book is one page long and just contains that one sentence."

~Amy Poehler

Okay, whether I like it or not, I have to face Christmas! But I am not in the mood... I am just not. It has been such an odd year, everything has seemed upside down, and it feels like every day might begin, but end before it naturally should. Trump can't stop running his mouth, North Korea has a missile pointed at us, and... .

I could give the long list about everything he does that scares the ever loving SHIT out of me, but why?

Bitching won't make my depression magically disappear. It won't make it 2016, on the night of the election, when Hillary Clinton won. It won't make any of it make any sense at all. Bitching, at most, will relieve a little bit of the tension, I feel in my mind and my body. Reality, is reality. Hey, at least the last few days have had some bright moments to them. Omarosa has been fired from her "job" as "White House Liaison for African American Outreach". That's been an amusing tale, and I am sure it was quite the political and holiday spectacle, but that's one Christmas party I am happy to have missed! Anyway, it made me smile, so there's that.

Over all, I'm tired, that's all, I am just really tired, but I am hanging in there, waiting for someone to ride in and save the country, like a shining knight saves the damsels at the end of most animated movies and children's books. I wished I really believed that would happen. Deep down. But every day there are rumors of Trump, firing the one person who could actually save us, Robert Mueller. If that happens, there would be an immediate Constitutional crisis, throwing us further into chaos, and making us even more vulnerable to hostile foreign nations. And then there are our other problems, which again, we don't have a lot of control over, but hopefully, some of this will be straightened out, when the clock strikes midnight and 2017 becomes, 2018. 

There are a couple more weeks left in 2017, and I am going to try to get through them, with a smile on my face, and a little bit of joy, here and there. We are putting up a few decorations later today, and tomorrow we plan on visiting the Christmas Carousel in Tilden Park, and then perhaps we will visit either San Francisco, or Sacramento, on Sunday, to see what kind of festive decorations they have going on there! I think that leaving the house, and jumping into some seasonal bliss my help the cloud I am in. We'll see. Wish me luck, okay? I am really going to try to put a happy face on all this, and who knows, maybe it will stick!

#15 Leaf Of The Day

December 15th 2017

Stockton, California

Mood: Tired

~Me

Tiny Dancing Diamonds

"I love autumn despite the drench weather. I think it symbolises the end of misery and the beginning of glee. It gives hopes that sooner or later, flowers will bloom again, green buds will sprout from trees, and that which is dead will come back alive."

~Aishah Madadiy

Bits of Heaven

Here is the last of the photos from my trip to the Haggin Museum and Victory Park. There were several water fountains in the park, but it was this one, just to the left of the entrance, that I enjoyed the most! The sun was shining down, almost directly over it, and the sky was so blue, that it just looked like diamonds dancing in the air. It was lovely. It was peaceful, and as I mentioned before, in a previous post, I could have stayed there all day! Bright sunny days are great for photographing fountains, but I have never photographed a fountain in the fog! 

Hopefully, I will be able to this winter! I really hope it will be a, cold and foggy, Christmas day, because who wants 70 degree weather for Christmas? I guess, a lot of people on the east coast do, and I guess I take California weather for granted sometimes, but just once I would really love to spend a Christmas, in a place with lots of snow. To me, that would be a bit of Heaven. Alan, the boys, and me, all cuddled up, with all the lights out except for the Christmas tree, watching the snow come down. Heaven on earth... definitely Heaven on Earth!

#14 Leaf Of The Day

December 14th, 2017

Stockton, California

Mood: Happy

 ~Me :)

Dark Leaf Collection

"Leaves grow old gracefully, bring such joy in their last lingering days. How vibrant and bright is their final flurry of life."

~Karen Gibbs

So, I've decided to try working with different textures as backgrounds, for my Leaf  Of The Day photos. Ordinarily I like to photograph them, exactly where they land, but, if necessary, I will sometimes position them in a different area. Working to find the most eye pleasing natural backgrounds, inspired me to try some fabric backgrounds to give them a more interesting appearance. I started out with a plain black background, because the leaves I picked last Sunday were so dark, and moody. Some leaves end the season with a big blast of color, others die quiet and solemn.

The leaves have seemed much darker this year, than in previous autumns. From the start in September, I noticed that almost everywhere I went, they had a distinctly darker color to them, and  some were almost completely black. It has been a nice surprise for me, because of the depression I have been fighting. The leaf colors have made me feel more comfortable, like they shared my mood, and understood! It has been nice. It has given me new ideas, like trying fabric backgrounds. Autumn ends, but my project continues until I find my last leaf. Sometimes I can still find some wonderful leaves, well into January, so I have a lot to work with, to help me process the way I think of things in my life, and it also helps me by inspiring with new approaches for my project next year. 

2017 Dark Leaf Collection

Hope You Enjoyed The Collection!

#13 Leaf Of The Day

December 13th, 2017

Stockton, California

 Mood: Inspired

~Me :)