Falling In Love In San Francisco

 

"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 am no world traveler, but I did get to see different cities in America, when I went on a Greyhound bus adventure with my parents. Fred MacMurray talked them into it. By the way, you have to be five years on either side of my age to know who that is! LOL. Anyway, I was 16 years old, and I was really happy to see what life outside California looked like! One of the most beautiful sunsets I have ever seen, was in Flagstaff Arizona.

 Imagine a beautiful late July sunset, with the fabulous Saguaro cactus in dark silhouette. It made an impression on me. Sometimes I think my interest in sunsets, comes from that single sunset all those years ago. In any case, all those cities had something unique and wonderful about them. History was the one thing they all had in common.

Which brings me back to my beautiful San Francisco. This series of photos includes the Golden Gate Bridge, Ocean Beach, but also points south of San Francisco, like Point Montara and Half Moon Bay. The light is beautiful. The city is beautiful. Autumn is beautiful. All those other cities I have been lucky enough to see, are beautiful, but none of them will ever match the beauty of San Francisco, and the Pacific coast. Like the great Herb Caen once said...

" One day, if I do go to heaven,

 I'll look around and say, 'it aint bad,

 but it ain't San Francisco' "

~Herb Caen

Someday, if I make it to Heaven, I will have to have a long chat with him about the coastline of Marin and the San Mateo peninsula. I bet I will be able to talk him into loving it all as much as I do. San Francisco inspires so much in me, artistically speaking. If you can't fall in love in San Francisco... you can't fall in love!

Here is San Francisco

 and points along the coast

 in no particular order!

#41 Leaf Of The Day

November 2nd 2019

Cull Canyon

Nikon

 ~Mood: Happy

~Me  :)

The Magic Of Pumpkins

"Why not imagine a talk with a pumpkin? Why not imagine going off for a drive with a friendly pumpkin,

 a companion who would not, after all, answer back;

 who would agree with everything you said,

 and would at the end of the day appear on your plate as a final gesture of friendship?"

~Alexander McCall Smith

The Woman Who Walked In Sunshine 

One of the best things about living in the Central Valley is all the summer and autumn fruits and vegetables. Everything is local, delicious, and very photogenic, especially the pumpkins! I have seen some of the most beautiful, and uniquely colored pumpkins this season, than I have seen in many years! They are amazing!

Don't get me wrong, nothing can replace the pumpkins from our favorite pumpkin patches in Half Moon Bay, and we wouldn't give up that tradition for the world! There is just nothing like choosing a pumpkin, on a misty coastal day, but there is something to be said for hunting for just the right pumpkin on a warm Central Valley day! But Half Moon Bay has a really special place in my heart! We will be going down there in a week or so, but I am impressed with these pumpkins too!

Oh well, whether it's here in the valley, or along the coast, it always makes for a really nice day, just hanging out with Alan and searching for just the right pumpkin! And since I was a little girl, I just knew when I had found the right pumpkin for me. Somehow... the right pumpkin speaks to you... like a friend you just haven't met yet! It's downright magical to me. Autumn is full of magic, isn't it?

#16 Leaf Of The Day

October 16th, 2017

Manteca, California

Mood: Happy

Me :)  

A Late Summer Twilight By The Pacific Ocean

"The pacific is my home ocean; I knew it first, grew up on it;s shore, collected marine animals along the coast.

 I know its moods, it's color, its nature."

~John Steinbeck

Travels With Charley: In Search Of America 

Saturday was a lot of fun! I wasn't sure at first I would be going because the my orange monster cat Dylan gave one of his early morning meowing concerts... LOUDLY! He is the most beautiful cat I have ever seen, orange like a coastal sunset, but he is also bossy, quirky and one of the great pet loves of my life. A curse, and a blessing all rolled up into nine pounds of fur!

Anyway, we left Stockton at about 1:00 PM, and made a couple stops in the East Bay, before heading to Half Moon Bay, and then to Pigeon Point Lighthouse and coastal overlook, which is about 30 minutes north of Santa Cruz. I did some shots of the lighthouse, but the lighting wasn't great so I am planning to revisit next month while we are on vacation.

It was a good day. I was in pain, so I didn't do as much with the camera as I would have liked, but Alan and I did a lot of talking, and a lot of laughing, and listened to a LOT of 80's music! We pretty much sang all day! God, we are old ones now, and eyeing retirement in a few years, and I am sure when that day comes, there will be a lot more photography, and music, and dancing around in my granny panties at the ocean. Well, probably not that last one!

The best part of Saturday was the complete lack of political obsessing by me. I didn't check my phone to see if there were missiles on their way from North Korea. No fretting about the last or even the next stupid thing he might be planning or doing, nope, the day was all about the music, the creativity, and the pure fragrant smells of being by the Pacific Ocean!

Where do the days and the years go?

Wasn't the 1980's like 15 minutes ago?

Mood: Happy

~Me :)