Autumn leaf Of The Day #14

 

"I think seasons complete me

 for once autumn comes

I can freely fall with every leaf

I do not have to bloom

yet I must die

in every delicate line of October"

~Laura Chouette

Getting Lost In The Colors Of Autumn

 

"Enchantment and fulfillment were on the gold and garnet horizon... autumn's breath, a dormant dream reawakened, a yearning nearly satiated, a tender thank you with a brush of the lips, and a connection as fingers touch and go hand and hand."

~Donna Lynn Hope

I just want to concentrate on the colors of autumn and the sky. The spider webs I have seen, and the birds visiting for autumn and winter.

You know... real life. 

Autumn Leaf Of The Day #36

 

 

“And every year there is a brief, startling moment
When we pause in the middle of a long walk home and
Suddenly feel something invisible and weightless
Touching our shoulders, sweeping down from the air:
It is the autumn wind pressing against our bodies;
It is the changing light of fall falling on us.”

 
~Edward Hirsch,

  Wild Gratitude

 

 

Autumn Leaf Of The Day #32

 

“Its cozy shops all had their windows decorated with the palette of autumn. The air was cooler today, and she smiled at the just-emerging colors on the leaves of the trees nestled along the street.”

 
~Heather Flynn,

  Novelists in November: A Wild Blue Wonder Press Anthology

 

I just love it when the autumn sun, shines through a singular leaf, among of pile of different shapes and colors of  leaves. Like the witch of autumn is giving it a little extra bit of love, as it passes away. I don't know, I've felt that way since I was a little girl. It's as if autumn carries that little bit of empathy and compassion than other seasons do. 

 

It's all about the light.

 

 

 

 

Autumn Leaf Of The Day #3

 

“The autumn leaves remind me of my own faded memories.
The leaves hold their own precious stories,
which drift about in the wind,
finding a new place to settle
and continue to exist.

The bare branches of the elm tree
still stand tall and strong, like I do.
It is a reminder that life still continues
even during the most adverse times.

As I land gently on the grassy plain,
my attention is drawn to the sight of fallen autumn leaves,
floating across the steady stream of water.

Sherwin has presented me with
many of these beautiful leaves in the past.
They are symbols of our steadfast endurance as a couple
and bring warmth and joy to my heart.”

 
~Susan L. Marshall,

   Fleur of Yesterday

 

Go visit a park. Spend time in your garden. Visit a river, or the beach. Sit on your front or back porch and study the world around you. See the colors. Listen to the sounds. Just step out of this life we are forced to endure. There is so much more than the stupidity of the moment. Stepping away from it all, is the best way to be in the here and now. Make new memories by letting go for a little while!

 

 

Autumn Leaf Of The Day #66

 

“Even if something is left undone,

 everyone must take time to sit still and watch the leaves turn.”

 

 ~Elizabeth Lawrence

 

 

Desmond/Bruceville

 

“A formation of geese majestically swept over my office as they flew out to feed in the local fields. And as they coursed their way into the promise of morning’s horizon, I was immediately reminded of how many things vie for my attention and consume my time that possess nothing of majesty and have no ability to fly.” 

~Craig D. Lounsbrough 

 

Sometime, if I wake up really early in the morning, I can hear geese fly over my condo, on their way to, more than likely, the Delta. I have seen them many times, soaring over Pixie Woods, a children's park next to my place. Last winter there was a small flock in Louis Park, and some around the Haggin Museum. I haven't checked the grounds of the museum yet, but I would guess there are many Canada gees there right now. There is no shortage of wildlife around me but I still love Desmond/Bruceville road in Galt the most. It's a jaunt to get there, but more than worth it! That's where I took these photos. It provides a great mostly unobstructed view of the birds. I have found so many different species of bird there, every one heals my heart just a little bit. I will be eternally grateful for every webbed foot in that little river, and at the Cosumnes River Preserve.

 

 

That Time Gilligan's Island Saved Our Lives...

 

“Just because you can do it, doesn’t mean you should.” 

~Hanya Yanagihara,

  A Little Life

 

What you are looking at is the, Amanita phalloides, aka, the Death Cap mushroom, commonly found in parks throughout California. You don't want to eat these... THEY WILL KILL YOU! Every single year it will be on the news... a story about folks venturing out to their favorite park in search of wild mushrooms, to prep and serve in some amazing culinary dish passed down from family member to family member. Probably something with turkey. Unfortunately, sometimes the chef gets it wrong, and they return from their pleasant day of park shopping, with a deadly mushroom. Like Maryanne did in Gilligan's Island. You know... the professor told her the bad mushrooms would result in a case of, Roomus igloomas. Not a real condition, but wild mushroom poisoning is very real and deadly.

 

 The San Francisco Chronicle featured a story, from last summer, about the deadly fungus and issued warnings, but the harvesting continues. A lady in Australia is suspected of poisoning her in-laws with poisonous mushrooms, but she contends that she got them at two different local stores. She has not yet been arrested, but she is still under suspicion by the Australian authorities. But back to sunny California. Because of this year's El Nino conditions in California, the bloom should be even greater than last year. Just don't do it! Mushrooms aren't that expensive, if you want yummy and organic, let Whole Foods or Trader Joe's do the work for you. A liver transplant is not what you want to give your Uncle Bob for Christmas!

 

Personally, since my bout with Covid-19 (Omicron) in the winter of 2021, I can't eat mushrooms. They taste nothing like I remember them tasting. In fact, they have no scent, and taste like old garbage, so I will be fine, but I think about all those well meaning adults in the world, who don't know any better than to eat mushrooms out of a park. I mean... what else are they deciding to take home and eat? Oleander? Castor Beans? And it's not just we dense humans that have to worry, did you know that cats are highly allergic to common holiday plant, the poinsettia? Look friends... just be careful, and keep the phone number for the poison control center and emergency animal shelter handy. Okay?

 

San Francisco Chronicle

August 17th, 2023 

 

A dinner party ended with 3 dead.

 The culprit could be a mushroom infamous in California.

 

9 Dangerous Plants In California You Should Never Touch

 

Recipes

 

Mushroom Risotto

 

Our 40 Best Mushroom Recipes

(Food & Wine) 

CDC 

Food Safety

 

ASPCA

Animal Poison Control Center

 

 

 

Everything Autumn Everywhere All At Once

 

“And that afternoon, as the sun slanted low through the changing autumn leaves, I remembered to savor the moment, soak in the beauty, breathe deeply and feel the immensity of God.” 

~Cindee Snider Re,

  Discovering Hope:

  Beginning the Journey Toward Hope in Chronic Illness

 

It's Autumn, and as I have mentioned in several posts, I feel pressured. I feel rushed. I feel inspired, but I feel like fitting in the time to savor the incredibly healing benefits of even one glorious Oak tree or grapevine, is selfish. However, sometimes one should say, well, fuck it, and head out to the farmland and the city parks, and simply let the season thrill you, and heal you. Never underestimate the power the natural world plays in the well being of the body. It's been a tough year for me. It was a mixed bag of blessings and grief, but my therapist encouraged me yesterday, during our regular monthly session, to treat myself with some kindness. Love. So, Autumn is peaking in my area right now, and I am out in it with my camera, documenting what I see, feel and smell. All it takes is one incredibly lovely oak tree and I instantly feel myself reach a state of calm. Hearing the migrating birds fly over has the same affect, and a sweet potato for dinner helps me sleep like no drug can. I feel pretty good, except for my arthritis, but even that hasn't stopped me too much. I am reaching happy. How about that?!

 

Homemade Minestrone Soup

The Darkening October

 

“He couldn't stop smelling the air in great, deep, loud sniffs. It was so delicious. It smelled of water, and mud, and maple trees, and autumn.”

 

~Elizabeth Enright,

  The Four-Story Mistake

 

I went to Sacramento yesterday, to peep some leaves at my favorite park in the city, Crocker park, which is so named because it sits right next to the Crocker Museum. Sacramento is known for, among other things, it's love of trees. It's estimated that there are approximately 1 million tress, all within the city limits! That's a lot of leaves! And it's home for a lot of critters! I have kept to just a couple key areas on the city, for doing my Sacramento leaf peeping, but this year, as time allows, I think I would like to explore more parks and the capitol grounds. As you can see, Autumn is getting off to a slow start there, but that's fine, I need more time to consider what my options are. One thing is for sure, October is almost over and the days are getting darker earlier, so early mornings are going to have to become my friend. For right now, I know it's always just down the road, and there is always something to see!

 

 

 

 

Think Of All Your Favorite Autumns

 

"Squeeze your eyes closed, as tight as you can, and think of all your favorite autumns, crisp and perfect, all bound up together like a stack of cards. That is what it is like, the awful, wonderful brightness of Fairy colors. Try to smell the hard, pale wood sending up sharp, green smoke into the afternoon. To feel the mellow, golden sun on your skin, more gentle and cozier and more golden than even the light of your favorite reading nook at the close of the day."

 

~Catherynne M. Valente

The Girl who Circumnavigated Fairyland

 in a Ship of Her Own Making 

 

Some days, mostly in autumn, at least for me, it is easy to sit quietly in a park and imagine what it would be like to live a never ending world of soft golden light. The year is wise now. The year has learned things, and now there is a quiet riot of life going on, and it is invigorating. A chill in the air, a gentle breeze sending cascading leaves to my feet, and wild birds call from all directions. I saw a large group of White Pelicans fly over so silently, had I not been looking up, I would have missed them. Autumn's gift is to encourage us to keep looking up, both in spirit and creativity.

 

 

~Me

Three Seasons Away

"It was a beautiful bright autumn day, 

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

~Diana Gabaldon

Outlander

Sometimes, when I see a part of California that I have never been to before, I wonder about how it all must have been before it was developed to death. Progress is a good thing, but seeing a beautiful hillside filled with colorful trees, or an untouched stream just flowing along, with every color possible framing the banks, I just feel alive and happy, almost like I am a part of the land itself! My trip to Yosemite last week had a true and profound affect on me. I want to see it in all the seasons now, but I just know that seeing it in autumn will always feel like I am coming home, because that was the season I was in when I saw it the first for the first time! 

Next autumn seems like a very long time away.

And it is I suppose.

I always wonder if I will make it to see one more autumn.

I sure hope I do.

But one never knows what life has in store us. 

Next autumn is 3 seasons away.

 Leaf Of The Day

November 18th 2016

Mood: Quiet

~Me  

Late On A February Night... The Mystery Of Tammy Meyers

Grant Ranch Park, Mt Hamilton Road

San Jose, California 

"It is better to risk saving a guilty person

 than to condemn an innocent one."

~Voltaire

   Zadig

A couple weeks ago, on February 12th, a tragedy occurred. A wife, mother, friend, neighbor, was shot dead, in her own driveway, after what was first reported as a case of road rage. The country, no the world, was shocked and sickened by the thought of someone losing control so thoroughly as that driver must have been, to pull out a gun, and shoot a stranger, in their own driveway. It was, however, an easy scenario to believe. Road rage is a scary thing, and it goes on all around us, in every American community, in small towns and in large metropolitan areas. Anger is on the rise, and the ability to deal with that anger in an appropriate manner is declining. It seems our coping mechanisms have seemingly dwindled. Too much bad information, a rise in terrorism, joblessness, acts of violence against unarmed children by the very people who should be protecting them... you name it, stress is not hard to come by. So road rage seems to be the result of the snapping of our last nerve. The incredible stress we all live under is the reason, but there is NO excuse for the dangerous behavior of road rage, and this case of road rage it was especially terrifying! An angry driver followed a woman home, and killed her, in the driveway of her own home! But it seems that there was a lot more to the story, and things aren't always what they seem to be.

A Basic Example Of Early Reports

Timeline Of Events

Feb 12th, 2015

*Tammy Meyer's takes her daughter out for a session of driver's training. It was late in the evening, and the daughter had NO learner's permit. The lesson is said to have taken place on private property at a nearby school.

*When they finished, Tammy got into the driver's seat and her daughter moved to the passenger side.

As they pulled out into traffic, a speeding car pulled up very close on their bumper, and then pulled alongside their car. That's when the daughter reached over and honked the horn at the car.

*At that point the driver of the aggressive car managed to close the Meyer's car off and a verbal altercation began when the driver of the other car got out and yelled something to the effect of... "I'll get you and your daughter."

*The Meyers daughter says that the man who got out of the car was 6 feet tall, 180lbs, mid 20's, with spiky blond hair. And that he threatened them saying, "I'm going to get you and your daughter." She says he knew she was Mrs. Meyers daughter, because she kept repeating "Mommy, Mommy."

*Meyers and daughter turned their car around, and drove home directly, where she told her daughter to go into the house, and send out her son, who was in legal possession of a handgun..

*At this point, the other car finds them, at their home, and someone in the car opens fire on Mrs. Meyers and her son, hitting the mother in the head. The son returns fire, as the car flees the scene.

*On February 14th, Tammy Meyers is taken off life support by her husband Robert Meyers.

*February 15th. A GoFundMe account is set up for the Meyers family to help with funeral expenses.

*February 16th. Mr. Meyers offers his fully restored Camero as a reward to anyone who can help find the killers of his wife.

*February 17th. Police release a statement that paints a different story then was initially told.

*February 17th. The GoFundMe account is taken down, due to overwhelming backlash over the changing account of events.

5 days after the initial altercation there is an updated account of the Events...

On February 20th Channel 8 News, 

in Las Vegas, 

 prepared an interactive timeline of events.

And the story has changed again since that timeline was prepared.

Updated Timeline Of Events

February 24th 2014

Examiner Online

I haven't checked today, to see if there is still another change in the story, I can't imagine what more could be changed at this point, but somehow it wouldn't surprise me too much to find out something else has changed. Here is what I do know. Tammy Meyers died a senseless death. A young man is in jail and the district attorney is pushing for the maximum charges, and all that the punishment carries. It's possible this young man could be given the death penalty if convicted of what he is being charged with. Tammy Meyers isn't alive to defend herself, and her family is doing her no favors by being caught in lie after lie. I don't remember a case where the victim's family has been caught in as many lies and half-truths as the Meyers family!

I haven't believed one word that Mr. Meyers has said from day one. So what really happened? Why, if Tammy Meyers was an innocent victim, did her son and daughter lie? I can't figure out why they would lie? As for Mr. Meyers, he says his wife knew her assailant, if so, why not just call the police? All the time she supposedly mentored him, did Mr. Meyers also try to help that kid? Or did he just sit by while his wife met with the young man in a seedy neighborhood park, gave him money, and supposedly tried to encourage him. What kind of husband does that? I know Alan wouldn't let me do something like that alone. It doesn't make sense.

If Mr. Meyers is willing to lie about any detail of this case,

 what else is he willing to lie about?

Right now, I believe Erich Nowsch should be found

 NOT GUILTY if this case goes to trial,

 but frankly, he should be released from custody long before that.

Any way you see it, this is just one more American tragedy.

Mood: Quiet

~Me

I am Keeping My Eye On Autumn...

"There is a harmony in autumn, and a luster in it's sky, 

which through the summer seen, as if it could not be, as if it had not been!"

~Percy Bysshe Shelley

I was going to post these photos yesterday, but my plans changed. Never mind, I am posting them today! I had a pretty good time last week, while out with the new Nikon camera. Here are some photos of that day. Big surprise, they are autumn themed! :) I decided to visit autumn, and my favorite autumn tree, to finally do what I have been saying I was going to do for ages... document the turning of the leaves, on a tree I love like an old friend!

As you can see, the three is on it's way to making a loud, spicy statement! I love the pinks and deep purples, but you can't be in a sad mood when those crimson red leaves sail softly down to the earth. It always makes me hungry for cinnamon red hot candies. In fact, an autumn three in full party mode reminds me of all the candies you might get at Halloween. 

Red = Cinnamon Red Hots

Orange = Candy Corn

Green = Jolly Rancher Green Apple

Yellow = Lemonheads

Purple = Plum Saltwater Taffy

Brown = Reese's Peanut Butter Cup

I have a sweet tooth that goes straight to my soul.

I can't indulge the way I would like to, but I have found that adding a little bit of cinnamon to my diet does a lot to cut my sugar cravings, and actually helps my glucose numbers. I try to take care of my diet and manage my diabetes, and fortunately I do really good in the summer and autumn. A sweet potato with a dash of cinnamon and a dab of butter... yum... and usually doesn't raise my blood sugar. I have had that for lunch, on many an autumn afternoon. I am happy with a camera in my hand, sitting under trees!

See..

 

I can't wait to see where how the tree has progressed by next week!

:)

It's not summer or autumn, it's Sumtumn.

Mood: Happy

~Me :)

Ellipsis Monday Photo Shoot #150: A Walk In The Park

"I saw old autumn in the misty morn standing shadowless like silence listening to silence."

- Thomas Hood









EMPS #150: A WALK IN THE PARK. NOW CLOSED!
Let's take a walk, shall we? Let's take A WALK IN THE PARK. I want to see what the middle of autumn looks like in your neck of the woods. Is it full of gorgeous fallen leaves? Or do you live in a place that rarely shows any sign of autumn? It's all good! The point of these assignments is to get to know each other, and share our love of photography. Let's do that by sharing what our life looks like right now. For this assignment, NO ARCHIVED photos... instead, go take A WALK IN THE PARK and show us what you find!

Extra Credit: Please share with us, in one or two paragraphs, about the park you chose to photograph for this assignment!

Guidelines for Assignment Submissions...

1.The EMPS closes each Sunday evening at 9:00 PM (ET). No submissions will be accepted after that time.

2. Submit your entry by getting your photo, uploading it to you blog or website, and then comeback here and leave me your link in the comment thread. PLEASE REMEMBER... THE LINK YOU LEAVE MUST GO BACK TO AN ENTRY WHICH IS SPECIFIC TO THIS WEEK'S ASSIGNMENT! A general link to your site will not do and will not be added to the list of those participating the following Monday. HYPERLINKS ARE NOT ACCEPTED!

3. Please be sure to provide a link back to the assignment in your submission, so your readers can find the assignment and join us. Everyone is welcome to play along!

4. Please keep in mind that the image you submit for the EMPS assignment, must be your own original photography. NO LIFTING!



Participation List for EMPS #149: Happy Harvest 11/07/2011

1. Leovi

2. Jama

3. Karen

-Carly

Ellipsis Monday Photo Shoot #36: A Walk In The Park

"All I need to make a comedy is a park, a policeman and a pretty girl."

-Charlie Chaplin







EMPS #36: A WALK IN THE PARK. NOW CLOSED!
We are in May, and with April showers come May flowers! Let's take A WALK IN THE PARK this week and see what we find. No archived photos for this one! Flora. Fauna. Children. Old folks on benches. Wee folk on swings. Hot Dog carts. Artists. Public Art. Street Performers. It's all good. Mostly I want to see what your favorite park looks like from your artistic perspective. Look for cool angles, interesting shapes, and unusual sights. Show me what you see on your WALK IN THE PARK!

Extra Credit: Give me a little history of your favorite park. :) Just Google it and see what you come up with!

**PLEASE READ**
You have until next Sunday, at 9:00 PM ET to complete your photo assignment, post it to your blog, website or journal, and comeback here with the direct link. Remember, the link you leave must be a link back to the entry specific to this week's photo shoot assignment.

Linking List for EMPS#35: Government Buildings. 04/27/09

NOW CLOSED!

1. Karen

2. Suzanne

3. Jama


Question Of The Week: How often do you add special effects from your photo editing program to your photos?

Ok, see you in one week. Now go be photographers!

-Carly