Home Sweet Home

 

Home Sweet Home

By John Howard Payne

‘Mid pleasures and Palaces though we may roam,
Be it ever so humble there’s no place like home!
A charm from the skies seems to hallow us there,
Which seek through the world, is ne’er met with elsewhere.
Home! Home, sweet sweet Home!
There’s no place like Home! There’s no place like Home!

An Exile from Home, Splendour dazzles in vain!
Oh! Give me my lowly thatch’d Cottage again!
The Birds singing gaily that came at my call,
Give me them with the peace of mind dearer than all!
Home! Home, sweet sweet Home!
There’s no place like Home! There’s no place like Home!

To thee, I’ll return overburdened with care,
The heart’s dearest solace will smile on me there.
No more from that cottage again will I roam,
Be it ever so humble, there’s no place like home.
Home! Home, sweet sweet Home!
There’s no place like Home! There’s no place like Home!

I photographed that little fella, he was only about the size of a chocolate chip, in a park in the Bay Area, and now I am a little worried for him, as the first big storm of the season will rain down later this week. It is predicted to drop as much as 3 inches of rain before it's finished, and dump a good bit of snow in the Sierras. Now, I take it all with a grain of salt, because many times storms weaken before coming onshore. Rain loves to hug the coast, but even if that happens, this little guy, is a baby spider among millions, just seems so darn fragile. Sigh. I dunno. I guess he will be okay, perhaps going underground, or into a crevice in the tree he is in. In any case, he will get himself to safety I am sure, but I can't help but think of him, he was so pretty, and seemed so happy building his web. I really enjoyed meeting him! Boy, have I changed! Now I just wish I had the courage to look up what kind of spider he is!

 

The Sounds Of Bittersweet November...

 

Autumn Days
Yellow, mellow, ripened days,
Sheltered in a golden coating;
O'er the dreamy, listless haze,
White and dainty cloudlets floating;
Winking at the blushing trees,
And the sombre, furrowed fallow;
Smiling at the airy ease,
Of the southward flying swallow.
Sweet and smiling are thy ways,
Beauteous, golden Autumn

~Will Carleton 

 

The tumbleweeds, and the other dry vegetation, is so pretty right now. I know that sounds strange, but I find beauty in the last hints of autumn. In the wild weeds and small homes built by the ballooning spiders. I have a wonderful new obsession, and I can't believe I never saw it's crazy beautiful artistry before now.Tiny newborn spiders making a home for themselves. Imagine! With a little luck they will grow up to be big spiders, like my friend Boris did. What a happy thought. I mean, they have their place, hopefully outside in nature where they are needed. I try my best to not be needy about the tings a spider could help me with. And I have a great hope I will see Boris again one day.

 

Tiny nitnat bugs were flying over my head yesterday afternoon, as I made my way around the Clifton Court Forebay. I rolled the sunroof back, and snapped away. Critters. They looked like little faeries, or maybe little angels. While most folks would call them pests, I find them, well, enchanting. shrug. I guess it's Autumn, and I love every inch of it. From the amazing migration of geese to the ballooning spiders, to the last of the thistles, to the tiny nitnats that will be gone come winter. There is too much to see, and so little time left!

 

Autumn is a love song, and it is sung with so many happy voices. Can you hear them? I love it when I wake up, and hear the sound of Canada Geese, and Sandhill Crane flying over the house. Soon it will be a couple thousand Snow Geese, and Greater White-fronted geese. After that the Bufflehead ducks and Swallows. It's music. Autumn definitively has a marching band! And the tiny spiders and old forgotten weeds have a voice in it too. I promise. Go and listen to the sounds of November. Breathe in it's scent. It's intoxicating!

 

 

The Art Of Turning Over New Leaves

 

“There is October in every November and there is November in every December! All seasons melted in each other’s life!”

 
~Mehmet Murat ildan

 

In late spring, we begin to see pheasant, quail and turkeys, all over the valley but they are at their loveliest when I see them running through the vineyards and orchards.Their feathers remind me of the rows autumn leaves they're are moving in and out of. I don't even know how many times we have just stopped and watched them! This particular group stays near the vineyards off Franklin blvd, in Galt. It sits about 500 feet from the bridge where I went to observe the Mexican Free-tailed bat, late last summer. The two more than likely have nothing to do with each other, but it's a fun coincidence that there is so much life right there. It's also the area where I spotted a large group of swallows last spring, and the Bullocks orioles in early summer. There is something for everyone right there, and just a few hundred yards up the road from there is the visitors center at the Cosumnes River. And if that isn't enough beauty my new friend, Boris the Spider, built a really nice mansion for himself, just about 3 miles northeast of this spot, although I am afraid he has moved on.

 

As I said a few posts back, I haven't seen him in weeks, all that's left is a few heavy silver strands of spider silk. The cold was probably getting to him, same as it's getting to me. Or maybe a bird swooped him up and had a snack of him. I don't want to ponder the situation too much. I am happy to believe he is merely at his winter home, lazing by the pool, and I will see him again next April, when the earth turns once again to the warmth of spring and summer. Yes, Autumn has sent him off to simply live in the moment among different leaves. Autumn is teaching me to live in the moment as well. I guess I'm turning over a new leaf, and as turning over new leaves go... living in the moment feels a lot healthier than setting rigid expectations and goals for myself. I mean who thought a year ago that not only would I make a spider friend, but would be waiting for summer to come back around so we could visit one another again? Thank you, Autumn!

 

Goodnight, Dear Boris The Spider!

 

“There is so much beauty in autumn and so much wisdom;

 so much separation and so much sorrow!” 

 
~Mehmet Murat ildan 

 

I met, Boris The Spider, just a about a month ago and funny thing, I thought we would be old and dear friends for at least a few more weeks, if not until winter officially begins in December, but I am afraid he has moved on... or perhaps... died. I haven't seen him in a couple weeks. We have strayed into the cold part of autumn, as evidenced by the fresh blankets on my bed, and there is snow in the western Sierra, making it necessary for me to finally put on one of my favorite cardigans.

 

 The weather makes me think its perhaps too cold for dear Boris, or maybe he made a tasty appetizer for one of the new birds that has migrated in over the last couple weeks. Sigh. Either way, he is gone I fear. I am mourning his absence, which is a strange feeling for a girl with a lifelong fear of spiders. All that's left of his once great spider mansion, is a few silky strands that can only be seen when they catch  the warm autumn light just right. And that's not a very good sign either.

 

 So when I saw this silky spider balloon orb the other day, I had to wonder if Boris knew there was a new tenant, or tenants, about to hatch in his blackberry bush? Boris seemed like a good sort, so maybe he wouldn't be too upset that someone chose his blackberry bush to make a home. Hell, maybe he is keen for some company... some companionship. Maybe he ordered tiny spiders, so he could pass on his wisdom to a new generation of creepy crawlers. I sure hope so, Airbnb situations can be tricky things. There is nothing like taking a vacation, only to come home to squatters living in your web!

 

Goodnight, Boris The Spider, thanks for being so nifty!

 

Silky October Balloons

 “Sadness in autumn is an autumn within autumn!” 

 

~Mehmet Murat ildan 

 

 I am seeing less and less tiny webs drifting across the sky. I will miss those tiny strands and orbs ballooning across the sky, but when spider mating season begins again next October, I will be there, looking for the light from the silk, once again, streaking across the sky!

Autumn Blackberries And Spiders, Plus Autumn Leaf Of The Day #12

 

“I gazed at the monster and couldn't rip my gaze away.

 He was... beautifully twisted.” 

 
~Jennifer West,

  The Legend of Acacia Vitak

 

 Something has changed in me. Today, I found myself mesmerized by this HUGE spider spinning it's web in a fading blackberry bush, along Bruceville road. It was strangely beautiful, and I could have watched it forever, but it was getting late in the day, and I still needed to check on the birds on Desmond road, so I took a few photos and went about my way. An hour later, I was still thinking about him, and feeling really impressed with the house it was building. I had never seen a spider spinning a web before, and now I have a great deal of respect for that creature and it's abilities. But I know for certain, however, I would rather love and admire him from afar, then get to know him in person. He has his world, and I am happy in mine, with a camera in my hand, and a big curiosity about all I may have missed.

 

Find The Spider 2020 Edition

"the spider's web: She finds an innocuous corner in which to spin her web. The longer the web takes, the more fabulous it's construction. She has no need to chase. She sits quietly, her patience a consummate force; she waits for her prey to come to rendering them unable to escape. Spiders... so needed and yet so misunderstood."

~Donna Lynn Hope 

 I think it might become a new element of my autumn posts, to include a "Find The Spider" post. Do you see the pretty little spider in the picture above? I didn't when I took this photo, but sure enough, there it was when I went to do the editing. The lighting outside is mostly orange, because of the wildfires, so I could have missed it because of that, or maybe it was just that tiny, but this makes the third year in a row I have spotted a spider lurking in one of my leaf photos. Maybe it's a cosmic sign that I need to be more careful while doing photos, which makes sense, because in all the years I have been doing photography seriously, I don't remember enountering as many spiders as I have in the last three years.

I don't like spiders... at all... which is why I haven't done ANY research into why I seem to see more of them during this time of year, but I do know that in some places in California, and some parks, it's strongly discouraged to interfere with tarantulas during October, when they mate. Ugh. Mating spiders. What might that romance be like? Can you imagine a boy spider, looking at a female spider and thinking, "My, my, look at the legs on that lady!" I suppose most boy spiders are leg men. Oh well, who am I to knock romance? Maybe, someday, when Hollywood runs out of love stories for humans, they will take on the spider world. "... And I looked across a crowded web, and there she was, a lady with multiple beautiful legs, she's the lady spider for me!" Ugh. But hey, at least they add a little interesting extra to my photographs, and they are a hell of a challenge!

~Carly
September 16th 2020
Stockton, California
 

The Little Autumn Spider Named Elyse

"Her pleasure in the walk must arise from the exercise and the day, from the view of the last smiles of the year upon the tawny leaves and withered hedges and from repeating to herself some few of the thousand poetical descriptions extant of autumn... that season of peculiar and inexhaustible influence on the mind of taste and tenderness... that season which has drawn from every poet worthy of being read some attempt at description, or some lines of feeling."

~Jane Austen

Persuasion

I was visiting Tilden Park, in Berkeley, searching for a little more autumn to fill me up, when I saw her. A tiny spider. I hate spiders, but she was way to small to take too seriously. just a speck, and I had no heart to harm her. It was cold, as Berkeley is usually this time of November, so I figure she has enough going against her. She was just trying to be her own true self, and hide on a nearly perfect leaf. But we made friends, and I asked politely if I could photograph her, she obliged, and in a little while we both smiled and said goodbye. Before I left though, she whispered to me that her name was Elyse, and I told her my name was Carly, and she promised to write if she got work. I smiled, nodded, and said, take care Elyse, and then I left. I already miss her.

 #56 Leaf Of The Day

November 16th 2019

Cull Canyon, Ca

Nikon

~Mood: Happy

~Me :)

Big Scary Berkeley Spider

"I excel at pulling strings." said Arachne  "I am a spider!"

~Rick Riordan

The Mark Of Athena

#24 Leaf Of The Day

October 16th 2019

Placerville, Ca

Nikon

~Mood: Happy

~Me   :)

Haunted Houses (Part One) And The Leaf Of The Day

"Every small town has at least one house the children whisper about; the type of house that has always been abandoned; where once pristine white paint has faded to a grimy gray; where the windows are boarded, and the lawn never grows; where children hold their breath and close their eyes as they pass by. A house that sounds like it contains an army of whispering spirits when the wind whistles through the nearby trees."

~The Blood Brothers

The House On Creep Street

Yesterday, after all my doctor appointments and medical tests, I treated myself to a trip to Cull Canyon, to see how my favorite autumn tree was progressing. It's coming along nicely, but perhaps a little too fast with the color. I don't want to lose the colors too early in the season, and yet at the same time, we are due for a cold wet autumn and winter, if the Farmer's Almanac is correct, so time to get out there and get things done!

While I was photographing some newly fallen color, I spotted the remains of what was once, last summer, a nice patch of Butterfly Weed. I love it! It's great for attracting hummingbirds, and butterflies, and on it's own, has always reminded me even on the hottest of summer days, that autumn was just around the corner! It has a brief summer life, and just happens to be all the lovely colors of autumn.

This patch was dead and dying, evident by the huge amount of spider webbing covering almost everything! Mums, the Butterfly Weed, some showy yellow flowers, and some gorgeous leaves that drifted into the spider's home! Well, actually, it had to have been a lot of spiders, a group or condominium of spiders, and not just one, because of the amount of webbing around, otherwise it would have been a spider the size of... well... I don't to think about the size it would have to have been!

Anyway, it seemed as if the web was, at this point, more haunted house, than actually a current residence! I spotted a small spider within all the chaos of the web rooms, along with what appeared to be both victims and squatters! Aphids. Gnats. Small moths. Small black bugs that may or may not have been tiny beetles. A ladybug or two, feasting on the aphids. It was quite the horror show! A true haunted house!

I have become very interested in spider webs in the last couple years, both occupied and abandoned! I am scared to death of spiders, that fact is pretty well known amongst my friends, but last year I found myself photographing a bunch of colorful leaves that had collected in the home of a particularly wily white spider! I kept a nice distance, thank god for cameras with long lenses, but I was kinda hooked from then on. Yesterday, I captured two different haunted spider houses, this set is the first, and I will post the second later in the week.

Can you spot the spider?

Just click on the photo to enlarge it!

 

#4 Leaf Of The Day

September 23rd, 2018

Stockton, California 

~Mood: Tired/Creative

~Me :)

 

Autumn Dwellings

Knight's Ferry, California

October 26th, 2017

"NOVEMBER, Noun, The Eleventh Twelfth Of A Weariness."

~Ambrose Bierce

Devil's Dictionary

I am beginning to not hate spider webs, as long as they aren't on me, or too close by. This one was a few feet from me, on the day I photographed it, and it had a beautiful appeal to it, with it's jewel and earth tones, shining with the warm autumn sun resting on it, but it was quite large, therefore I was reluctant to get too close to it. I was sad about that, because in a creative way I would have appreciated seeing the spider, or spiders, that worked so hard on it! It was clearly old in parts but there was also what appeared to be brand new silk, I think this had been a multi-family dwelling. It was decorated nicely, in most of the colors I gravitate to this time of year, so whoever lived there, they clearly have a talent for decorating!

 

I enlarged the photo somewhat, and did some sharpening, and finally spotted one tiny occupant of this autumn house.

 Do you see the spider?

#4 Leaf Of The Day

October 28th, 2017

Quincy, California

  

Mood: Creative

~Me :)

 

The Artist

  "The artist is the receptacle for the emotions that come from all over the place: from the sky, from the earth, from a scrap of paper a from a passing shape, spider's web."

~Pablo Picasso

Beautiful, isn't it? I am terrified of spiders, but that has never prevented me from admiring their architecture, or their tenacity to build and rebuild their lives, when someone, or something, knocks their world out from underneath them! It's instinctual for them, but it is probably difficult nonetheless, to deal with their occasional adversity, and yet they go on living their lives, however short it might be! They are lucky enough to be, to a degree, an artist of their own existence, without fear of failure. I fear them, but I respect and appreciate them as well! If you find this photograph even remotely interesting, or artistic, thank the spider, because I had nothing to do with it's beauty! I am not the artist here, all I did was save the moment, to remind myself, we can rebuild, and reinvent ourselves, even after the toughest loss!

#29 Leaf Of The Day

October 29th, 2017

Cull Canyon

Mood: Creative

~Me :)

Country Things

"Country things are the necessary root of our life... and that remains true even of a rootless and tragically urban civilization. To live permanently away from the country is a form of slow death."

~Esther Meynell

Make NO mistake, I am a city girl through and through! I don't care for giant bugs, or spiders, both of which seem to really enjoy the open spaces of life in the country, not to mention their friends the rodents and scavenger birds. It seems like a strange system that all those creatures depend on each other to live. One feeds on the other. I guess that's just life... one thing feeds on another. 

 

It's all part of the food chain.

I try not to think too much about it, but since moving to a relatively rural part of California, one can't help but notice how nature works. I wish I had the courage to photograph those exotic creatures, but I don't and I am skeptical that I will be able to anytime soon, but at the same time, you never really know about these things. Before we left the Bay Area, I had started to come to terms with certain spiders I was encountering in my rose garden. Let's just say... we had an understanding! 

I wouldn't kill her, if she didn't crawl on me when I photographed my flowers! It worked out pretty good for most of one summer, until one day, she was gone. I am pretty sure she became a juicy tidbit for a Blue Jay, that began hanging out in our yard later that summer. I had been scared to death of that spider, but when she was gone I found I truly missed her. It was a strange feeling to miss something I had been so frightened of. 

Anyway, as time goes by, and I acclimate more to my surroundings out here, I see some intriguing opportunities to stretch my photography muscles, on subjects I haven't covered over and over,  like barns, cattle and all things country! There are fruit and vegetable stands everywhere, and its all quite lovely, in it's own way. The San Joaquin delta is quite lovely in places, and it goes on for miles. I am hoping to devote some time on vacation to hunting down little inlets and visiting some surrounding towns.

I spotted the barn, in the photo above, somewhere along Highway 37 between Novato, and Sears Point raceway, which runs along San Pablo Bay. All along that stretch of highway, you can spot some really interesting things, like one moment you are photographing a barn and the next moment you might see an abandoned boat! Which is kinda fun, because I took all these photos while we were driving! When I get the chance to investigate closer, I am sure they will be be more interesting, but still, considering I took them completely by instinct, rather than planned, but I think they capture the imagination, and they inspire me to want to see more! We'll see what comes from a whole world just waiting to be noticed, but I think it will be more barns and boats, and less about the spiders!

Famous last words... right?

And now...

Leaf Of The Day

October 2nd, 2017

Stockton, California

Mood: Hopeful

~Me :)