We The Observers

"Autumn writes her own poetry, we are merely observers."

~Terri Guillemets

Autumn is suddenly bursting with color! Every color imaginable. And that slight chill of just a week ago, has transitioned to sweater weather! I love sweater weather! I got out all my favorite winter clothes this week, and filled the pantry with apple cider and mulling spices, and all the things that make this time of year spicy and delicious! I am ready for long car rides to the north, and western Sierra. And maybe Yosemite and June Lake. And, of course, to Monterey and Pacific Grove to the Monarch Butterfly Sanctuary! That is a lot of traveling, but we have so much fun, and just look at that sky! Breathtaking! 

I am happy to be an autumn observer! I pack a picnic lunch for Alan and I, grab the tripod, a blanket, and my favorite sweater, and off we go! Happiness and the natural beauty of autumn! If there is a Heaven, there will cats, and autumn!

 #21 The Leaf Of The Day

October 21st 2017

Camino, California

 Mood: Happy

~Me :)

The Here And Now

Leaf Of The Day

December 15th 2015

"Anyone who thinks leaves are dead, 

has never watched them dancing on a windy day!"

~Shira Tamir

No real post today, it's a super busy time. We have a sick cat, nothing serious, but just enough to keep us busy, plus the holiday is coming really fast! And if all that wasn't enough, we had a really big storm come through the Bay Area, and it pretty much shook most of the leaves off of some of mt favorite trees, so I am scrambling to get the last of my favorites! So, today's post is all about the Leaf Of The Day for today. 

I guess you could say I am in the here and now!

Mood: Busy

~Me :)

Equinox Meets Solstice

(Autumn silently slips away at 3:02 P.M. EST.)

"The leaves fall patiently

Nothing remembers or grieves

The river takes to the sea

The yellow drift of leaves."

~Sara Teasdale

Why does it always seem like autumn goes by faster than any other season? I know the answer to that question, it's because I am so in love with every single moment of it. I live all year, just to cross over from the hostile summer heat, into the gentle coolness of the cinnamon colored season of autumn. I love Fall because I can think again, as summer always leaves me tired, and cranky, and uninspired. I love autumn for the first taste of candy corn, hot spiced cider, and the warmth of my favorite brown sweater. I love autumn for all the scary movies, and the short dark days... and for the leaves... of yes, the colors of the earth, and of lemon drops, sometimes all in one big bunch of color! And I mourn it's passing, like mourning an old friend. I always wonder how I will face all those months until it comes back around, but somehow I do. If only I could chase autumn around the earth. I would.

Goodnight Autumn 

I shall miss you.

(Winter Begins At 3:03 P.M. PST)

"Surely everyone is aware of the divine pleasures which attend a wintry fireside; candles at four o' clock, warm hearthrugs, tea, a fair tea-maker, shutters closed, curtains flowing in ample draperies to the floor, whilst the wind and rain are raging audibly without."

~Thomas de Quincey

Confessions Of An English Opium Eater

I love baking and creating new recipes. And while I am not quite as active with the cameras during winter, I do enjoy photographing San Francisco in the rain. Everything takes on a glow, and the tiny raindrops sparkle all over the city. It's really quite amazing. I think this year I might try to do more with all the things that make winter beautiful. Umbrellas, coats, wet pavement, frost, snow, and the winter light that makes everything look brand new. Oh my, the winter light... how it makes me smile!

Since Autumn and Winter share the day equally, I will post the last photo of Autumn 2014 today, but I am compiling an online album of all the leaves I photographed, including ones not previously photographed which I will post between Christmas and New Years! In fact, I hope to be able to do an album of all of my autumn photos. If I do, I will also include a link to that album as well.

The Last Autumn Leaf Of The Year

Mood: Quiet But Happy

~Me :)

The Law Of The Infinite Mind

"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. She occupied her mind as much as possible in such musings and quotations."

~Jane Austen

Crunch... Crunch... Crunch...

"There is no season in all the year so beautiful, so radiant with glory, as the early autumn. There is no time when the human soul drinks in so fully the glory and beauty of nature. All objects of beauty are more beautiful while passing away from us. The closing up of a beautiful life... the fading of the holy stars in the dim light of morning... the ending of a quiet summer day and the passing away of the bright summer glory, are all more sweet and lovely as they are lost to us. The death-glow always beautifies anything that wears the trace of beauty ere it goes back to nothingness.

 We do not understand the secret of this principle, 

yet we know that it is some law of the infinite mind."

~The Northern Advocate

Leaf Of The Day

Mood: Happy

~Me :)

A Preview Of Spring And Happy Hanukkah!

"Let us dance in the sun, wearing wild flowers in our hair... "

~Susan Polis Schutz

Can you believe all that color? I cam upon these gorgeous purple flowers, while photographing leaves at the Brazil Room in Tilden Park, here in Berkeley. I couldn't resist taking a photo. They were so vibrant, and so lovely, that they were distracting me from the leaves, which almost never happens. As seasons go, I find spring to be my least inspiring. It's such an easy season to find beauty, that there is nothing very challenging about it, but still, when I come across something as beautiful as this flower, especially on a cold, rainy, almost winter day, I begin to look forward to the possibilities of spring. 

It will be here soon enough.

:)

The Leaf Of The Day

Mood: Happy

~Me :)

Autumn Perfection...

"I am made for autumn. Summer and I have a fickle relationship, but everything about autumn is perfect to me. Wooly jumpers, Wellington boot, scarves, thin first, then thick, socks. The low slanting light, the crisp mornings, the chill in my fingers, those last warm sunny days before the rain and wind

Her moody hues and subdued palate punctuated

 every now and again by a 

brilliant orange, scarlet or copper goodbye.

 She is my true love."

~Alys Fowler

Last Friday held a few more scattered showers from the big storm that came through the Bay Area last Thursday. Venturing out Thursday was out of the question. It simply wasn't safe. So, Friday, while still rainy, it wasn't so rainy that we couldn't just enjoy the day. And enjoy we did! The trees, the leaves, the puffy white clouds... it was beautiful! The air in the park smelled so good, and the tiny raindrops on the tips of the leaves looked like tiny diamonds. It was breathtaking!

 "The leaves fall, the wind blows, and the farm country slowly changes

 from the summer cottons into its winter wools."

~Henry Beston

The Leaf Of The Day

Mood: Happy

~Me :)

Gingerbread Men

"One of the most glorious messes in the world is

 the mess created in the living room on Christmas day. Don't clean it up too quickly."

~Andy Rooney

Alan and I put up our Christmas tree this past week, and it's going to be posted here soon, but until then there are a lot of things still to do to make everything in the house all merry and ready for the big day. One thing being the ordering of a nice flower arrangement! I love fresh flowers in the house for Christmas, especially organic roses. Why do they have to be organic? Well, see, Hendrix loves the taste of rose petals! He eats them like you or I would eat potato chips. LOL. Or for the holiday... Gingerbread men! He actually whines for them whenever I bring roses in the house. He found a taste for them when I began my organic rose garden some years back. I checked and it seems that roses are not a toxic plant for cats, unlike most traditionally Christmas decorative plants. Poinsettias... toxic. Pine... toxic. Lilly... toxic. Mistletoe... toxic.

 TOXIC, TOXIC, TOXIC! 

That's okay, I will just have to muddle through with gorgeous red roses! 

The things we do for love!

:)

Dangerous Winter Holiday Plants For Pets

(PetMD)

The Leaf Of The Day

Mood: Happy

~Me :)

Here Comes The Rain... And The Wind... And The Flooding... And...

"We live in a world that is beyond our control, and life is in a constant flux of change. So we have a decision to make... keep trying to control a storm that is not going to go away

 or start learning how to live within the rain."

~Glenn Pemberton

Hurting With God

Well, it seems the Bay Area is a mere hours away from the Storm Of The Century. LOL. No, not the Stephen King one, the good old fashioned one, with hard rain, lots and lots of wind and hopefully a good lightning bolt or two! I love lightning! The more thunder the better! It's wonderful, life affirming stuff, well, all except for the damage. Damage isn't fun. And big storms aren't much fun when they spoil your previously planned fun. Take for example the plans Alan and I had for today. We were going to the Orinda Theatre's free showing of the classic holiday movie of "A Christmas Story." It was going to be an amazing amount of fun, especially since there are two special guests coming, Zack Ward and Scott Schwartz. You know... Scut Farcus and Flick. 

And the best part? I could win a major award, by playing the live trivia game that the hosts play with the crowd prior to the film. Like when I won back in October, two gourmet cupcakes, which were decorated as the wheels, on Rosemary Woodhouse's baby buggy. You know Rosemary as in Rosemary's Baby! LOL. Who knows, this months might be in the shape of a seductive leg with a lampshade on it. LOL. Which do you eat first? The lampshade or the foot? OMG... I want to go so bad. Please storm... be windy, be rainy, be thundery, fill the sky with lightning, but please don't keep me from seeing one of my favorite movies of all time on the big screen, like it was meant to be seen.

Fa La La La La... La La La La

Leaf Of The Day

"Be Sure To Drink Your Ovaltine."

Mood: Excited

~Me :)

Hands Up Don't Shoot

"Never be afraid to raise your voice for honesty and truth and compassion against injustice and lying and greed. If people all over the world would do this, it would change the world."

~William Faulkner

If you enjoy ice cream as much as I do, and want to also support a small business, I highly recommend Cream on Telegraph in Berkeley. And especially now, more than ever, I think I am feeling like picking up some of the delicious ice cream and fabulous warm cookies they sell. You see, they had their windows broke out on Sunday night, by some trouble making opportunists using the tragic decisions made by two different grand juries in New York and Missouri in the deaths of two unarmed men, Michael Brown and Eric Garner to not march for justice, but rather to serve their own selfish interests, and cause the act of peaceful civil disobedience to become an almost hopeless action.

How exactly breaking the windows of businesses and looting helps the cause, is beyond me, but that is the point of this post. I love Berkeley, I love the shops, I love the people. I love the energy the college students bring to the town. I love the Cal Bears. I love the trees. I love Tilden Park like  like it was a member of my family... because in a way... it is! I love the view of San Francisco from Grizzly Peak Boulevard and I love Berkeley for it's ability to take a stand against injustice. I not only love Berkeley for that last one, I admire it for that! We, as Americans, MUST stand up against the oppression of others! As Americans we MUST not look away when any group of people is at risk or have lost their civil rights, let alone any one man. WE MUST LET OUR VOICES BE HEARD... but not with our fists, not with clubs, and not by destroying the very home we live in!

I am doubting that it was the the protesters with the actual messages of "Hands Up Don't Shoot"  and "Justice For Mike Brown and Eric Garner" that took it upon themselves to break the windows of a small ice cream shop or a Trader Joe's, no, that insanity wanted to distract from the message of change, and the message of honor of those two fallen men. That, my friends, is selfishness at it's most devastating. It's devastating for the one inflicting the damage as much as it is for the community at large! Selfishness usually turns to regret with time. A harshness and pain that is difficult to repair. I feel bad for the business hit the other night, but I feel worse for the ones inflicting the damage because I believe at some point in their lives they must have felt helpless, or bullied, and had now way of healing from it. 

But that's just my two cents on the subject.

Monday night saw more of the same marching against injustice, but with a lot less vandalism. So far two Amtrak commuter trains have been held up on the tracks since early evening, and there are reports of HWY 80 in Emeryville being shut down by peaceful protestors. As much as I feel for the commuters, I appreciate the protest being handled correctly. Voices are being heard. That makes me want to go an join them in their stand. If only I could, but alas I am not able. But I do hold them in my heart and I applaud their courage! Enough is ENOUGH! There should not be one more death at the hands of a racist, incompetent or derelict police officer! 

NOT ONE MORE!

But there should also not be not ONE MORE ACT OF VIOLENCE!

NOT ONE MORE!

When will the healing come? It comes when you get involved for POSITIVE change!

It's the Christmas season. A season of hope. Let's hope that positive change happens.

Now more than ever!

Leaf Of The Day

Mood: Quiet/Reflective

~Me :)

Late In The Day On A Late Autumn Day...

"There is a harmony in autumn, and a lustre in it's sky, which through the summer is not heard or seen, as if it could not be, as if it had not been!"

~Percy Bysshe Shelley

Sigh. That's all... just... SIGH.

:)

Leaf Of The Day

Mood: Relaxed

~Me :)