Windmills And A Yellow Leaf

"The tall white windmills that came to her mind. How their skinny long arms all turned, but never together, except for just once in a while two of them would be turning the same way, their arms poised at the same place in the sky."

~Elizabeth Stout

Anything Is Possible

As we were driving across the Altamont Pass, earlier in the week, I was of course captivated by them, as I always am, while scoffing at Donald Trump's assertion that the noise from the gives you cancer. I can't pass them without thinking about that lunatic remark. If you can't get what you want any other way, lie about it, even if it makes you seem like, well, you're a lunatic! I mean just look at them! What's there to fear? I think they are beautiful, in fact, I was thinking the other day that this new sleeker type remind me of my favorite bird, the Snowy Egret. And before you say it, this kind of windmill was developed to be less dangerous to birds of all kinds. 

Windmills are a good thing. I will risk the cancer.

Something pretty from the natural world. A new leaf! 

January 14th 2020

Castro Valley Community Center

Nikon 

Mood: Happy

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 :)

 

And The Color Was Yellow

"On a traffic light, green means go and yellow means yield, but on a banana it's just the opposite. Green means hold on, yellow means go ahead, and red means where the hell did you get that banana at?"

~Mitch Hedberg

When you first pull up to the curb in front of the Queen Wilhelmina Windmill Garden, in Golden Gate park, you most often see the color purple edging around the entrance, but that doesn't mean there is purple stealing the show inside the garden itself, so I try to look away when we first get there, just to give myself time to imagine what flowers of amazing beauty will be planted this time! If it's March, you can usually count on it that there will be tulips, and sure enough, when I visited yesterday, it was! Gorgeous yellow tulips were the main attraction, but the left side of the park had some soft pink ones, and there was a lovely display of white ones, surrounded by bright orange California Poppies in the middle of the garden!

Here Have A Look...



It was a lovely, gray, overcast day. Big drops of rain? Not so much, but there was a lot of fog, and an actual misty drop or two, so we didn't stay very long. My cold is about 85% better, but the body aches continue, as does the occasional coughing rant. Also, the Fibromyalgia is not to be out shadowed by the lesser head cold, so it is in full on rage, meaning body aches, extreme sleepiness, joint pain, Fibro-Fog (that thing that makes me think a certain word, but say a different one instead) but it felt really good to get out of the house for a few hours. Today I plan to take it easy, and just tend to the basic stuff around the house. I have a couple errands, but that shouldn't take very long. We'll see! For now I am concentrating on the beauty of yesterday, the color was yellow after all! Who doesn't smile when they see yellow?

:)

Mood: Hopeful and Happy

~Me :)