Your Monday Photo Shoot: At an Angle

"While there is perhaps a province in which the photograph can tell us nothing more than what we see with our own eyes, there is another in which it proves to us how little our eyes permit us to see."

-Dorothea Lange

Your Monday Photo Shoot: Snap a picture of something at an angle. Don't tilt your camera, take a picture of something at an angle to your camera. Tilts, slopes, inclines, downgrades - they're all up for a picture.

-John Scalzi (By The Way)

I had to do a little hunting in my archives, to come up with some photos of angles, that I hadn't used too often or too recent. I need to get out with the camera more often. Lately it has been just one or two days a week, but I am hoping to get a little more time in soon. :) Anyway, here are a few I found interesting, beginning with the large picture above. I don't know, I just really liked the angle of the awnings in front of this beach side restaurant, and if you look really close to the left side of the picture you will see a steep downgrade of a street which meets at that corner. The scene just caught my eye for some reason.

Roller Coaster in Santa Cruz

Street Sign Gone Wild

Devil's Slide In San Mateo County (It's steeper then it looks)

-OndineMonet
"Nifty Awning"
Santa Cruz, California
August 9, 2007
Late Afternoon

In The Alien Light Of The Spaceship Of Love...

"I once saw Elvis in a potato chip."

-Fox Mulder (David Duchovny) The X- Files

I am all set. I have my cat, a big warm blanket, a flashlight, a star map, a pair of binoculars, and my digital camera. I am on my way into my garden, to sit, and wait for the Perseid meteor show to begin, and for, hopefully, a spaceship to land in my back yard. Yeah... I know... that last part is a long shot, but goodness, wouldn't that just be the living end? Tomorrow night I could be on the evening news, sharing about the space visitors who saw me, with their ultra-sensitive telescopic device, and decided to spend a little time getting to know an earthling, who seems like a nice lady, and who owns the cutest cat in the universe... Elvis... who they know for sure is the actual reincarnation of the King himself. Alan and I have always suspected our cat was the real Elvis Presley, because of his extreme love of food, and women. But to have an actual alien confirm it would be Enquireriffic! LOL. My cat Elvis is quite the charmer. I have seen more than one person take one look at him and fall in love, I think it must be something in the way he winks, and swivels his hips when he is on his best behavior.

I am still waiting for David Duchovny to find me. Man do I ever have a crush on that guy. Sigh. I see he has a new show premiering tonight on Showtime, but unfortunately we subscribe to HBO as part of our satellite package. Sigh again. Oh well, for those times when I miss him so much I can hardly stand it, I always have my X-Files DVD sets, one of which contains my very favorite episode "Jose Chung's From Outer Space," my favorite David Duchovny movie, "Return To Me," and that wonderful Bree Sharp Song, "The David Duchovny Song" to make me feel closer to him. LOL. Someone once asked me if Alan gets upset that I have such a crush on David, lol, nah, he always says, "If that spaceship ever picks you up, just make sure you get lots of photos, and be back in time for dinner." Is he a cool husband or what? I swear no one else could put up with me. :) Thanks again Alan, and by the way, I give you total permission to run off with Tea Leoni! :)

Enjoy the YouTube clip. It is one of my favorite scenes from "Jose Chung's From Outer Space."

So tell me, will you be stargazing this week?

-OndineMonet

Love's Promise

"We don't see things as they are, we see things as we are."

-Anais Nin

Here is a love letter I came across the other day, written from Count Leo Tolstoy, to his fiance, Valeria Arsenev. I think it goes very well with this romantic rose, I found in the Rose Garden in Golden Gate Park. Isn't it unusual? The rose has a soft raspberry scent, and just looking at it had me daydreaming. Sigh. :)

Enjoy...

November 2, 1856

I already love in you your beauty, but I am only beginning to love in you that which is eternal and ever precious - your heart, your soul. Beauty one could get to know and fall in love with in one hour, and cease to love it as speedily; but the soul one must learn to know. Believe me, nothing on earth is given without labour, even love, the beautiful and natural of feelings.

-Count Leo Tolstoy

"How many of our daydreams would darken into nightmares, were there a danger of their coming true."

-Pearsall Smith

-OndineMonet
Love's Promise Hybrid Tea Rose
Rose Garden
Golden Gate Park
San Francisco, California
August 8, 2007
Afternoon

Fun In The August Sun

"Keep the circus going inside you, keep it going don't take anything too seriously, it'll all work out in the end."

-David Niven

The weather was perfect last Thursday, so Alan and I decided to go to Santa Cruz. It was a good day to spend relaxing at the beach, and relax we did. Have you ever taken a nap on the beach? It's a lot of fun to close your eyes, and hear nothing the but sound of fun happening all around you. Ahhhhhhhhh... that's the stuff! After a bit of a snooze, we enjoyed a performance by the Moscow Circus. Combining comedy, romance, acrobatics, and performance art, the Moscow circus was an awesome little show. They played two 45-minute shows, one at noon and the other one at 3:00 pm. I hope they comeback to the boardwalk next year, I would love to see them again. :) It was a good day for a date.

You can read about the performers here.

-OndineMonet
Santa Cruz Boardwalk
Santa Cruz, California
August 9, 2007
Late Afternoon

John Scalzi's Weekend Assignment #178: Cool Places

"In the depths of winter I finally learned there was in me an invincible summer."

-Albert Camus

Weekend Assignment #178: It's hot. Everywhere. Really hot. Counteract it with a cool and refreshing photo or story. Yes, we've done something like this before. And, if you recall, it worked. Also, it's easy and it's too hot to do anything complicated. So, lets do it again (just, you know, don't reuse stuff that you've already posted along this line before).

Extra Credit: Would you rather be too hot or too cold?

-John Scalzi (By The Way)

Lake Tahoe, Nevada, is one of my favorite places to go in the winter. We don't get snow very often in the Bay Area, and if we do, it rarely lasts longer than 24 hours, so if I want to see snow, we usually take a ride up to Tahoe. It's beautiful there in any season, but it is especially tranquil and lovely in winter. These photos were taken earlier this year, in March, just before spring. The sun and snow made everything kind of twinkle. It was so relaxing to sit next to the lake, and just take it all in. :) I am learning to really love winter, especially under the right conditions. :)

"People don't notice whether it's winter or summer when they are happy."

-Anton Chekhov

Extra Credit: I would much rather be too cold, then too hot, but both come with their challenges. I don't tend to think straight if the weather is too warm, but with the winter, comes a good deal of pain in my joints from Fibromyalgia. Still, I enjoy snuggling with Elvis, under a big, cozy blanket, so I will take the winter. :)

-OndineMonet
" A Late Winter's Day In Tahoe"
North Lake Tahoe, Nevada
March, 2007
Afternoon

Curious Carly Goes To The Surgeon, And The Surgeon Says...

"Health food may be good for the conscience, but Oreos taste a hell of a lot better."

-Robert Redford

So far, so good. I went to see the surgeon last Monday, and the news was a bit mixed. First of all, I will need to see two additional doctors. Sigh. I am ok, but I am just kind of going with the flow at this point. It seems I need to see a plastic surgeon, because of all the skin grafts I will need, after they remove my glands and lymph nodes. So, no surgery date is scheduled yet, and my next appointment, which will be with the new surgeon, will be at the end of August. It feels like things are being dragged out, but I think that is just me feeling anxious about everything in general. Over all, I am dealing just fine. I have stopped worrying about the actual surgery, it just doesn't seem productive at this point. Worrying is rarely productive I suppose, but it does have it's place. I am learning to let myself have the wiggins, for a day or two, but while I am in the worry mode, I also try to research the source of the fear. That always make me feel better. So, as far as the surgery goes, it is just a case of hurry up and wait... you know how that is. :)

I am doing well with my new eating habits as a diabetic. Too be honest, not a lot has changed for me. I always loved vegetables and fruits, and when I did have meat it was generally turkey or chicken. Although I will admit to having the occasional juicy hamburger obsession. LOL. I LOVE fast food. Sigh. That has been the biggest change in my diet, cutting the fast food runs, especially the late night ones. LOL. I am keeping a nutrition diary now, for keeping count of my total daily intake of calories, fats, sugars and carbohydrates. I am not really dieting, but rather eating with more awareness of what I am actually putting in my body, and making the food count for something. Take the lunch in the above photo, as an example...

1 Grilled Lemon Herb Chicken Breast (Sizzler) - 140 calories
1 Cup Broccoli pieces - 30 calories
3 Large Strawberries - 20 calories
1 tbs. Lea & Perrins Steak Sauce - 25 calories
1 Snack Pack Sugar-Free Chocolate pudding - 45 calories
1 10 oz Kern's Light Strawberry Banana Nectar - 45 calories

Total - 305 calories for lunch

And It was delicious. The chicken was from leftover from my dinner at Sizzler the night before, I added some Mrs. Dash to the broccoli, and then just took my time enjoying my lunch. :) But like I said, it wasn't a lot different from what I would have eaten anyway. :) Next Wednesday, August 15th, I have a class on diabetic basics, which also includes a whole hour devoted to nutrition. That is the class where I will also learn how to use my OneTouch Ultra meter. All I know right now is that I will be checking my blood sugar, three times a day, for the rest of my life. Ok, that part isn't so easy, and I am a little tender sometimes about it, but heck, life is a series of new challenges and opportunities, it's up to us what we do with them. Right? Frankly... I am considering myself a lucky girl for the chance to grow, and for the amazing support I have from Alan and Elvis. And who knows, maybe through this adventure, I will become a food photographer. Tee Hee. :)

-OndineMonet
"Lunch With Carly"
Berkeley, California
August 6th, 2007
Noon

Round Robin Challenge: Mannequins

"Models are there to look like mannequins, not like real people. Art and illusion are supposed to be fantasy."

-Grace Jones

Some are shy looking, some look like they are anything but shy. Some look bored. Some look like the flower children from the "Summer of Love." Some have no heads or legs, but they are all gorgeous representations of the many moods and style we ladies have. LOL. I love mannequins. They intrigue me. I guess it was a certain episode of the Twilight Zone, that first peaked my interest in them. In the episode, the mannequins in a department store were allowed to come alive, and live as a human for only one 24 hour period, once a year. What an interesting thought. Imagine if you will, meeting a stranger on the street or maybe even at Starbucks, and they seem perfectly normal, but in reality, they harbor a deep, dark secret. They are actually a mannequin! It's not all that silly a notion is it? I mean, we all have deep, dark secrets... right? (Insert spooky music here). Bwhahahahahahahahahaha! :) Have you ever met a plastic person?

Opening Narration...

Express elevator to the ninth floor of a department store, carrying Miss Marsha White on a most prosaic, ordinary, run of the mill errand. Miss Marsha White on the ninth floor, specialties department, looking for a gold thimble. The odds are she'll find it, but there are even better odds that she'll find something else, because this isn't just a department store. This happens to be the Twilight Zone.

Closing Narration...

Marsha White in her normal and natural state... but it makes you wonder, doesn't it? Just how normal are we? Just who are the people we nod our hellos to as we pass on the street? A rather good question to ask, particularly in the Twilight Zone.

-The Twilight Zone, The After Hours, June 10th, 1960

Be sure to visit all the particpating Robins. Just follow the links below! :) And be sure to pay a visit to the official Round Robin blog on Thursday of this week, to find out the subject of our next challenge! :)

Linking List

1. Carly... Ellipsis
POSTED!

2. Nancy... Nancy Luvs Pics
POSTED!

3. Karen... Outpost Mavarin
POSTED!

4. Janet... Fond Of Photography
POSTED!

5. Tammie Jean... Long Drives To Nowhere


6. Vicki... Maraca
POSTED!




-OndineMonet
"The Summer Of Love Girls"
Berkeley, California
August 7, 2007

Your Monday Photo Shoot: Cemeteries

"My luck is so bad that if I bought a cemetery, people would stop dying."

-Ed Furgol

Your Monday Photo Shoot: Take a picture of, or in, a cemetery. Your local cemetery is a good, but if you've been to, say, Paris, to see Jim Morrison's grave, or took some arty shots of an ornate headstone elsewhere, something like that works too.

-John Scalzi (By The Way)

I don't find this subject morbid at all. As a matter of fact, I find cemeteries fascinating. I have been photographing them for years. Whenever I get the chance I try to visit different cemeteries, around the Bay Area. I am hoping to maybe get across the bay, sometime this coming autumn, to the town of Colma, which is just outside San Francisco. 73% of the town land is made up of cemeteries, and according to Wikipedia, there are 17 in all, including one pet cemetery. Why so many cemeteries you ask? Well, see, an ordinance was passed in California, in the late 1880's that prohibited burials anywhere, other then in established and recognized city or county cemeteries.

By the time this law passed, the gold rush had begun in California, which brought an influx of new citizens to California, and the city of San Francisco. But with the new population, also came disease and the city was also affected by the Pandemic of the early 20th century. With all the cemeteries in San Francisco filled, and new area just south of the city was designated for the new cemeteries. Colma, became the "City of the Dead." Among some of the most famous buried there is Wyatt Earp. His grave can be found in the "Hills of Eternity" cemetery. I am hoping to do a more in depth posting about the town, sometime soon, so stay tuned. For now however, I have some shots from other cemeteries I have come across in my travels. Hope you find them interesting. :)

El Carmelo Cemetery, Pacific Grove, California

Golden Gate Cemetery, Presidio, San Francisco, Ca.

Silver Terrace Cemetery, Virginia City, Nevada

Mount Saint Joseph Cemetery, Hayward, California

Note: The Silver Terrace Cemetery is reputed to be haunted. You can read about it here.

-OndineMonet
El Carmelo Cemetery, Pacific Grove, California
Autumn, 2006

In The Pink :)

"Humor is perhaps a sense of intellectual perspective: an awareness that some things are really important, others not;and that the two kinds are most oddly jumbled in everyday affairs."

-Christopher Morley

Ho Hum. I am off to see the surgeon later today, so I am, well, stressed. LOL. Actually, my case of the wiggins isn't all that bad, because this will be more of a fact finding appointment. The surgeon will only be looking at the areas of interest, looking at my chart, and discussing why this will or will not be the best thing for me. Simple. Right? Then why do I fully expect my surgeon to walk into the examining room, looking like the love child of Norman Bates, and Freddie Kruger? LOL. Especially since my doctor is a woman! LOL.

Well, that notion might be all those spooky movies I love so much influencing me. Did you ever see Coma? Now that movie will make you think twice before having elective surgery. LOL. Not that I mind being an organ donor. With the exception of my eyes. I don't think I want to donate them, because I have always had the unreasonable fear that I couldn't see to find my way to all those hunting's I am planning on doing. LOL. I think it would be fun to be a ghost, and do all kinds of mischief. Nothing too spooky, just silly little hauntings. Like say, moving someones potted plants around, or hiding the dog food. Or even better... clipping their toenails... when they aren't' looking! LOL. BOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO. ;)

Ok, I know I am getting a bit dark humored here, so in an effort to lighten both my mood and yours, how about a YouTube video. It is one of my favorite episodes of "The Pink Panther." Episode #81 "Pink Phink." I have loved this episode since I was a little girl. It always makes me smile. So play the video, and laugh out loud, it's a great way to start the week. :) I will update this entry, after I talk to the surgeon, and know how things are going. :) Either way... it will be ok. :)

"Humor is merely tragedy standing on it's head with it's pants torn."

-Irvin S. Cobb


-OndineMonet

A Joe Cool Summer

"A whole stack of memories never equals one little hope."

-Charles Schulz

For the past two summers, the town of Santa Rosa, has come alive with sculptures of the Peanuts gang. The first year was devoted to Charlie Brown, last year it was the summer of Woodstock, and for this year, the final year for the series, it was all about Joe Cool, AKA Snoopy. I have loved making the trek to Santa Rosa, to photograph this amazing exhibit, and I am going to miss them next summer. I was hoping that they would eventually get around to other characters, especially Lucy. The sculptures are on display throughout the town. There are 95 total! The search for them around town, is a wonderful chance to spend time in one of the most beautiful Northern California cities, and it seems like everyone grows roses there, in every imaginable color and variety.

If you don't make it up there this summer to see the statues, then certainly try to make it to the Charles Schulz Museum. It is a place of happiness. You can feel his spirit all about the place, even as a statue of Charlie Brown greets you just outside the door. Once inside, the lobby has a wonderful over sized Peanuts comic strip on the wall, and plenty of exhibits, programs, workshops and films to enjoy. Across the street is the Redwood Home Ice Arena/Snoopy's Home Ice, and the Warm Puppy Cafe, where according to my information map, Charles Schulz ate his breakfast each day, before he sat down to work on each of his Peanuts comics. He live in Santa Rosa, for 42 of his 50 year career. He obviously saw the immense beauty of the city of Santa Rosa. I didn't photograph as many of the statues as I wanted to the other day, but they will be on display through September 21, so maybe I will get back up there. I hope so. :)

"I think I've discovered the secret of life - you just hang around until you get used to it."

-Charles M. Schulz

Snoopy's Joe Cool Summer. Enjoy! :)

"Life is like a ten speed bicycle. Most of us have gears we never use."
-Charles M. Schulz

"Joe Masterpiece"

"No Shirt, No Shoes, No Problem"

"World Famous Novelist"

"Joe The Coolest Conservationist"

"Shakespeare Snoopy"

"Beagle Ridge"

"A Snoop Bis"

"Joe Brakeman Cool"

"Pucker Up Sweetie"

"Cool Reflections"

"Impressionist Snoopy"

"Cool The World"

Charlie Brown Greets You!

Charles M Schulz's Hollywood Walk of Fame star, which is located outside the Empire Ice Arena.

The Charles M. Schulz Museum

"I know the answer! The answer lies within the heart of all mankind! The answer is twelve? I think I am in the wrong building."

-Charles M. Schulz

"Big sisters are the crabgrass in the lawn of life."

-Charles M. Schulz

-OndineMonet
"The Original Joe Cool"
Charles M. Schulz Museum and Research Center
2301 Hardies Lane
Santa Rosa, California 95403
(707) 579-4452
August 2, 2007
Afternoon