"Taking pictures is savoring life intensely, ever hundredth of a second."
~Marc Riboud
I wish I could say that this was a carefully planned photograph. I wish I could say that I labored for hours, hand stocking the lake with tiny little fish, just to get the perfect shot of my favorite bird chomping away on his meal in a very photogenic manner... yeah... I wish. LOL. But actually I have to admit that while I was out with the camera one cold, dark December day, I spotted a cute little egret, sitting still and quietly in Lake Tilden. I had been out that day looking for shadows and moody corners of Tilden park, so when I came across this bird I couldn't have been happier! I snapped off about 25 photos or so, most of which came out either overexposed or grainy. But I did get a couple of shots that looked pretty decent. The one above was a completely surprise! The bird spotted the fish in the water, and dived in so quickly to catch it, that I didn't even see it happen. I didn't see what I had captured with the camera until I got home!
That's called a lucky break! LOL. It's okay... it has inspired me many times when I have been out with the camera specifically looking for birds. I think I stop now, and consider the bigger picture surrounding the birds... not just the subject itself. Luck... it's a good thing! Don't waste the lesson it gives you! Whatever the lesson is!
"The road of life is filled with sunshine and clouds, black and white, triumphs and tragedies. As we continue down the road, we decide which things we bring with us, and which we leave in the rear-view mirror."
~Julie-Anne
It's time to take a look back at the people, places and things that caught my eye in April. I had fun! I dunno, I think it just felt amazing to be able to get out of the house, after being sick in March. In any case, I found a lot to be inspired by. :)
Enjoy!
And now how about a little music?
The Beatles "The Long And Winding Road."
"All great roads are paved with uncomfortable memories."
"You're being cryptic again. It's like soap opera sex. Lots of boring dialogue and when they finally go to bed, everything's dark and covered by blankets."
~Ragnar Tornquist
It's April 29th... FINALLY!
April has been the longest month of this year, I swear someone added a few extra days! Nah, I know, this April has the exact same number of days it always had, but I have to say, it felt a lot longer longer than usual! Why? you ask. Well, you see, I have been waiting for the relaunch of two of my favorite soap operas, and let me tell you, the waiting hasn't been easy! It's been a long hard fight for we soap fans, a true uphill battle if there ever was one! And it all started in the month of April 2 years ago, when Brian Frons, former head of daytime programming for ABC, made the ridiculous, overreaching decision to axe not just one, but two of the network's long running daytime dramas, All My Children, and One Life To Live. At the time it seemed like a permanent dark cloud had been set not just on my Monday thru Friday, but on the days of millions of other soap fans as well!
We asked nicely that the network reconsider.
They ignored us!
We gathered and signed petitions online, and the old fashioned way.
They ignored us!
The Hoover company supported us by pulling all their advertising from ABC daytime. (Don't forget to buy Mom a Hoover vacuum for Mother's Day by the way!)
The network not only continued to ignore, but indeed openly thumbed their nose at us!
ABC replaced our favorite daytime dramas with... uggg... a "lifestyle show" and a "cooking show."
The first of the soaps to disappear was All My Children, in September of 2011. It was replaced by the ridiculously named cooking show called... gulp... The Chew. Hosted by, and I stick by the following opinion, so-so chefs, Mario Batali and Michael Symon. I actually spoke with Chef Symon one evening over Twitter, when, to my dismay, he decided to laugh at my assessment of him. I backed my opinion by telling him exactly why I felt the way I did. Let's just use one example here. His 5 in 5 segment. 5 ingredient meals, you could, or should, be able to prepare in 5 minutes for under $5 dollars. First of all, in the 3 months I watched The Chew, he never, ever, finished successfully in that amount of time and as for the $5 part... it was iffy at best! Not impressive! If it doesn't work, have the courage to say so, and move on! Right? Then there came the insulting way Batali introduced each show by saying "there are two types of people... Italians, and those who want to be Italians." Chef Batali... I have never wanted to be Italian! And should we talk about the many, many times I saw the chef's touch raw food without washing their hands? I could go on about the other elements about the show that bugged me, but there is no need for it. I don't watch it, but some do. In my opinion ABC won't be cancelling it anytime soon, so why belabor the point... right? It's awful. The End.
Now, as if a ridiculous cooking show wasn't enough... the network decided to replace One Life To Live with the short lived lifestyle show... The Revolution. The reviews were awful, right out of the box. It was so bad it lasted a total of 6 months on the air. It was BAD! It was so bad that it never came close to garnering the kind of ratings One Life To Live did in the same time slot. It was a sad embarrassment for all involved. But the saddest part about the entire situation is that The Chew, and The Revolution replaced shows that had been on ABC for over 40 years! Yep, that's right, both were on ABC for over 40 years! It truly was insulting to the fans to think that one more cooking show, or one more lame lifestyle show could possibly replace a show we had watched, and cared about since, as in my case, a small child. You know how when something big happens, and years later you reflect on where you were when it happened... the day Elvis Presley passed away, my sister and I were in my room, watching One Life To Live on my portable black and white TV. It was August 16th, 1977. She was just a few months away from getting married, and she and her fiance had planned to get tickets to see Elvis perform later that year. It was going to be their wedding gift to each other. It was one of those moments I never forgot, nor did I forget what I was watching when the "Breaking News" chimed in.
Brian Frons, and ABC made a big mistake. We fans made our voices heard loud and clear. And then one day we got some unexpected news, something was about to happen that has never happened before. A couple people got together and said... "What if?" What if we can relaunch those two much loved shows online? Long story short. There was some rough going with that idea, and at one point we fans accepted the possible reality that it probably wasn't going to happen, then just after the first of the year came the news that it was A GO! Now, most of the casts of both shows are back. It's a new day, and as of today, Monday, April 29th, All My Children and One Life To Live are back! They can both be seen Monday through Thursday with new 30 minute episodes, and on Friday with the recaps on Hulu, Hulu Plus and iTunes.
I said at the time Brian Frons made that dumb decision that it would go down in entertainment history as one of the stupidest decisions ever made in daytime! And guess what... I was right! As for Mr. Frons, well, he was let go from ABC in January of 2012! Bye Bye Mr. Frons have a nice time in oblivion!
Sometimes Mondays get a bad rap, but I think this Monday will go down in history as a pretty good day!
Now, here is a clip from One Life To Live, featuring one of my favorite daytime characters, David Vickers, played by Tuc Watkins. In the clip David debuts in his big break into acting by doing a commercial for a certain type of health product. It's funny! Watch it! Get your day off right with a little humor. Life is too short, we need a little escape once in a while... right?
By the way, some really great actors have gotten their start in daytime, among them are, Judith Light. Julianne Moore, Christopher Reeve, Meg Ryan, Demi Moore, Kevin Bacon, Tommy Lee Jones, just to name a few. Soap actors are some of the hardest working people around, and they have made my life much nicer just by sharing their talent with the world. I am honored to be a fan!
Congratulations on your new start All My Children and One Life To Live! I will be there every single day!
"We could learn a lot from crayons; some are sharp, some are pretty, some are dull, while others bright, some have weird names, but they all have learned to live together in the same box."
~Unknown
I am feeling in a silly mood, but at the same time everything, seemingly everywhere, is bursting with color. Well, we are in the middle of spring after all. Today it's supposed to be 95 degrees outside, so to my dismay it feels like summer is bullying spring a bit, but I guess that is to be expected. A few years ago I remember marveling at the fact that winter seemed to be bullying spring! LOL. In any case, while there will be flowers all summer, and well into autumn, there is just something about spring flowers that fills the soul with joy. :) It's something I have come to appreciate more and more.
As much as I am enjoying the pretty... I can't help but enjoy the silly also! It's a healthy balance methinks.
The Silly...
"If I told you I've worked hard to get where I'm at, I'd be lying, because I have no idea where I am right now."
~Jarod Kintz, This Book Is Not For Sale
"Who cares about pretty? I'm going for noticeable."
"Man is a slow, sloppy, and brilliant thinker; computers are fast, accurate, and stupid."
~John Pfeiffer
Lock Screen
It's been a two months to the day that I gave my first review of the new Windows 8 operating system. To say that Windows 8 and I got off to a rough start would be an understatement. But now, like I said, it's been a couple months and I have had a chance to work through learning the new program and there are some conclusions I have come to. For one thing, it's never a bad thing to learn something new... even if it challenges you in ways you couldn't imagine. Alan bought me the new Toshiba laptop to make my life a little easier, but from the outset I wondered if maybe I should have gone a different way entirely. After not giving up... and working through the rough patches... and doing a little troubleshooting online... I am glad I stuck with it. Am I a big fan of Windows 8 now? Um... no. But I don't absolutely hate it either.
It's complicated.
Here is the thing. Once I learned how to maneuver through the new Start Screen and folders formats I am cool with the rest of the program... well for the most part. It took me the better part of a couple weeks of trial and error, plus hunting around because of how bad those two parts of Windows 8 that confused me. I HATE the fact that there is no longer a simple Start button, which made life, and Windows much easier to use, and the for the LOVE OF GOD what were they thinking with that silly, area on the right that takes you to that stupid ghostly "WhatchaWannaDo" sidebar that appears with only the slightest of brushing against the right side pane of the display screen? Microsoft... just put the Start button back and banish the idiotic ghostly sidebar menu! Just let users boot straight to the desktop!
Ghostly Sidebar...
Start Screen
Desktop
Log Out Screen (Original)
Visually speaking, it's a gorgeous program. As a photographer, I enjoy being able to customize my screens to suit me. What I don't appreciate is the fact that when you first start working with Windows 8 you are beat over the head to use a Microsoft account. Take it from me... it's not necessary. My Toshiba laptop came loaded with a lot of apps that I simply didn't need. After I took the time to remove the apps, most of which you had to pay to operate, I customized my Start Screen with the programs and apps I actually use. That rubbed me the wrong way from the start, but in fact computers tend to come full of useless crap, so that's really not a new thing. It's up to each individual to figure out.
I have read there is a possibility that there will be a Windows 8.1 coming in the future, possibly later this summer, that addresses some of the issues I have bitched... ummm... complained about in this post and my previous review. You read about it here. Whether or not there will be a charge for the update is any one's guess. Hopefully Microsoft will realize their folly and be decent about the situation and just fix the stupidity. Either way, I have learned my way through the darkness that is Windows 8 and I am satisfied for the moment. I have learned about sites where you can download a program that puts a Windows Start button into the program for you, but it's just not the same. A nice try though. Somehow it would always bother me that it wasn't a real Start button. LOL. Yes, I obsess over stupid stuff like that.
Ugggg! And Mumpfh!
Simply said... Microsoft Windows 8 isn't as bad as all that once you get used to it, but it does take a little feeling around in the dark though. Of course there are books you can by through Amazon.com to help you figure it out, but personally, they aren't for me. I prefer to figure it out for myself, and once learned, never forgotten. But that's just me. Hey if nothing else, at least it's not Vista. Right?
As for my new Toshiba Laptop C855D-S5106... I couldn't be happier with it! As laptops go it's pretty darn nifty. It's fast. Quiet. Has a great display. It's perfect for all the basics. Browsing. Photo Editing. It has a decent sound quality and the battery life is great! It's lightweight and easy to carry. The DVD drive seems a bit flimsy, so I am extra careful with it, but that's the only negative that I have come across. I paid $279.00 on sale at Best Buy. For the price I am impressed! It's perfect for someone who needs a computer on the go, or to simply play a movie on (with headphones) when the neighbor's damn dog won't stop barking! LOL. I give it 4 out of 5 stars!
"Orange strengthens your emotional body, encouraging a general feeling of joy, well-being, and cheerfulness. Orange vibration foods are: oranges, tangerines, apricots, mangoes, peaches and carrots."
~Tae Yum Kim, The First Element: Secrets to Maximizing Your Energy
I didn't have a chance to get out and do new photography yesterday, so I tip-toed through the archives looking for something that I hadn't previously posted on Ellipsis, and as I searched for new images a general theme began to emerge... the color Orange.So, here are some of my favorite orange things! Each on never fails to make me smile, I hope you smile to.
Enjoy!
About that last one. Self portraits do not make me smile, but I have to confess I did enjoy doing that one. If memory serves me, it was for one of John Scalzi's Monday Photo Shoot assignments. When I first heard the topic I considered sitting the challenge out, but somehow that just made me feel like a bit quitter! Hey, what's the definition of a challenge? Something that challenges us to rise to the occasion... right? Anyway, at the end of the day, I met the challenge, and I did it by showing what I consider my best feature, my eyes. My one eye in particular. MY CREATIVE EYE.
"I think your whole life shows in your face and you should be proud of that."
~Lauren Bacall
I can't believe I hadn't noticed it before, but there it was! A face! I have to admit that I hadn't even noticed it the other day when I took this picture to show the property management company a small amount of damage done by time. It wasn't until I uploaded the photos for editing that I spotted this nice little face looking back at me. The face seems tired methinks. Worn. Maybe a bit sleepy. But such is the life of a fence I suppose. They get animals crawling on them. Rain sometimes. Hot sun. Even the occasional basketball thrown against them. A fence works hard keeping property lines, well, within the lines. And what does the fence get for all it's hard work... well... I have a feeling this poor fence will be replaced soon, but now that I have seen it's face, I almost wish it could just keep on keeping on. Hey, it has an actual personality now, doesn't it seem a shame to just cast it off as if it never did it's job at all? Poor fence! :(
Japanese Maple (Spring Deep Cinnamon Colored Leaves)
"Cinnamon bites about kisses simultaneously."
~Vanna Bonta
The garden is officially off and running toward harvest. That is a happy things. Just this past week I sprinkled cinnamon all around the yard, with taking special care to sprinkle it a bit heavier around each rose bush and each planter that has vegetables or potatoes growing in it. The yard smells wonderful, and it's nice to know that all those pesky aphids and ants will have NO place to stay while in my yard. I owe whoever discovered that cinnamon drives off garden pests a million thank yous! It is so lovely on warm nights to open the window and let the smell of lavender, and cinnamon, fill the room. As a lifelong insomniac I have always looked for natural ways to get a good night's sleep, and in my search on the Internet I found out that lavender is one of the best scents for relaxing and sleeping, and come to find out that not only is it true, but now I almost can't sleep without it!
Both cinnamon and lavender can be found in my kitchen as well. I have a small lavender plant that I purchased at an organic gardening center that I use for cooking. It is amazing when used in small amounts. Lavender Chicken is delicious, but so is lavender honey cupcakes! YUM. YUM. YUM. I have been wanting to try a recipe for lavender ice cream, and with summer just around the corner, doesn't that sound particularly good for dessert on a hot mid summer night? I been considering cooking with edible flowers, and lavender seemed like the perfect one to begin with. The plant itself is low maintenance and very nearly pest free. And the scent... Mmmmmm!
Cooking and photography go hand in hand as my two favorite creative outlets!
So tell me, do you enjoy photographing food? Have you done any organic gardening? Have you ever cooked with edible organic plants and flowers? If so, what did you make, and did it come out as good as you thought it would? What were the pluses and minuses?
~Jarod Kintz, The Days Of Yay Are Here! Wake Me Up When They're Over.
Dim.
Dim like a burned out light bulb, or dim like a 50 watt bulb?
The question was certainly a poser!
Wait, wait, wait... let me think. Dim like a 50 watt bulb, but you have to understand, if I were one of my really cool, really decorative and trendy purple lamps, well they are actually more of an eggplant color, I would require a 100 watt bulb to work properly. I could take a 50 watt bulb, but there wouldn't be the maximum output of light you would be used to. No. I would cast a much dimmer light. And the light wouldn't go as far into the room. You wouldn't want to read by me, but if you were needing to surf the Interwebs on your laptop computer machine, and you needed a little bit of light to see by, I would probably work out ok.
That's how the conversation went. I was describing what it feels like to experience a case of Fibro-Fog. In case you don't know what that is, it is what those who are diagnosed with Fibromyalgia feel like when they will go to say a word, and something completely different comes out. Like, for example, if I were having a conversation with a friend and they asked what the best utensil for flipping pancakes would be, most people would say a spatula, where I might say a ladle. Even when I am thinking about the word I want to say, and picturing a spatula in my head, somehow, and I have NO idea how, it will come out ladle. But hey, at least I thought of a word on that occasion, sometimes I will be thinking of a word, and again picturing the object in my head, and nothing will come out. No word. Can't do it. Can't think of the word! LOL.
Fun.
Never dull.
Frustrating as HELL!
And yes, I even laugh at it sometimes! LOL. What else can you do? It is what it is. It's all good!
I am much more of a visual person anyway. I will just let my pictures tell the story, in any words the viewer chooses. I like it better that way I think. My photographs tell a much better story than I ever could!
"Reach high, for stars lie hidden in your soul. Dream deep, for every dream precedes the goal."
~Pamela Vaull Starr
Mondays have gotten a bad rap methinks. Like black cats and broken mirrors. I have had long irritating Wednesdays, and Fridays that didn't live up to their promises, but Mondays have always been the best chance to reinvent the way I spend a day. Today we get up and its all new. New things to learn will be learned this week, and for the most part it begins today. Of course all things being relative, maybe this isn't Monday at all. From Alan's perspective, today is Friday because he works Thursday to Sunday 6:00 am to 2:00 pm, but his last shift of his work week is Sunday 10:00 pm to 6:00 am making this, in his world, Friday.
Some days of the week I have two of. Others only one. Maybe that's why some days seem months long, and some months years long but some moments, only seconds. All of it goes by so fast that sometimes my heart just pounds when I realize 20 years ago, wasn't 5 minutes ago. I think the powers that be were right in not allowing us to travel back in time. Can you imagine the mess we mortals would make?
Life. Time. Maple Trees. The Moon. Black Cats. Mirrors. New Beginnings. And Of Course...
"I was a little excited but mostly blorift. "Blorift" is an adjective I just made up that means 'Completely overwhelmed but proceeding as if everything is fine and reacting to the stress with the torpor of a possum.' I have been blorft every day for the past seven years."
~Tina Fey,Bossypants
If Only I Could Have Found My Blorift...
I read Tina Fey's book, Bossypants, and couldn't put it down. She is amazing! Truly, she is this generations Lucille Ball! Can you imagine if she and Lucy could have starred together? Wow, it would have been comedy GOLD! Recently, I saw her in her latest film, Admission. She impressed me yet again with her ability to entertain. This time, she took a bit of a break from her usual comedy escapades, to show a different side, her dramatic ability! She had me in tears at one point, but in a good way.
As I was mentioning in my post yesterday, movies give us a chance to shake off the stresses and distractions of everyday life, and when you can find a movie that is so good it actually makes you forget your cares for an hour or so then it's a not just a fun way to shake off the stress, but a smart one as well. Stress is a bad thing for the soul. I know of what I speak, because this past week was really stressful. For me it began last Sunday, when the current owner of the property I live on decided to help herself and walk right into my home. I have warned her before that under our contract that I am to have 24 hours notice, but there she was, once again, trespassing, and this time she brought friends!
People I have never even met!
As I said, this happened last Sunday afternoon, and the stress from that resulted in the headache from HELL! Then Monday came along, and well, we all know how the week played out from there. Compared to what some went through last week, my petty problems seem just that... PETTY. And in the grand scheme of things I suppose it doesn't compare, but that's just it, can you really compare problems with other folks, or can you just do the best you can do with the problems you own? Most of us are just doing what we can do to get by, for me that means explaining one more time that not only are my landlord's actions annoying... they are illegal! And remedying things by purchasing a decent little security system and installing it so it will be able to document the illegal entry.
I wish I didn't have to do that. I like the lady very much.
She doesn't want the fact to be true, that she can't walk into my home just because she owns it.
Stress happens... right? And with each new event, my headache seemed to pound harder. What can you do? I did what I could to get rid of it, but didn't have much luck. My usual coping mechanism, in lieu of a day at the movies, is watching General Hospital. It was preempted several times last week, so there went that! LOL. I get the news needed to report about the the terrible things that went on last week, but after a while the wall to wall coverage became downright horrifying and several times I found myself rethinking what leaving the house means. I hate that! I want to just live my life, but who knows what living in America is really about anymore. Things have changed so much from when I was a child. Sometimes it doesn't seem like America. Like it's something different, but I don't understand how to feel or think about it or who to trust.
Like I said. Stress. It was the word of the week! But like with everything, the stress did pass!
After the capture of the Boston bombing suspect Friday night, I went to bed happy and relieved for the people of Boston, and slept deeply for 7 straight hours, which seemed to be just what the doctor ordered! Of course it didn't hurt that Dylan cuddled into me, and Hendrix bit my toes all night, in that cute little way he does when he wants to play! And when I woke up yesterday morning, the sun looked a little prettier, and I actually felt like working in the garden! The headache had moved on, and my body was ready to play. Since there wasn't any movies I wanted to go see, I thought it would be good to finally get the Heirloom tomatoes planted, and start our newest project of growing Yukon Gold potatoes!
And if all that wasn't enough to put a smile on a stressed out girls face, look who fluttered by to say "HI"...
It was a sunny day! Don't you love sunny days and little blue butterflies?
"Here Comes The Sun"
The Beatles
Here Comes The Sun Here Comes The Sun And I Say It's All Right...
Theaters. The THEATER is pure magic to me, whether I am attending an amazing play, or a wonderful movie. In any case, a trip to the THEATER is at least 2 hours of relief from the real world. It's a marvelous escape and I love it! I always marvel at the architecture of the buildings, and I enjoy reading about their individual historical presences. There is a lot to appreciate about going to a movie or play, and I always go home smiling after the show has ended because a wonderful new memory has been made, just by going to the THEATER! :)
The Grand Lake
Oakland, California
I was an uncredited extra in the Brad Pitt movie, Moneyball. This is the theater in Oakland where they held the movie premiere. I wasn't able to be there to watch all the movie stars arrive, but I did get to see local coverage on the news. :) Oh my, it looked like fun! The Grand Lake is a gorgeous theater that has inspired me many times over the years.
United Artists
Berkeley, California
I just love the Art Deco styling of this theater!
Regal IMAX
Dublin, Ca (Hacienda Crossing)
One of our favorite theaters to watch a great movie!
I thought it would be fun to add some popcorn to this post, because who doesn't love popcorn at the theater? ;)
The Fremont, in San Luis Obispo, California, is one of the last Streamline Moderne theaters built by architect S. Charles Lee. It is a gorgeous theater day or night, but at nighttime it is particularly lovely. I had some wonderful evening photos that I took of it back in the mid 1990's, but unfortunately they were lost when our storage room was burglarized a while back. That's okay, I will hopefully be able to visit SLO sometime later this year or perhaps next year, and I will do a new series of photos to share! I would love to attend the San Luis Obispo International Film Festival later this year! Doesn't that sound like fun?
Okay, now that you have seen my post about THEATERS, be sure to visit the other Round Robin participants! Just click the link at the beginning of this post to be redirected to the official Round Robin blog. You can find all the information there!
"I almost wish we were butterflies and liv'd but three summer days... three such days with you I could fill with more delight than fifty common years could ever contain."
~John Keats, Bright Star: Love Letters and Poems of John Keats To Fanny Brawne
Please forgive the photographs from the archives, but Thursday was a long day. Not a bad day mind you, but a busy one. I was engaged in a all the tedious tasks that I had been putting off. It felt good to feel normal. My body has been put through it's paces since the first of the year, and my Fibromyalgia seems to be running my life to a degree, and stress always exacerbates things. But the sun was warm, and the garden is getting off to a slow, but healthy start so it made things easier to take! It also helped to get a little good news from Alan as he was on the way out the door for work. It seems the Conservatory of Flowers in Golden Gate Park will be opening a new butterfly exhibit in early May! I love photographing butterflies, so I am really looking forward to seeing what my current cameras can do in that setting.
Indoor shooting has it's pluses and minuses as you probably know. I am really looking forward to that exhibit, but I wish my friend Steven were here to give me some advice. I loved sharing my photos with him, and I know I will be thinking of him when I visit the Conservatory. Still, I can remember his advice sometimes, just as if he were right there... coaching me along. (Smile) He is still my friend, and one day we will meet on the other side, and hopefully there are cameras in Heaven, because I still have a lot of questions for him! LOL.
Here is a favorite photo I took several years ago at the Conservatory of Flowers Butterfly Exhibit several years ago...
Such a delicate Little Yellow ( Pyrisitia lisa) butterfly, not even the size of my thumb. :)
I think after yesterday's gray post, I am looking for color again! :) And how can you not smile in the presence of a Little Yellow butterfly going about it's life, completely unaware of all of the harsh human realities? Lucky her!
Okay, so my mood has been a bit dark this week. Among all the anguish and pain of the happenings in Boston, are the everyday irritations that seem a lot bigger and more powerful than they actually are. I know it's true, and yet... (silence). My problems seem petty compared to what some have gone through this week, and yet as I try to consider they're pain, rather and wallowing in self pity, I only come back to the same answer my dear late friend June would always say in times like this...
On a slightly different note, I love gray San Francisco days. There is something quiet about it that allows me to think about things on a different level. It's a good thing I think. Sometimes one has to stop for a moment and just reflect or face falling down from sheer exhaustion. Gray days are good days for me. The quiet mist in the air. The clouds. The fog moving through the Golden Gate. The joy of wearing my favorite brown sweater one more day before summer encroaches on spring.
"The sun was warm but the wind was chill. You know how it is with an April day."
~Robert Frost
The sun was ridiculously cheerful yesterday. My mood not so much. But I appreciated the beauty everywhere all the same. You know how it goes after a tragedy like what happened in Boston, you get up the next day and suddenly the sky has never been so blue, and the pink fuzzy blossoms never so soft and pink, and a little while later in the day you realize it doesn't honor those lost, to take life, and it's simple earthly gifts for granted. Right? The next day in April will come along and it's a blessing, so don't take it for granted, or forget to appreciate it.
"When one person is missing, the whole world seems empty."
~Pat Schweibert, Tear Soup: A Recipe For Healing After Loss
To The People Of Boston...
I send my love, prayers, and healing light for the days and the weeks ahead. I wish I had something profound to say that would instantly take your grief away, but I can't, all I can do is send you my support and love so you know you always have a friend in me. I grieve with you. I wish I could do more.
"Enthusiasm is the electricity of life. How do you get it? You act enthusiastic until you make it a habit."
~Gordon Parks
I love this fairly new art form of communities painting utility boxes. I spotted this one in downtown Hayward. Hayward began painting the utility boxes to fight growing graffiti, and now there are over 30 boxes throughout the city, making it a prettier place! And they aren't just in Hayward, I have been seeing painted boxes throughout the Bay Area in the last few years, and the list of participating cities is only growing! Personally, I love them, I think they add a nice splash of color to the landscape! Cute isn't it? I will have more of these soon, I want to make a whole day of it and see how many I can photograph.
"It's been said that men think only about sex and food. And some men, like my uncle Lester, thank about sex with food. Needless to say the church has ordered him to cease bringing his own food to the potlucks."
~Jarod Kintz, This Book Is Not For Sale
I don't know why I don't do more photography in Berkeley, in my opinion it has some of the most beautiful buildings in the Bay Area. And it has a ton of difference churches, as you might expect of a collage town. This church, The First Congregational Church Of Berkeley, is one of my very favorites to photograph. It just has a gentle vibe about it, of course I suppose some might say that's God. LOL. Perhaps. All I know is that I have taken a few photos of it over the years, and I am always happy with the end result of what I was trying to capture. It is especially beautiful in autumn, but then, isn't everything?
