The Comeback... Congratulations Team Oracle USA! 2013 America's Cup Winners!

"When I'm all grown up, come what may, I'll build a boat to carry me away."

~Guy Gavriel, Tigana 



The weather couldn't have been more lovely! Well, it was really windy, but the temperature was perfect for an early autumn day! The timing couldn't have been better! Alan and I drove across the bay at the last minute, on a whim really, and it all came together when we found the perfect place, a dock on the San Francisco Bay, near Chrissy Field, to watch history be made as team Oracle USA came back from trailing behind Emirates Team New Zealand 8-1, to win the 2013 America's Cup regatta race!



Our vacation doesn't begin officially until next Monday, but after the fun of yesterday, it's difficult to not think of it as already here! A beautiful day! A little time, sitting on a dock of the most beautiful bay in the world, and time with Alan... what more can a girl ask for?

:)

"A passage under sail brings out in the course of days whatever there may of the sea love and sea sense in an individual whose soul is not indissolubly wedded to the pedestrian shore."

~Joseph Conrad

2013 America's Cup Race, San Francisco


Mood: Lighthearted!

~Me :)

Dark-Eyed Junco

Dark-Eyed Junco
Little Farm
Tilden Park, Berkeley California
September 21st, 2013

"In order to see birds, it is necessary to become a part of the silence."

~Robert Lynde



I love watching these pretty little birds. The Dark-Eyed Junco are tiny little things, but so amazingly beautiful! Of all the birds I have spotted in Tilden Park, these are my very favorite! One day, a couple years ago, I saw a small tree just filled with these birds! I couldn't help but sit quietly, and listen to their strong little chirp. There are worse ways I could have spent that afternoon!

:)

Mood: Happiness

~Me :)

Wars And Rumors Of Wars... On Christmas! And The Real Battle!

"Christmas is a necessity. There has to be at least one day of the year to remind us that we're here for something else besides ourselves."

~Eric Sevareid



I have been waiting a long time for this rant. Three months from today will be Christmas Eve. I love Christmas Eve, perhaps more than I love Christmas Day! Alan and I have some traditions, all our own, that I look forward to all year! First we get up and have a light breakfast, then he leaves to finish up his last minute holiday shopping. Actually, it's not so much getting that last minute shopping done, so much as Alan Alone Time. LOL. It's fine, he more than deserves it. He works really hard, and he spoils me rotten, so how could I begrudge him some alone time?

I couldn't!

Last year we had presents under the tree. And the decorations looked lovely. But I felt NO spirit at all. I wasn't the least bit interested, even though I tried really hard to pull myself into the joys that surrounded me. Alan wasn't much in the mood either. You see, just about ten days before Christmas last year, the Sandy Hook Elementary school shooting happened. In the days that followed, the country could have come together as one, and to a good degree it did, except for the powers that be at the NRA! Why one interest group holds more power then the whole of the American people, I will never understand, but there it was... December 21st... 2012... and Wayne LaPierre vowing to do nothing to change gun policies to make things safer for our children, or for the person next to us. On Christmas Eve, instead of finishing up my own last minute joys, like baking cookies, or phoning friends to wish them a merry holiday, I spent my time crying for those lost children, and worrying about whether Alan was safe out in the world.

I hate being afraid.

It pisses me off.

So, the Sandy Hook shooting took place on December 14th of last year, on December 17th of last year I saw the above item, Old Carbine Tequila, for sale at Costco! Still on the shelf, still prominently displayed! Because nothing says MERRY CHRISTMAS like a shotgun shaped Tequila bottle, with a couple of free shot glasses included! Guns and Alcohol. Don't it go down smooooooooth? Goddammit! I wasn't over grieving for those the little ones, or the brave adults lost at Sandy Hook, before I saw that ridiculous Christmas gift idea in the aisle at Costco, and my tears turned to anger. With grieving, you have anger, it's built in. It's almost to be expected, but I couldn't believe Costco couldn't see how completely tacky that particular items was! Then, a few days later, December 21st came, and along with it, that stupid NRA press conference, vowing to do NOTHING! No, worse, vowing to fight any attempt to make things safer!

:::::::SILENCE::::::

Here we sit, almost a year later, and still nothing has been done.

Political JackASS Bill O'Reilly loves to falsely claim there is a "war on Christmas." How dare people wish someone a "Happy Holiday" rather than "MERRY CHRISTMAS!" Year, after year, the same exact bullshit! With nothing to back it up! His ire has nothing to do with God! It has everything to do with firing up his audience, the ones who gave up thinking for themselves a long time ago. The cowards who need a radio program to tell them how to feel. Money. Greed. Ratings is the King. If Bill O'Reilly were genuinely offended by the lack of Christmas, it wouldn't be about a greeting, it would be about making sure that NO child is ever killed 10 days before Christmas... or at any time... ever again... because of the worshiping of a false idol such as the gun.

When a weapon is held in higher regard than human life... it has become a false idol.

Period.

So, is there a war on Christmas? You bet there is! To win it, you have to put your weapon down, and think about your fellow man!

And by the way, Christmas isn't over commercialized. It is EXACTLY AS COMMERCIALIZED AS YOU CHOOSE TO MAKE IT! YOU CONTROL WHAT YOU PURCHASE, SO STOP SPREADING THAT CRAP!

Happy Holidays To You And Yours! I kinda dig the Holiday Tree.. don't you? :)



“Nor is it the spirit of those Christians - alas, they are many - whose ambition in life seems limited to building a nice middle-class Christian home, and making nice middle-class Christian friends, and bringing up their children in nice middle-class Christian ways, and who leave the sub-middle-class sections of the community, Christian and non-Christian, to get on by themselves.

The Christmas spirit does not shine out in the Christian snob. For the Christmas spirit is the spirit of those who, like their Master, live their whole lives on the principle of making themselves poor - spending and being spent - to enrich their fellowmen, giving time, trouble, care and concern to do good to others - and not just their own friends - in whatever way there seems need.”

~J.I. Packer, Knowing God

Mood: Reflective/Sad

~Me :)

On The Last Full Day Of Summer

"I have an affection for those transitional seasons, the way they take the edge off the intense cold of winter, or the heat of summer."

~Whitney Otto, How To Make An American Quilt

Because of when I do my photography, and do my blog posting, I am usually one day behind things. I eventually get there... lol... so no worries. With our 5 week vacation starting in about a week, I know I will be coming and going much more than usual, so perhaps I will work on changing my posting schedule a bit. We'll see. Anyway, here is what the last day of summer, 2013, looked like for us in the Bay Area.

In my opinion, it was perfect! I love the way to earth looks, and smells, after the rain!


Padre Picnic Area
Tilden Park, Berkeley, California
September 21st, 2013


Little Farm
Tilden Park, Berkeley, California
September 21st, 2013


Lake Anza
Tilden Park, Berkeley, California
September 21st, 2013

I love working with the transitional lighting on rainy days! So pretty!

Mood: Happy

~Me :)

At 4:44 P.M. EDT Autumn Begins

"Rest your eyes well before September because with all it's colors autumn is coming to visit them!"

~Mehmet Murat ildan



Autumnal
By Ernest Dowson, The Poems And Prose Of Ernest Dowson

Pale amber sunlight falls across
The reddening October trees,
That hardly sway before a breeze
As soft as summer: summer's loss
Seems little, dear! On days like these.

Let misty autumn be our part!
The twilight of the year is sweet:
Where shadow and darkness meet
Our love, a twilight of the heart
Eludes a little time's deceit.

Are we not better and at home
In dreamful Autumn, we who deem
No harvest joy is worth a dream?
A little while and night shall come,
A little while, then let us dream.

Beyond the pearled horizons lie
Winter and night: awaiting these
We garner this poor hour of ease,
Until love turn from us and die
Beneath the drear November trees."

12 hours of light. 12 hours of darkness. And then the lovely shorter days of autumn and winter. Oh my, how I love it! Beautiful, earthly colors of leaves. Gold, Crimson, sometimes Purple, but Green is not unheard of, all falling like stars, softly to the ground. When the sun shines through the leaves on a warm autumn afternoon, I feel amazingly happy inside, like I am experiencing a soft warm hug from the very earth itself.

If it's possible to be in love with a season... I am!

Autumn officially begins at 4:44 PM EDT. Go outside and experience it. Don't take it for granted!

Mood: HAPPY

~Me :)

Round Robin Challenge: History

USS San Francisco Memorial (Damaged Bridge Wings)
Lands End (Outer Richmond)
San Francisco, California
September 4th, 2013

"That men do not learn very much from the lessons of history is the most important of all lessons that history has to teach."

~Aldous Huxley, Collected Essays

RRC: History!

 

For my post on the subject History, I decided to visit, or actually revisit, the USS San Francisco Memorial, which sits in the Outer Richmond district of San Francisco, near Lands End. I first visited the memorial about 10 years ago, and I did a few photos that day, but I didn't know much about how the full history or how significant the service of the USS San Francisco had been in World War II. Over the last few years I have done some reading about it, and it has stuck in my consciousness when contemplating the wars America has engaged in, particularly since 9/11. World War II, and our involvement in it, was so different than most of the wars we have been in since. No war should be the first choice of the men who make these decisions, but unfortunately some things are inevitable.

I am hoping that we are not sitting on the precipice of yet another war in the middle east, but somehow it feels like the people at the top, the ones who can decide between diplomacy and international law, over war, have their minds made up no matter what I think. I have heard my father-in-law say many times... "I went to war so my children wouldn't have to!" He is a veteran of World War II, so I can understand his ire at the fact that history, sometimes in the worst ways, just keeps repeating itself! Okay, I am done now. Here, in photographs, taken at the beginning of September of this year, is the story of the USS San Francisco, and her place in wartime history...

USS San Francisco And The Battle Of Guadalcanal

 

I decided to post the photos in black and white because it just seemed most appropriate.


Okay, now that you have seen my take on History, be sure to visit all the Round Robin participants. Just click the link at the top of this entry to be redirected to the official Round Robin blog where you will find the list of participants, and all the information you need to play along! :)

~Mood: Reflective

~Me :)

Smile, You Woke Up Today!

"When you love something, you want to do it all the time, even if no one is paying you for it. At least that's how I felt about drawing."

~Meg Cabot, All-American Girl

I love photography! I do! And that's why I find inspiration everywhere! It's pretty fair to say that I have taken at least a photo a day for the last ten years, well, with a few exceptions, mostly brought on by pain from my Fibromyalgia and then during the lull I experienced prior to being diagnosed with an under active thyroid. God, it sounds like excuses, but let me tell you, I missed being able to feel creative! It was eerily reminiscent of the years of Anhedonia. YIKES! Pathetic much? LOL. No, just human I guess. Life has a funny way of throwing you curves, I count myself lucky that I have conditions that can be treated! I got reminded about how lucky I was yesterday, while on my way to the Bay Bridge. A homeless man was standing in the middle of the street. He had a simple sign in his hands which read... "Smile, You Woke Up Today!" A simple reminder? Or a good swift kick in the backside?

I guess that is a very personal, and individual, revelation to be had and decided upon.

"Smile, You Woke Up Today." PASS IT ON!

Mood: Reflective

~Me :)

Shine On, Shine On Harvest Moon Up In The Sky

"The moon is a loyal companion. It never leaves. It's always there, watching, steadfast, knowing us in our light and dark moments, changing forever just as we do. Every day it's a different version of itself. Sometimes weak and wan, sometimes strong and full of light. The moon understands what it means to be human. Uncertain. Alone. Cratered by imperfections."

~Tahereh Mafi, Shatter Me

Today's Full Moon is called the Harvest Moon because it is the full moon which occurs closest to the Autumnal Equinox. I guess, like me, the moon just couldn't quite wait until September 22nd, which is of course the first day of autumn. I kinda like believing that... it makes me feel a little less alone in my anxiousness for autumn~ But at the same time, it's hard to not think of this moon as the last moon of summer! So, what do you think? Does summer get robbed of it's one last shining moment?

:) Isn't it funny how the man in the moon can make you feel like you are the only one he sees?

Mood: Happy

~Me :)

The Love Story Of Donny And Nina (Not Their Real Names) Part II

"It's not lack of love, but a lack of friendship that makes unhappy marriages."

~Friedrich Nietzsche

The graphic above shows where we left off with The Love Story Of Donny And Nina!

The graphic below brings us up to date...



I can't believe they got married! Just last July she was calling him a, "FUCKING ASSHOLE" and threatening to leave his "ASS." And he was willing to "CALL HER A CAB." So, was marriage really the right decision? By the same token, who am I to say what they need to do to fix their problems? That may have been just what they needed to repair whatever wasn't working. I would like to hope for the best for them, but somehow, I don't think their getting married will change much.

And that makes me kinda sad for them.

In a little less than a month, Alan and I will have been married 23 years! Alan is my best friend. My lover. My protector. My champion. He is my love! And we began our relationship as friends, then best friends, then we fell in love. There has never been any disrespect between us... ever. Mistakes yes! Disrespect? No!

Stay Tuned! I don't think we have seen, or heard, the last chapter in the "Love Story Of Donny And Nina!"

"Men marry women with the hope they will never change. Women marry men with the hope they will change. Invariably they are both disappointed."

~Albert Einstein

Mood: Reflective

~Me

Art About Town: Berkeley "Earth Song"

"Earth Song"
By, Po Shu Wang
Center at Shattuck Streets
Berkeley, California

"If you ask me what I came to do in this world, I, an artist, will answer you... I am here to live out loud."

~Emile Zola

I seem to be in a Berkeley frame of mind. :) I have posted photos of this sculpture before, but its been a while, and for whatever reason while out running errands the other day, it just caught my eye and made me smile. Can great art really be seen too much?

:)

Read more about the art and the artist here.

Mood: Happy

~Me :)

Heirloom Tomatoes Fresh From The Garden... Delicious!

"Cooking requires confident guesswork and improvisation... experimentation and substitution, dealing with failure and uncertainty in a creative way."

~Paul Theroux, Sir Vidia's Shadow: A Friendship Across Five Continents

 

YUM! There really is nothing more tasty than the fruits and vegetables from a garden you have planted and nurtured and grown yourself! This year we did a scaled down version of last years garden. Just two Heirloom tomato plants! Alan had the chance to do a lot more overtime, which was a welcomed evil, but time being what it is meant doing less planting. It's okay, we have some  ambitious plans for next spring, so all is well! And anyway, how can one feel bad, when there are beautiful, fresh tomatoes in the garden, ready to be enjoyed?!

Tonight, I am making my famous meatloaf. Right now that is it's only name. "My Famous Meatloaf." LOL. Maybe I will give it a proper name, and post the full recipe... shrug... you never know. It's probably nothing super special as meatloaf goes, but Alan loves it, and raves about it every time I make it for him. What can I say, he is easy to please. He is a nice man, who just happens to know all my flaws, but loves me anyway, and I guess it's that love for me that makes my famous meatloaf taste so good to him. I fix it for him with a lot of love, so I am glad that comes through in my cooking.

Another sign that it's almost autumn... I LOVE cooking in autumn! Come to think of it, I created this meatloaf one lovely autumn day, a few years ago. I suppose I could name it...

Carly's Autumn Meatloaf!

LOL.

Any excuse to fit autumn into the conversation.

Wink!

How does all this relate to the GORGEOUS HEIRLOOM TOMATOES? Glad you asked! You see, they are going to be cut up, tossed with some tasty, super yummy, French Feta cheese and some wonderful EVOO, and just a dash of fresh ground peppercorns served on the side of the famous meatloaf. Rustic. Simple. Delicious.

YUM!

"Maybe the cat has fallen into the stew, or the lettuce has froxen, or the cake has collapsed. Eh bien, tant pis. Usually one's cooking is better than one thinks it is. And if the food is truly vile, then the cook must simply grit her teeth and bear it with a smile, and learn from her mistakes."

~Julia Child

Mood: Happy

~Me :)

Saturdays, Football, And Leaves

Fox Sports Robot "Cleatus"
Cal Berkeley Campus
Berkeley, California
September 14th, 2013

"In football everything is complicated by the presence of the opposite team."

~Jean-Paul Sartre

 

Yesterday, Saturday, was an absolutely beautiful day in Berkeley! The sky was perfectly blue. The air was crisp and clear, and it was football day! I know... every Saturday this time of year is football day, but there is something about the first home game at Cal that makes it all so much fun! Yeah, at certain times the traffic can be a challenging, but at the same time there is a certain energy and excitement that can't be missed, and that can be really contagious! God I love it here! GO BEARS! :)

It also doesn't hurt that Berkeley is getting a big jump on autumn. Sometimes when I am out driving, I will turn a corner, and suddenly I feel like I am in the middle of autumn, rather than just on the edge of summer. Streets lined in bright greens, will suddenly burst with crimson! I could be having the worst day, and just turning down the right street brings me around to a wonderful sort of calm. So much slow that my sleeping will even improve that night. Look Ma... No Valium! LOL.

 It's hard to explain.

 

Autumn will officially be here in less than a week. Isn't that wonderful?

The Final Score: Ohio State (52) Cal Bears (34)

Mood: Peaceful

~Me :)