Autumn Leaf Of The Day #87

 

“The seasonal urge is strong in poets. Milton wrote chiefly in winter. Keats looked for spring to wake him up (as it did in the miraculous months of April and May, 1819). Burns chose autumn. Longfellow liked the month of September. Shelley flourished in the hot months. Some poets, like Wordsworth, have gone outdoors to work. Others, like Auden, keep to the curtained room. Schiller needed the smell of rotten apples about him to make a poem. Tennyson and Walter de la Mare had to smoke. Auden drinks lots of tea, Spender coffee; Hart Crane drank alcohol. Pope, Byron, and William Morris were creative late at night. And so it goes.” 

 

― Helen Bevington,

  When Found, Make a Verse of

 

 

Autumn Leaf Of The Day #86

 

FALL

I've never liked orange
not even a hint of yellow
though that doesn't mean I'm derange,
you know.
but it's still a riddle as to why,
you can make me see it like it's aurora borealis in the sky.

 
~Kynna Claire 

 

 

Planning, Timing And Luck

 

“I had the epiphany that laughter was light, and light was laughter,

 and that this was the secret of the universe.” 

~Donna Tartt,

  The Goldfinch

 

That's an a American Goldfinch I met at Yolo the other day. I knew that there would be some perching birds to be found, but I was a little surprised to see the goldfinch, because I have to date not seen one before the Spring. Of course I am basing that on the ones I have seen mostly along Desmond road, in Galt. I have only seen them once in across the street, in Louis Park, but never in the yard tree. Birding is definitely a science. It's not as easy as picking up a pair of binoculars and looking for birds. I use several apps to help me locate, and ID,  certain birds and even with those resources, there are no guarantees. There is only two more weeks to find the perchers left on my list, so I am going to have to do a lot of planning to reach my goal for the year of 170. 8 more birds to go. It won't be easy, but the positive part of Autumn crossing into Winter is that the skeleton trees make the perching birds so much easier to spot. Birding is part planning, part timing, and part luck, but sometimes I think sheer luck runs it all. 8 birds to go... with a little luck I think it is possible.

 

Autumn Light, Winter Light...

 

“Come, little leaves," said the Wind one day, "Come to the meadows with me and play. Put on your dresses of red and gold; For Summer is past, and the days grow cold.” 

~George Cooper 

 

 

Light is really strange this time of year. A little bit of the waning gold of the Autumn sun, meets the clear white light of Winter in a fantastic hand off. Not only did the light at Yolo Bypass bring me happiness to see it play with the gold still left in the trees, but to my delight there was still some spider silk to be found just about everywhere I looked and the sun played with that too! The spiders from October and November, that flew in big strands across the sky, found a place to land, and has survived the cold and rain. The silk covered Yolo Bypass like spun sugar! And the best part is that under all those strands of silk, live some tiny spiders that will big spiders eventually, and my camera can't wait! Maybe I will meet another Boris one day!

Autumn Leaf Of The Day #85

 

“Let whoever wants to, relax in the south,
And bask in the garden of paradise.
Here is the essence of north—and it's autumn
I've chosen as this year's friend.” 

~Anna Akhmatova,

  The Complete Poems of Anna Akhmatova

 

Autumn Leaf Of The Day #84

 

“Yesterday is history, tomorrow is a mystery, today is a gift of God, which is why we call it the present.” 

~Bill Keane 

 

 

An Afternoon With A Green Heron And His Friend

“I tell myself relationships are hard work. No one is perfect.

 There's no such thing as happily ever after.” 

― Laura Nowlin,

  If He Had Been with Me

 

 

I met this guy at the Clifton Court Forebay the other day. I went there to search for ducks and grebes, and I found some, but not in any great numbers. All I saw was a couple Bufflehead and some Ring-necked ducks. There was a few Egrets, but nothing in any great numbers. So I was pleasantly surprised when this gorgeous little bird flew over, and began fishing along the rocks. After a few minutes of searching he found a snack, and as intrigued and impressed as I was, I found I was equally sad for the poor little fish that was about to be swallowed whole. None of it gets any easier. Go for birding with the camera, hoping for an interesting photo that highlights a bird's life, and you many very well come home with beautiful but depressing photo of how all life really works. If only all animals, sea life, and birds were vegetarians! But then again, my friend Boris The Spider would end up a lot bigger! 

 

The Green Heron wasn't the only one fishing that day...

 

Western Grebe and it's lunch of Black Bass

  What a day at the Clifton Court Forebay!

 

 "Ah, when to the heart of man
Was it ever less than a treason
To go with the drift of things,
To yield with a grace to reason,
And bow and accept the end
Of a love or a season?”

 
~Robert Frost,

   The Poetry of Robert Frost

 

 

Autumn Leaf Of The Day #83

 

“In every change, in every falling leaf there is some pain, some beauty. And that's the way new leaves grow.” 

 
~Amit Ray 

 

Yet another one, but it just fits today. 

 

 

The Ghost Of Chocolate's Past

 

“Memories warm you up from the inside.

 But they also tear you apart.” 

 
~Haruki Murakami,

  Kafka on the Shore

 

Finally, the spare room is finished! To celebrate it actually being livable, and the last reminder of that god awful move behind us, we decorated it for Christmas, and went to Ghiradelli in Lathrop for some chocolate, a bottle of sea salt caramel topping and bag of peppermint baking chips. I wish I had been at Ghiradelli in San Francisco, because as I remember, they had a lot more choices of products, like my hubby's favorite, chocolate covered coffee beans, and the chunks of chocolate in a barrel, and it's San Francisco! My dad used to buy me the big chunks of chocolate whenever he visited the city. I was thinking about him the other day, he loved to grab a sundae there. All it took was a big Hot Fudge Sundae to put a smile on his face. Ghiradelli's chocolate is very distinctive. The Hot Fudge is amazing but our favorite sundae was the Hot Peanut Butter. They don't have it anymore... darn it!

 

Funny, it isn't even my memory, and yet I can see him sitting at one of their little tables enjoying the view, and devouring that delicious sundae. That was dad. Gosh, I sure am missing him right now. I think he would have enjoyed the Sugar Cooking chocolate squares I bought this year. Oh my... anyway, as chocolate goes, I enjoy it but by no means am I a chocolate fiend or anything, but there are definitely some memories around it. Like the memory of my sister always having a BIG box of See's candy on the table for Christmas eve. I did love so the Milk Bordeaux, and I don't know if I ever told her how awesome it was that she did that. Smooth, sweet the candy melted in your mouth. I haven't had one of those in ages. She and I were never close, and after a certain point we never spoke again, but she is gone now too, and I am thinking about her this Christmas too. Oh boy... sigh... I think I see another post about chocolate, and family dynamics, coming! 

Lathrop sure isn't San Francisco.

 

Autumn Leaf Of The Day #82

 

“I cannot endure to waste anything so precious as autumnal sunshine by staying in the house."

Notebook, Oct. 10, 1842 

 
~Nathaniel Hawthorne,

  The American Notebooks: The Centenary Edition

 

The Hawk And The Tree

 

“Seeing him amid the yellow leaves and berry-colored hips of the spent roses, and the fading hollyhocks gone to seed along the garden wall, filled her heart."

~Susan Wiggs,

  The Lost and Found Bookshop

 

 Yesterday we went to Yolo Bypass to check on how things are doing there. To my dismay, it was dismal. There were some perching birds, and some hawks, but that was it, well, except for a few ducks. No Snow Geese, no Sandhill Crane. Although I saw both species fly over the preserve, they just kept flying. It was sad. I am used to having all that beauty around me, this year they seem to be lost on their journey along the flyway. I am really hoping this distressing time heals soon. 

By the way... if you are wondering where this gorgeous hawk is in the tree, look in the upper left hand side a bit closer to the middle.    :)

 

 

Autumn Leaf Of The Day #81

 

“I dream of dreams...
Once dreamt,
now lost.
How sunshine steals
from autumn frost.” 

~Michael Faudet,

  Bitter Sweet Love

 

 

Autumn On A Late Autumn Day

 

 “One brisk morning I stood in a field chilled frosty by autumn’s touch. Suddenly, the hordes of geese that surrounded me lifted off into the sky in a thunderous roar of nature on a grand mission. Standing stunned and awed in a field now fallen silent, it dawned on me that something is most powerful when it believes in its mission and rises without hesitation to achieve it.” 

― Craig D. Lounsbrough 

 

The Winter light is really pushing Autumn around, everything has that particular and peculiar glow to it, but Autumn isn't giving up without a fight. She whispered to the trees and they are displaying their magical colors. The Greater White-fronted geese have finally arrived, and their numbers are impressive! I love those geese with all my heart.Truly, they are all my friends. And all of them are named Harvey. Harvey, he's the best!

Autumn Leaf Of The Day #80

 

“December’s immaculate coldness feels warm.

 December feels like blood.”  

 

~Zinaida Gippius 

 

 

The Goddess Of The Season +Autumn Leaf Of The Day #79

 

“It's autumn," I said. "I can see the trees turning through the windows."
He tucked a strand of hair behind my ear.
"It's going to be the Day of the Dead soon," I said.
"Sounds gruesome."
"It's a festival." I looked at him over my shoulder. "The only one that gentry and peasants share. We celebrate Persephone going down to Hades for the winter, they remember Tom-a-Lone getting his head cut off by Nanny-Anna. Everybody makes grave offerings, then there's a great sacrifice to Hades and Persephone, and that night there's a bonfire and they burn a straw Tom-a-Lone dressed up in ribbons.”

 
~Rosamund Hodge,

  Cruel Beauty

 

 

I am doing a lot of reading about the Goddess, Demeter. She is the goddess who governs Autumn and the harvest. Until yesterday I hadn't realized that there was a specific goddess devoted to the seasons, which is embarrassing because of course a higher god, or goddess would watch over the harvest, it's just that I always focus on the god, GOD, as being the one who does all the work to bring my favorite season to life. Shrug. But I love reading about mythology, always have, learning about her is a good and fascinating thing to do. I grew up with the movie Xanadu, which tells the tale of one the 9 sisters of the arts and science, the daughters of Zeus and Mnemosyne.

 

 Olivia Newton-John played the muse, Terpsichore, the muse that inspired dance. The film was a was a homage to the wonderful 1947 film, Down To Earth, which starred Rita Hayworth as Terpsichore. Both films are great for different reasons, but hey, what about Demeter? What an amazing tale that would be to watch. She has been imagined in the arts, mostly, as an older woman, and I could see anyone from Meryl Streep in the role. She has truly mournful story. You can read about her life here. It's worth a look see. That leaf is absolutely gorgeous. So pretty it took my breath away. And it's a very nice thought that a lady like me created it, and appreciated all the things about Autumn I do, I think she would also understand my grief as well. That's comforting. Really, Hollywood should do less from the Marvel Universe, and more from mythology.