Haze

I took these at the beginning of November when I was on my way home from the valley that lies about a mile (5,000 feet) below, under the haze in the first photo. I wish I would have taken some photos when I was down in the valley; it's amazing how different the clouds look when viewed from below versus being directly across from them.

Of course, when I was down in the valley the clouds didn't look as spectacular; because of the haze I couldn't see clearly.

I suspect we all have our own particular 'haze' that obscures our vision of some things and keeps us from seeing clearly. Obviously, some hazes are more damaging than others; the haze that misogynists, racists, and religious fanatics view the world through comes to mind.

Wouldn't it be wonderful if we could all get rid of the haze?

Passages, Fear and Hope

My sister's husband passed on November 5th. They had been married for over 50 years. I've been staying with her since his passing. Today I had to return to my home. Well, actually she kicked me out saying "Honey, you need to get on home. Your husband's retired and a man with too much time on his hands...well there's no telling what he might get up to!" Still, leaving her today was one of the hardest things I've ever done. She's alone in a huge house in the middle of acres and acres of orange groves. I've done what I can to make her safe; had a state-of-the-art alarm system installed in the house and on the grounds, along with new security lights all over the place. She's in her very late seventies, but still REALLY feisty and can shoot a single leaf off a tree from one hundred feet away.

I want, of course, for her to be around for many, many years to come. I fear that this passage from her old life to a new one may be too hard for her to navigate. I hope that I'm wrong.

The Masters

I said "no" to more fish treats because I felt Opie Furgus, Chieftain of the Fuzzy Toes Clan, had eaten enough. This is the look that he gave me. Yikes!

Cats are the masters of the dirty look. Not even Sister Mary Meaner Than Mean (a fictitious name for a real nun at the Catholic grade school I attended) could top this look, bless her heart.

Ancestors

My husband is busily putting out the final decorations in the yard for the various creatures that will come tonight for candy, and I've finished with the interior of the house for family and friends that will come to visit on All Hallows Eve.



But after everyone has gone home, usually by 10 p.m., I will go out to my quiet studio and wait...for my mother, grandmothers, and aunts, stretching back in a long line that covers hundreds of years. Of course, I don't actually see them, but sometimes I feel that they are very near, and not just at Samhain.


I feel them near in times of joy, their happiness mingling with mine and intensifying it.


I feel them near when life is particularly hard. They crowd close, supporting me and reminding me who I am and where I come from; a long, long line of strong-willed, smart, stubborn, determined, loyal and loving women.


I am blessed with, and by, ancestors and I honor them, not only on this night, but all through the year.

Halloween Decorating

My husband is putting up the outside decorations, while I've been doing the same inside. That's the living room mantle in the picture above.

This is the top of a armoire next to the living room fireplace. I leave St. Francis up year round, even though he looks a little odd with the Halloween things.And wouldn't you know, as soon as I got all the Autumn leaves in the basket and the other things put in place, half of the lights went out! Grrrrr...

What would Halloween be without a cute, cuddly little bat?

Or some darling little cats in costumes? I suggested to my feline and canine "children in fur" that they might want to dress up for Halloween, but that was met with a unanimous paws down.

I really like the sparkly pumpkin, and I wish I would have bought more of them. I only bought two, thinking I'd see how they looked in my house and then go back for more if I liked them. But when I went back for more they were all gone. Since I can remember every single thing I never bought but wish I had you'd think I would have learned by now. Oh well...

I have lots more pictures to post, but it's taking Blogger about 20 to 30 minutes to post each picture, and husband is growling about dinner. And, more importantly, so are the cats and dogs!

Wordless Wednesday

Above and Below

"Looking above and looking below
my head hardly knows which way to go.
I look up, down, all around
and, soon, my bottom meets the ground!
Ouch!"


This is what my great-great niece, who is six, said to me yesterday morning on our walk through the woods as I was leaning down to help her up. I thought it was amazingly good for a person who had just done what is described above!

 

Wordless Wednesday - Autumn Treasures

Autumn Riches

The morning sun shines so beautifully through the leaves of the oak tree thatis outside my bedroom window. I'm always amazed at how many colors Autumn can paint on one single tree, one single leaf. To me, it's a breath-taking spectacle that never fails to delight. I think this Autumn is especially beautiful. I didn't expect the colors of the trees to be so vibrant because of our unusually dry summer. But the rain that we had a few days ago, combined with night time low temperatures a bit below freezing, brought the magic! And it feels like Autumn used to up here, but hasn't for quite a few years. The air, even in the daytime, feels cool, damp and smells of wet earth, pine, and acorns and leaves that have already fallen from the oaks. At night, the scent of woodsmoke from fireplaces, my own included, adds its tang to the air. I just came back inside after getting more wood for the fireplaces and I could smell the scent of the spice cake baking in my oven joining with the other delicious odors drifting on the cold currents of air that flow through this valley.

At this altitude, Autumn is fleeting. But oh, what riches she freely gives us while she is here!

Wordless Wednesday - Jewels

Still Raining :-)

I took the above photo from my back porch. That's the really big drawback about most digital cameras; they hate getting wet. It's times like these that I really miss my old 35 mm cameras. I'm going to have to look around for a not-too-expensive digital that can take getting wet.

Today was great. It's still raining, and the main part of the storm isn't supposed to roll through until early tomorrow morning! Listening to the sound of the rain, watching leaves dressed in their Autumn colors dancing through the silver sheets of rain with the wind as their partner, the air redolent of wet pines, wet earth and the slight tang of chimney smoke filled me with gratitude and joy.

Oh, and I must not forget the scent of baking chocolate chip cookies with pecans which is emanating from my kitchen...and there goes the timer. Yippee, fresh baked cookies, here I come!

RAIN ! !

It actually started raining while it was still sunny.

The Cedars loved it.

The Ash Leaf Maples, just starting to turn, loved it.

Then the clouds settled in, but it's still raining...and we ALL love it! The weatherman is predicting that it will continue through tomorrow and part of Wednesday.

Finally...RAIN ! !

Best of Both Worlds

This was what the light looked like this afternoon when I was leaving my friend's house. She has a wonderful view of one of the lakes up here. Every time I visit, I lament the fact that my home is down in a valley and it gets dark two hours earlier at my home than at hers. If I want to see the sun set or rise over the lake near me, I have to hike up to the ridge line or down to the lake. And her home is nearly new, it's not a money pit like mine.

Every time she comes up to visit me, she laments the fact that I have a creek, a "fairy-tale cottage" (her words, not mine) that was built in the 1920's and my own studio which is separate from the cottage.

Now, I don't think either one of us would trade but we always ooh and aah over the other's home and bemoan what we don't have, then say: "But aren't we lucky we're friends? This way, we have the best of both worlds!"

Windows

One of my favorite kind of window...an antique store window!

I almost didn't go in, because it looked like they just had china, and I'm at the point where I'm going to have to start getting rid of some of my china things.

I'm so glad I did decide to check inside; they had lots and lots of wonderful things!

Goodbye for a While...

Our hummingbird feeders have not been visited in over a week, so I think the two species of hummingbirds that are here during the warm months have left.

I took the above picture of an immature Rufous Hummingbird back in July. We have two different kinds of hummingbirds that visit our feeders: Rufous, which have brilliant green heads when mature, and Anna's Hummingbirds, which have iridescent red heads and are larger than the Rufous ones.

Anna's Hummingbirds are not truly migratory, even though they don't stay up here during the cold months. They spend the cold months at the coast and in the warmer inland valleys of Southern California.

The tiny Rufous Hummingbird is migratory, spending the cold months in southern Mexico; in some cases that's a journey of over 2,000 miles!

So goodbye for a while, little friends. See you in late Spring!

Bounty for the Birds

These are the berries of the Creeping Oregon Grape Holly (Mahonia Repens). I leave them for the birds to eat as they love them. Once, years ago, I did pick the berries for jam. It took me forever to get enough berries and the resulting jam wasn't all that great, just ok. The biggest problem, though, was that after I picked the berries that year I had to watch the birds forlornly poking through the bushes looking for missing berries. I felt terrible! So I replaced the missing Grape Holly berries with out-of-season, very expensive imported Blueberries. Then my budget felt terrible, lol.

So now I just leave the berries for the birds. It's much easier on my budget...and my heart!

Windows Wednesday

Someone's kitchen window. I liked the way the branches from outside reflected in the glass.

Benediction

Today was such a welcome relief from the hot weather we've had lately. The air was cool and damp, with a welcome breeze and intermittently cloudy sky, although the clouds gifted us with only a few fat drops of rain.

This evening, since the humidity is high (87%) and the temperature has already dropped to 40 F, I lit fires in each fireplace. The cats love this and, after a bit of jostling for position because they have to share, they are sleeping contentedly on their favorite hearth.

I'm curled up in my wing chair by the living room fireplace, listening to the crackling of the wood and drinking a mug of Lady Grey tea. The windows are open, and I can smell the wonderful dampness in the air and hear the low murmuring of the creek. The leaves that have fallen scurry outside the open windows and the roof above, pushed by the little breeze. Their dry, sibilant whispering speaks of future cold days and nights to their sisters and brothers who haven't left the safety of the dogwoods, alders and oaks to take part in the wild dance of Autumn, while the pines and cedars seem to sigh with relief at the thought of the benediction of rain and snow.

The Necessity of Hope, Tenacity and Imagination

Tuesday, September 29, '09, 12:56 a.m. (Click on the picture to enlarge it).

Hope is such a tenuous thing, as delicate and thin as the clouds that barely veil the stars in the sky in the above photo. Nothing has ever been accomplished by just hoping. Yet who could live without hope?


I think hope is what gives us the courage to go on trying when the odds seem stacked insurmountably against us. Hope that things will get better, hope that things won't get any worse, hope that we will somehow, some way, imagine a way to make what we are hoping for a reality.


Several times in my life, hope has left me, to be replaced with a despair so profound, so bottomless, I don't know how my heart kept beating. I stumbled my way through these times because I have been blessed with tenacity. Slowly, like the light of a distant star that that dims, then brightens, then dims again, always shining a little brighter each time, hope eventually came back to me, and I could imagine ways to make things better.


Hope, tenacity and imagination. They are, I believe, the most important gifts of the Great Creator for this sometimes incredibly joyous, sometimes excruciatingly hard, journey through life.

Surprise!

Monday, September 28, '09 My husband brought these home for me today.

I love the color, so perfect for Autumn. And I like the little pottery vase they're sitting in. Now the only question is...

When is he going to tell me what he's feeling guilty about? ;-)

Autumn Gold

"I saw old autumn in the misty morn

Stand shadowless like silence, listening

To silence."

Thomas Hood

Close Encounters

I was out in the back garden this afternoon when I noticed this beautiful butterfly, a California Sister (thanks, Miss Vicki), perched on a Dogwood leaf right next to some Dogwood berries.

Of course, I didn't have either one of my cameras with me. I rushed back into the house and grabbed one, all the while thinking that I was rushing for nothing because the butterfly would surely be gone when I got back.

Amazingly, she was still there! I usually have a really hard time photographing insects because they just don't stay still long enough. But it was almost like this one was posing for me.

I had never realized how scary-looking butterfly faces are until this one turned to look right at me. I gasped (stupidly) and she flew away. And maybe she was thinking:

"Eeeeek! Those humans are really scary-looking! And why do they only have one, giant, round eye?!"

Anyway, I still think their wings are beautiful...

Windows Wednesday

I've always had a fascination with windows and doors, so I thought I'd post one every Wednesday. For obvious reasons, I won't post what town or village they're in, but I've a file full of pictures of doors and windows that I've taken in my rambles all over these mountains.

I don't know why they fascinate me; maybe, like eyes are said to be the windows to the soul of living beings, windows and doors let one see a bit of the soul of a house?