A Quotation for Monday

                                     

Wordless Wednesday - Shapes

A Quotation for Monday

"Why not go out on a limb?  That's where the fruit is."  Mark Twain

It's Officially Autumn!

Autumn officially arrived at 1:44 p.m. PDT here in these mountains.  The equinoxes are the two days of the year (the other one is in the spring) when the hours of the day and night all over the world are equal, or very near to equal.  While it's the first day of Fall in the Northern Hemisphere, it's the first day of Spring in the Southern Hemisphere.  I love the thought that for two days a year something in this off-kilter world that we live in is in balance.  So, to quote my mother, who was from Georgia, "Happy Fall, y'all!"

And, if you're in the Southern Hemisphere, Happy Spring!

Bliss

The chrysanthemums are doing great and the bees are loving it.  Mums are one of my favorite flowers because they're so easy to grow and they don't need a lot of water.

The sky today was that beautiful deep blue that I only see up here in autumn.  The summer sky is almost as blue at this altitude, but not quite.  The leaves on the Box Elder tree aren't as pretty as they usually are this time of year.  Usually they're all a brilliant yellow, but this autumn only a few are turning while the others are mostly just drying up and dropping off.  I'm hoping the dogwoods, maples and oaks put on a better show.

 

I just got such a fright!  I looked up and saw what I thought was smoke drifting by the window.  I rushed outside and found it was a heavy, wet fog.  The Ponderosa pines are collecting it on their needles, where it drips off and provides 'tree rain' to their shallow roots.  Not real rain, but better than nothing.  That is one of my pathway lamps above.  I was trying to think how to take a picture of fog at night and this is the best I could come up with.  It's really dark except for where the lights are.

 
It was chilly today (yay!) and it actually felt cold when I was outside, so I came back in and made a fire for the kitties.  I'm going to have to clear everything off of the hearth except for cat blankets because Merlin takes up just about all the space by himself!  Our low for tonight is supposed to be 33, just one degree above freezing.  Bliss!

Harvest Moon of 2013

The Harvest Moon of 2013 over the path leading into a little meadow.  It's been lovely and cool here the past few days; I think (hope) autumn is finally here.  No rain, but the cool air and gentle autumn breezes that make the air feel even cooler are most welcome!

A Quotation for Monday

"Youth is like spring, an over praised season more remarkable for biting winds than genial breezes.  Autumn is the mellower season, and what we lose in flowers we more than gain in fruits."  Samuel Butler

Sunday Sunsets

Taken May 30, 2009, in the San Bernardino mountains.

A Quotation for Saturday

 

                    

"The only real voyage of discovery consists not in seeking new landscapes but in having new eyes."  Marcel Proust

Sunday Sunsets - The Start of Autumn

I took this photo of my favorite oak tree in November of 2006.  I use it as a header photo every autumn, but usually I have it up on the first of September.  I'm late!  I know autumn doesn't really start on the first of September (although fifteen or so years ago it used to be well underway by that time) but if I wait for the leaves to turn it just doesn't give me enough time to enjoy my autumn/Halloween decorations...which I'm also late getting put up.  Oh well, if being late was good enough for the White Rabbit, I suppose it's good enough for me...

Faeries Friday

"Erigol Wee Folk" by Gary Bronner

Count Birdcula

This is a little White Breasted Nuthatch.  They always make me think of vampires because of the way they walk with their head facing the ground as they come down the trees.  Why don't they get dizzy?  Why don't they fall?  Why doesn't the weight of that peanut make the little guy topple over? Count Birdcula isn't telling, so I guess I'll have to look it up.

Summer's End

Well, the summer tourist season is over, anyway.  Summer weather will probably hang on for another month.  Have I ever mentioned how much I dislike summer?  I used to like it, when it only lasted three months like it's supposed to do and our high temperature averaged around 75 F.  Now summer lasts four months, or longer, and our high today was 82 F in the shade!  We got a few plip-plops, drip-drops of rain over the past few days, but it wasn't enough to even measure on the rain gauge.  But, the deserts to the north and south of us got so much rain they flooded.  The frustration!!  Oh well, at least it hasn't gotten up to 100 F like it did last summer.  That is waaaay too hot for this old mountain woman! 

Faeries Friday - Sparkling

This little fae person zoomed away from the flower she was sparkling up while I was out in the garden.  I think I caught her mid-sparkle as I was misting the fuchsia plant, and I think she wasn't very happy with me.  I apologized profusely, so I'm hoping she forgave me, but you never know with faeries...

We're still not lucky enough for any of those water drops to be from rain, although there are lots of gorgeous clouds around and the air smells like rain, so at least that's something.  The temperatures have been nice and cool, too, and the weather people are saying we have a 30 percent chance of rain tonight.  When I told my husband this, he instantly pointed out that means there is a 70 percent chance it won't rain...so I squirted him with the water hose and said, "You never know!  There might be a rain goddess up there who will take your comment as a challenge!"  He squished away muttering something I couldn't quite hear, which is probably for the best...

Wednesday's Winding Road

Taken in early spring, 2008. 

Rushing Autumn

I found some candy corn (already, yippee) at the store and a bunch of orange roses, so I decided to put them on the table in my little foyer (is it pronounced 'foy-yay' or 'foy-er'?)  The bowl was full of candy corn when I started taking photos, but someone ate half of it when I wasn't looking!  Probably one of the cats.  Yeah, I'm sure it was one of the cats.

Georgie: "That sounds a little fishy, Mom."  

Lars Olaf: "Mouse droppings, that's what it is, PURE MOUSE DROPPINGS!  Cats don't eat candy corn!" 

Timothy: "Mommy, you told a lie.  I'm calling the cops." 

Oh, all right!  I give up, I ate the candy corn!

Sunday Sunsets

I took this in May of 2010 down in Cleghorn Canyon near Silverwood Lake.  It's down around the 3,000 foot level on the 'backside,' or north-facing slopes.  At this low level of elevation there's a lot of sagebrush and scrub but it's still a pretty area with a nice creek that flows into Silverwood Lake.  Silverwood isn't a natural lake, but a huge state reservoir. 

This is a very small part of Lake Silverwood.  There used to be pines and cedars, but a lot of them burned in the huge fire of 2003, and more were lost to the pine bark beetle invasion.  They're starting to come back, but very, very slowly. 

The Pacific Crest Trail passes near here.  The trail runs from the border of Mexico to the border of Canada through three states; California, Oregon and Washington and is 2,654 miles long.

I don't know why some people are compelled to shoot at signs...

And, I don't know why this huge, precariously balanced boulder that's on the hill above the sign hasn't fallen on someone! 

It's probably a whole lot more stable than it looks, but I wasn't about to climb up there and check...

Oh, How I Wish...

...the forest was looking like this today.   The color intensified on the trees after an early autumn rain, clouds drifting down from the sky to weave their way through the trees.  Of course, it's way too early for the trees to be turning colors, although a few leaves on some of the dogwoods are already coloring up.  I don't know if that's because it's been so dry or if they're in as big a hurry for autumn to get here as I am!  I took this photo in November of 2010, the last autumn we had that was anything like autumn used to be up here.  The ones since then have been hot and dry.  But...maybe that means that we're due for another sort of 'normal' one!

This and That

My roses haven't had a very prolific summer due to no rain.  I water, but water from the garden hose doesn't have the nutrients in it that rain does.  I'm amazed that they bloomed at all, and grateful that they, and the rest of my garden, hasn't died. 

There's a big tropical storm that's headed in this direction, but the weather people are saying it will miss us by passing about 50 miles to the south of us, then it will head to Las Vegas, Nevada.  Arrrrrgh!!

 Frustration doesn't even come close to what we're feeling here in these mountains.  People are starting to get scared, especially since 23 fires were started by lightening in the space of 24 hours last week right here in this mountain range.  Thankfully, our firefighters got them all out quickly, except a fire near Wrightwood (a second one; they just got the first one out when the current one was started by lightening) that has burned 345 acres and it forty-five percent contained. 

Oh, how I hope the weather people are wrong and we get drenched this weekend!

Last Night's Full Moon

A Quotation for Monday

"The visible world isn't the only world, and the writers of fairy tales and ghost stories, mystics and philosophers, have known that for centuries."  From "Afterwards" by Rosamund Lupton 

This is just a photo of some of the water in the creek that runs near my cottage, in happier times when there was a lot of water.  I intensified the contrast and color by using Microsoft Office Picture Manager to make more visible all the shapes the water is making.  Or... is the water reflecting the shapes of things and beings that aren't ordinarily visible to our eyes?

Sunday Sunsets

Taken out on Highway 18 (Rim of the World Drive) on August 4, 2009.

On the Wild Side

I found a little wild rose blooming in a sunny spot in the forest today.   Stepping out of the shade of thick pines and cedars and finding something like this is pure magic to me...forest magic and earth magic working together to create a gift.  A visual gift for me but, when fall arrives, the rosehips will be a gift of food for the animals and birds.