Watering hole
Scenic Seating
Cee’s Fun Foto Challenge for this week is Outdoor Seating. I thought it would be fun to share some of my most memorable benches and chairs — including a trip to The Brick, which featured in the TV show Northern Exposure, and a flashback to 1974, when I visited Disneyland and Knott’s Berry Farm for the first time. Enjoy! […]
WPC: Dance
The Daily Post Weekly Photo Challenge for the week of March 18, 2016: There’s rhythm and motion all around us — this week, let’s capture some of it in a photo. Following on from my post on Native Californians yesterday… These photos were taken by my dad back in 1972, in Northern California.
WPC: One Love
The Daily Post Weekly Photo Challenge for the week of March 11, 2016: One love refers to the universal love and respect expressed by all people for all people, regardless of race, creed, or color. —The Urban Dictionary This post is late, since for me the past week has been One Of Those Weeks™, but I really wanted to share what’s been on my mind. Recently I’ve been reading Dee Brown‘s classic book, Bury My Heart At Wounded Knee. I also went to visit (for the first time) a local park where the remains of a historic Maidu village are preserved, along with an attached museum. By coincidence, I’ve also been sorting through some of my very old photos, including some taken at the Miwok site called Chaw sé, also known as Indian Grinding Rock State Park. All this has given me a lot to think about. The Maidu village was perfectly located near a water source, and amid heritage oaks and other trees and plants. All the resources — water, earth, rocks, acorn, willow, tule — and the abundant animal life meant that the people had everything they needed to live well. They lived in connection to the earth, without wasting their resources and in full appreciation of all the earth provided to them. In the Miwok tribal roundhouse, they celebrated all the richness of these gifts and carefully passed on to the next generation the stories and traditions […]
WPC: Harmony
The Daily Post Weekly Photo Challenge for the week of March 4, 2016: “The combination of simultaneously sounded musical notes to produce chords having a pleasing effect; the quality of forming a pleasing and consistent whole.” Working in harmony traveling in harmony Gliding in harmony Pedaling in harmony
WPC: State of Mind
The Daily Post Weekly Photo Challenge for the week of February 26, 2016: “This week, let your inner world and the outside one converge in a photo.” I was seriously doubting I would be able to complete this week’s challenge; this may be a lesson to me to pay much more attention to what’s going on inside myself while I’m looking through the camera lens! But then I remembered a solo hike I took a few weeks ago, near the end of January. I walked from my house and across the bridge to Old Folsom (about 3 miles one way). It was a cool, cloudy day; it had been raining the previous day, and as I crossed the bridge the rain began pouring down again. I was wearing my new rain jacket which reached only just below my hips, so my trousers and boots were soon soaked. The rain abated by the time I reached Sutter Street — where I was pleased to discover a farmer’s market I never knew about, and managed to dry out a little. And as I started on my way back across the bridge in the direction of home, it was obvious I wasn’t the only one braving the elements to get some exercise. Still, as the cold rain returned and continued beating down, I found myself trudging along a deserted bike trail. I was cold and wet, and even though I’d walked this path countless times before, the warmth […]
Golden Gate: Six Aspects
Back in the mid 1980s I took this picture of San Francisco’s beautiful Golden Gate Bridge. It’s still one of my favorites, but this week I decided to play around with a couple of different photo-editing programs and see if I could improve the shot. Original: Black and white (Aviary) San Carmen (Aviary) High saturation (Aviary) Cloud effects/Daguerreotype frame (PicMonkey) Sepia […]
And now for something completely different…
I’m getting back to knitting after wrist surgery. The weather is gradually warming up here in Northern California, so I want to wear shorts, but inside the house it’s still too cool, especially in the mornings. So I had the bright, if belated, idea to knit myself a pair of leg warmers, using (discontinued) Louet Gems Opal in Sage Green. However, […]
Cold As Ice
Cee’s Fun Foto Challenge this week is Things That Are Cold. Here in the eastern Sacramento Valley, even in winter it rarely gets cold enough to snow. Sometimes we do get a serious freeze — and on this particular morning I discovered the tiny “pond” in our old wheelbarrow had frozen over. I couldn’t resist grabbing my camera and playing with the ice! That’s ice. Ice, baby.