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I took this a couple of spring's ago...

fresh out of the nest and feeling feisty


king of the world


Maybe not such a good idea


Mom?

Julie (me in apron) teaching Elena to make tamales



soak corn husks


chop chipoltes & grind spices



making masa



spreading & filling then steaming


Just look at the happy smile on Elenas face she was an excellent student

Love the fledgling leaving the nest!
Could I have some tamales too, please?
******
Today (11/4) was an errand day in preparation for some guests tonight, had my camera along.
Saw some flowers the other day, wanted to check them out....see if the frost had nipped them yet.


Nope. Had to get a closeup.


Looked up from the flowers and saw these sparrows hanging out.


Driving home, I was at a long stop light and saw cloud reflections on this building.


Closer to home I had to get out of the car to enjoy the gold against the green.


And turning around, crossing the street for this silhouette.


Time to go home!

These are wonderful Kai, PG and PH! Each story is unique and adds another dimension of understanding to the images. I also love tamales and appreciate PG's step by step illustrations! :0)

Early morning is the best time to walk or bicycle around the neighborhood. Everything is covered with dew, from the crab apples



to the leaves on the ground



and spiders' webs spun between the leaves of bushes.





I like to go up the street





to the little hill park where I can take in the view of the town.





The mix of sun and mist creates shafts of brilliant light that define the spaces between branches of the Eucalyptus tree forest covering the hilltop.






Fungi and lichen thrive in the damp forest.






The early morning mists fill me with a sense of peace as I leave the hilltop and take the road back down to another day of commitments and obligations.

My story only takes one photo. This burr is from a plant we call "The Jumping Cholla." The ends of the burr are hooked, and one feels that you never touched the plant: the burrs seem to jump from it to you while passing by.

Really, your clothing has brushed the plant slightly without you knowing it; the hooks of the burr are ready; and before you can say "OUCH!" they are buried deep into your skin...right through a shirt like this one, or even into your legs through denim jeans.

It takes patience and care to remove a jumping cholla. Can't just rip it out, or you'll bleed.

An Alzheimer's Tale

For those of you who follow my blog, I went to Florida in September to visit the folks. Mom has Alzheimer's, more of a family disease because of how it effects the family. Dad thinks she started to show signs of it as far back as 1992. The last time I had visited her was two years ago, a horrendous visit because she was going through a particularly bad spell at the time and we were all concerned that she wouldn't make it past the end of that year. She has, but she is hardly the same person we all know and love. She doesn't even know who I am, but I was emotionally prepared for that so this visit left me with a pleasant memory of Mom.



We took her out on the patio for a few photos...she even mimicked me taking photos of her



I handed the camera over to my sister in law so she could get a picture of the two of us (I cropped it for my profile headshot)



Then we went inside for a visiting musician who was playing music from the 30's. She sang along.



Halloween was her 88th birthday. They had a party at the nursing home. The staff helped all 150 patients with make-up. My brother sent me this video clip (9 seconds). She may be old, and not quite who she used to be, but there is still a sparkle in her eyes.

Thank you Test for your sensitive photo story. That was beautiful on so many levels. Skeeter's story about Cholla was instructive (never seen one before) and Stephanie's photo story of No. 11's soccer game reminds me of the unconditional love that a parent feels for a child and, in Test's case, vice versa. Gosh guys, keep it coming. This is great stuff.