Throwing shade; A study in light and shadow… part 1…

Now and again I am struck by how the simplest truths are often the most profound. Take light and shadow as an example.

In this series, I am going to share a lot of rather mundane photos, taken around the neighborhood in the San Francisco Bay Area where I grew up, and in the garden where I played as a child.

Simple images that show the interplay of light and shadow.

I am going to try to use images that do not have one central focal point, no interesting object that draws the eye.

Just the shapes of nature, with no frills.

The real focus of these is the light and shadow… the intermingling of sun and shade.

Because it dawned on me… no pun intended… that however much our eyes rely on light, the shade is just as important. No, it isn’t as flashy as sun on a leaf or flower.

It doesn’t draw the eye like a splash of color.

But it is what gives depth to our view. It is what makes the colors and the highlights pop.

It is the space between the stars, so to speak.

It is texture and richness and definition.

Shade… shadow… the other side of light.

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Saving Christmas; part 2…

We finally had our Christmas yesterday! Thanks, covid. But I would like to fill you in on what I did to try to save a part of Christmas for my wife, back when the rest of you were having your Christmas. Above, you see part of my ’12 days of Christmas plan” to cheer up my wife when she was at home, I was working, and out daughters were in other states. I had the kids, and the husband and the boyfriend, take photos of themselves in front of the Christmas trees they were near.

I don’t know if you can see them in there, but the original idea was to print the photos, and then curl them up, and shove them inside a little lantern box thing I bought. It has a little batterie operated candle in it. I thought she could look at the kids while she worked. But I then printed them and mounted them on wood, with a nice varnish over them.

So that was another day of gifts.

I also cut a rose out of a skirt that I had made back in my custom t-shirt designing days. I mounted it on some white wood, and added blue and silver glitter before adding the varnish. I call it a snow rose.

Now that is my favorite, in a way. I took a small wooden heart, and used glitter and a gold paint pen to put all our initials on it… wow, you are probably saying… but wait.

I used a Dremel tool to carefully grind down the back until it was thin. A nerve-wracking bit of work, because I couldn’t poke through. Then I filled the hollow with pink paint.

So when you hang it on the tree in front of a light, or in a sunny window, a secret love heart shows through.

But that is as far as I got on the 12 days. I was working, and packing. But now we are all in the Bay Area.

And Mollie and her boyfriend Ben are so in love that it is almost annoying.

They are too adorable together.

Okay, see you soon, I have a lot to post about.

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A floral interlude; flowers from my mom’s garden…

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Saving Christmas; part 1…

Well, I am back in the San Francisco Bay Area again, and there is a long story behind this trip.

But the main point of this adventure is to save Christmas for my family. We haven’t had Christmas yet. Our daughters were in other states, and I was working on Christmas Eve, and New Years Eve. My wife was sitting alone at home.

But now we are all at my 97-year-old mom’s house, the house where I grew up, the house where we always gather for Christmas. So there will be pictures of flowers… with my fake, spray-on dew from a mister bottle…

And there will be pictures of birds…

And there will be pictures of other things, although we are really pretty much in quarantine lockdown. In fact, we all stayed locked down for two weeks before getting tested and cleared before we all set off for the Bay Area. This is a major operation.

We took a walk around the neighborhood, where I took these pictures of Christmas lights with the telephoto lens. I thought the way the lights vanish in the distance would represent this holiday season in a way.

Mollie brought her boyfriend, Ben, on his first visit to the Bay Area. He is from New Mexico, where he and Mollie spent the actual Christmas week.

So it is a little different, but we will try to make this late Christmas as much like a regular Christmas as we can.

And I will try to tell the story as we go.

And I will try to do some entertaining things.

And share a little beauty…

So, see you around, I hope.

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Why the confederate flag is the perfect symbol for hardcore tRump supporters…

It represents an old, outmoded way of thinking that most Americans, and indeed, most of the world, consider to be deplorable.

It represents a system that tried to destroy America, but was defeated, even though some people refuse to believe that fact.

It represents white privilege and dominance by the use of force.

It represents America being divided by violence.

It represents the idea that your freedom is more valuable than that of anyone else, and that you are willing to kill those people, who believe in their freedoms just as strongly as you do.

It represent the complete inability to compromise, to bargain, to be reasonable, to debate, to not get your own way every single time.

It represents a past history that everyone else is trying to move past and beyond.

It represents the few trying to force their views on the many.

It represents American soldiers in blue uniforms dying in battle to preserve the Union.

It represents a lost cause that never should have been a cause to begin with.

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Me… as 2020…

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Dogs, clouds and a very Christmasy poop!!!

Wave clouds.

Dogs waiting to bark at the mailman.

Okay, I am really just clearing the photos from this week off my phone.

She has her blanky, a pillow, and the remote control for the tv… life is good.

I left that bird poop on my car, because it looks like fake snow.

Sleepy sun dogs.

Not much snow in Southern California.

But we do have three dogs and a cat.

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Goodbye 2020, you big, steaming pile of tRump!!!

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A Recycled Christmas… part 5…

a-10

It’s almost Christmas, and you know what that means… the monkeys from my self-illustrated children’s book—> available over there, in my sidebar—> are getting into the spiked eggnog again. *(NOTE… the monkeys in the actual book do not get drunk… it is a book for children, for cryin’ out loud)*

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This Christmas is just so 2020… (or); How Thanksgiving and tRump ruined Christmas…

So, a special “Happy Holidays” to the people who just couldn’t socially distance at Thanksgiving, and who supported… and still support… tRump and his abysmal non-handling and denial of the pandemic.

Oh, I’m sure your holidays will be fine. No doubt you will still gather with your families. The rest of us are putting Christmas on hold, until we get through the Thanksgiving surge., and, presumably, the surge that will be heading our way a few weeks after Christmas.

I guess my family can do our Christmas in July.

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