Archive for the ‘Photography’ Category

I’ll save the photos of art-stuffs for Monday’s creativity post. But in the meantime… have some adorable animals and gorgeous scenery! Hover over for a quick description of each. :)

When we went to Six Flags, the weekend before last, we also visited the ocean. Unfortunately, the camera’s battery was completely dead, but J’s phone took some rather decent shots.

(Last weekend was our four-day camping trip with the redwoods on the coast, so you’ll be seeing a lot more photo posts for a while. We took over a thousand photos last weekend alone.)

I love driving through the green hills of northern California, I tell you what.

We went to Point Reyes, where the sea is angry and the cliffs are high.

And we saw some ten or so tule elk from the road.

I learned that you may need outside help to distinguish good pain from bad pain.

I found a blood-stirring, no-holds-barred page that says, essentially, “do it, motherfucker.”

I read about a blind man who taught himself to see by echolocation. Oh my god.

I read about the care and feeding of a novelist – oh, man, so true.

And since I’m writing this on Thursday and missing all of Friday’s great links (because, as you read this, I have been on the road for four hours with another four to go!), I am giving you the rest of our best Six Flags photos!

I wanted to share some of the animal highlights of last Sunday at Six Flags; there will be more photos coming up, especially since our holiday weekend will be spent camping on the coast with the redwoods.

A few years back, when I was living in Colorado, Pat and I played host to two of our British friends for the first time. On a long car ride to see the local sights, they introduced to us a game called The Parsons’ Cat. You take turns calling out adjectives for the Parsons’ cat, in alphabetical order; each person can have a letter, or everyone has to do each letter without duplicating the others.

Tonight, I found myself playing the game again, centering around our fifth houseguest cat, Kali, aka Deathcat, aka Bitty. She’s been here four months with no official departure date, so she’s sort of ours until her mama can receive her. Then, just to contrast, I played the game with my dog.

Day 27 is my favorite place.

As usual, I don’t have a singular favorite, so I’ll pick one from the list of my most-loved places: Eureka, California.

Eureka is in the north, about two hours south of the Oregon border, and right along the coast. It’s not so much the town that draws me there but the entire area. The northwest coast, the land that stretches from Eureka up to Seattle, Washington, is incredible. It is gorgeous in a way I didn’t know existed until I saw it myself.

Eureka itself is nice; it’s the perfect size for me, big enough to have convenience and options while staying small enough that people still look you in the eye and run indie shops. The Old Town quarter is fantastic and full of nooks and crannies that cradle awesome things, like a little gourd kalimba that kept a part of my heart after I played it. The temperatures are wonderful, ranging from 50-80*F throughout the year, with plenty of rain and mist from the ocean.

But the land around Eureka is what’s so wildly magical. The redwoods reach to the sky like columns holding up the planet’s roof; beneath them, the air is still and silent and somehow sacred. Fallen boughs and trunks can be taller than you and me, and it would taken half a dozen people to link hands and wrap arms around a standing tree’s base. Moss and ferns grow everywhere and make everything a lush green, and wherever the sunlight is blocked from the canopy, the ground is covered with natural debris in the midst of composting into soil. It’s so quiet away from the roads, some combination of church and library and empty mountain peak. I felt so young among these trees that are a hundred times my age.

And the ocean, oh, the ocean. Not only are these incredibly green forests everywhere, not only does the wind smell of brine and mist, not only does the land rise in fall in voluptuous hills, there is the ocean with all its wonder. The water’s very cold almost all the time, so far north, but it licks at the sandy shores regardless of how many toes it’ll numb and how many children will go shrieking away from the surf. There are innumerable hidden crevices along the coastline, inlets rimmed with rock where other people don’t go, where there’s just sand and seaweed and shells and surf.

I fell in love with the land, and the town of Eureka, as soon as I first saw it. And I am still in love.

Day 12 is a photo post!

(Day 12 was actually not included in this meme. So I made this part up.)

(SHINY OBJECTS.)

The following are recent photos from our August trip up to Seattle, Washington to see J’s brother take (and pass!) his blackbelt test in southern-style kung fu. The first three are from coastal Oregon, which is a place where we would very much like to live someday. The fourth photo is from Discovery Park in Seattle, and the last is from I-5 N going through inland Oregon towards Seattle.

This is Nevada.

It’s a high-altitude desert, with plenty of mountains. The Sierra Nevada Range, to be exact.

There are waterfalls hidden in the hills.

In some places, the sun shines golden emerald.

There are rocks to climb. (That’s my J.)

Trees still reach for you, even in the desert.

This is where I live. It’s pretty nice.

Today, we’re taking a break to introduce you to the wonderful souls who share my living space.

First of all, my partner-in-crime and my love, J. (You can’t tell it in this picture, but his hair goes past his waist.)

Secondly, the furballs who call me kin. From left to right: Orion, a female shih tzu runt, Mary, middle-aged aunty, and Kitsune, female fox-spirit tabby.

Thirdly, the purrboxes J brought to the mixer. Terror is on the left, and Nicodemus (Nikki) is on the right. (Sorry for the low quality; my camera broke shortly after I arrived in Nevada, so this was taken on my phone.)

And, a new addition, our long-term houseguest, Kali Vicious! (Also known as Deathcat or Bitty.)

Th-th-that’s all, folks!