Photography by Naomi Drew
If you have to go to the dentist, it should be a pleasant and peaceful place. My dentist is excellent (I have worked in the dental profession and have seen horrific work) and also has an absolutely lovely office. This is in the waiting room. I used my cell phone for this, so lacks the quality I would like to see.
The Pin Oak is a tree indigenous to the parts of the US east of California – which means everywhere is east! These are trees familiar to my childhood in the midwest and along the eastern seaboard, and I missed them forever once we moved to California. There are oak trees in California, but they are adapted to a different climate, with much smaller leaves which don’t turn orange before falling. Also, they are green year round, which is a blessing of color in a beige winter landscape. And, they are as wonderful as the Pin Oak. Yay, trees!
A scene from the local botanical garden . . . piles of Pin Oak leaves against blooming Mexican sage. If you look in the upper left, you will see some pink blooms still clinging to a tree branch.
Another phone picture . . . today, at the end of October, we are having nearly 100F here in SoCal. Rain next week . . . or so they say. The drought continues.
Jack and Jill went elsewhere.
Another photo from the misty, moisty morning I climbed out of bed . . . . While the Galaxy S5 takes OK panos, I like the stitching-together process better. Here is a view of Mount Clef across the grasses of the small valley in Wildwood Park nearby my home. Today we expect 86F, and tomorrow 91F. I think I live in hell sometimes, even though it is very pretty! I am tired of this heat – ongoing heat – and dream of water falling from the sky.
I finally managed to get my butt out of bed early enough to watch the sunrise and take a few pictures. Rather than taking a digital and film camera, I took just a film camera, and my phone. I’m always amazed at the quality of pictures one can get with the phone, especially if no magnification factor is involved.
The prickly pear cactus is a beautiful plant. Paddles of green rise up from one another, and the flower buds appear on top. The buds are the “pears” and are very tasty! The paddles of the plant (which are really trunks and branches, with the thorns for leaves) are also quite edible. The paddles are cut off, quite carefully, and held over an open flame to remove the thorns. Once done, slice and stir-fry. Very good in scrambled eggs.
Personally, I like looking at them more than harvesting them!
I’m trying to reclaim my life in some ways – the hours I’ve worked have been awful, and since changed for a bit more humane schedule. So, to reclaim my life, it means I cannot let the whiney, lazy me take over and say, wah, not enough time! This morning, up at 6, coffee, pulled on my stinky clothes from yesterday, and went out, film cameras and phone in hand. What a delightful thing to do! No one around . . . the birds were singing their mating songs (especially lovely were the mockingbirds) and flitting about. Everywhere, the pungent scent of the chaparral’s resinous plants. The sun was still low in the sky. As I walked, I looked, and saw . . . a wild rose in bloom . . . quails running for cover . . . mourning doves within a few feet of me. A slice of heaven!
A part of something, to me, is always more interesting than the whole. It is the parts which create the whole – without the parts, the whole does not exist.
The Glass Aerie 