...the eye of the beholder

it is said that "beauty is in the eye of the beholder"...
so is humor...

on my latest sortie around the 'hood...
I saw some things from a different perspective...

this is like laying on your back and looking up at clouds...
finding a ducky or a bunny...sort of...

you have to use your "imagination"...
and be just a bit snarky...

giving new meaning to the phrase...
"do you see what I see ?"




I see a little guy, struggling to get out of the tree...



here I see a really surprised alien...

and here...?



"Toyo ta ho-oh"...
Brunnhilda lives !

what do you see ?

...winter's coming on...

I've been watching this worm devour this rosebud...
over several days now...
why didn't I save the rosebud when I first found the worm ?
it's so late in the season that the rose probably wouldn't bloom...
at least, not and "hold"... it's too cold & wet...



this worm is done chewing-up these blooms...
that we spotted as we walked the neighborhood today...



the one eating the rosebud is a caterpillar with spiky hairs...
who will probably spin himself into a cocoon soon...
emerging as a butterfly in the spring...

this one has already encased itself in a cocoon...
anyway...that's what I think it is..



I found this camellia shyly peeking out from behind the leaves...



and the buds on this redwood tree will become the seed cones...
that will grow into the spring, mature over the summer...
and open...spreading thousands of tiny seeds next fall...



there are very few leaves left on this liquid amber tree...
this one is hanging by the merest of threads...



this double red camellia is on a bush that got a good deal of sun this fall...
and most of it's blooms are on the ground already...
mine won't bloom until much later...



this shriveled-up Meyer lemon is left from the summer crop...
the tree is covered with the soon-to-be-ready winter crop...
as well as a couple of these mummified corpses...
of what could have been...



and finally, a creeper leaf...once green & lush...
then bright red, flaming for a bit...then fading...
now merely a dry husk, waiting for a good storm to wash it off...
crumbling into dust and back into the earth, from whence it came...

it's nearly winter...

the summer went out in a blaze of fall glory...
and it is now the time of darkness & cold...
and waiting... for the light...
Advent begins on Sunday...

post script... edited after I became unsure...
of just what was on the flowers...
in the 2nd picture...

...WHAT is it ?

when I looked at this picture...
and first wrote about it...
I thought it was a worm...
it looked like it in person...
and especially in this picture...

but sometimes...when the dog is wanting to move on...
and I'm looking at the camera display at a distance...
anything is possible...

when I saw it in the post, the worm looked funny...
so I put the shot with the clearest "worm"...
in Image Browser and made it 100x's bigger...
then cropped it...

and you get this...



so...you tell me...

is it a cocoon or some other form of chrysalis ?
is it a stick ? ...a piece of my quickly shredding brain... ?
part of a re-entering communications satellite... ?
or part of an alien spacecraft... ?

what the heck is it ?

inquiring, rapidly vaporizing minds...
WANT TO KNOW !

..."harvest home"

my front door... I don't put out pumpkins for fall anymore...
I got tired of watching them shrivel in the sun, then rot...
this I can store away and use again...
though I did buy these this year...
the ones that I had... had disintegrated...



this plant is still blooming...
the first frost should finish it off...


the birds have a bounty of berries...
these on a nandina plant, are a favorite...



this worm is done harvesting flower petals...



the sticky red fruit of the "mock orange"must be tasty...
because the birds flock to them...
[as well as an ant, if you look closely...]



I believe that this is "Oregon grape"...



even the newest growth will go dormant when faced with winter...



a single creeper berry...they taste sweet and "prune-y"...
[I was a little kid when I tasted them...]
that could be why the birds love them...

all is safely gathered in...

now... let the winter storms begin...

...triple dot [ellipsis] mania...

I can... at times... be SO perverse...
especially when I have the opportunity...
to give a hard time to my friend...Miz Minka...

recently...

OK...last night...

she was "complaining" about my "fondness for the ellipsis"...
[she has called me "the Queen of the three dots..."]
"What's wrong with ending a sentence with a period ?", she purred...
warming to the subject...and preparing to have some fun at my expense...
"writers should use commas, and then, a period, to end a sentence.
One shouldn't just use "dot-dot-dot" all the time."... etc...

momentarily stymied... I came back with the trés lame...

"Oh thank you, Mz German correctness..."
or something similarly snide & equally as ineffectual...
as she chortled with glee...at having made her point...
& quite totally zapping me...at the same time...

I quickly changed the subject...but she was so pleased with herself...
that I knew a speedy rebuttal was definitely in order...

never one to do something small...when I can do something BIG...
I wrote my previous post...with NO ellipsis...until the end...

not satisfied with that...

I decided to do this also...

an entire post on the ellipsis...



please join me...[hee...hee...]

on the dark side...



an ellipsis is properly used to signal the omission of part of a sentence...

OR...

to demonstrate a pause or trailing off of a thought...

is it overused... ?

oh, yeah...

especially by moi... ?

you bet'cha... !

the last few years I taught... I taught English...
and let me tell you...

the "grammar police" can not make up their minds...

I got so tired of students complaining...
about all the contradictions in the punctuation rules...
that when I no longer had to enforce them...or care...
I didn't...and...I...like...doing...this...

not because I can bug MM with it...
[that's just a side benefit...hee, hee...]
it's my way of telling all those indecisive...
anal... punctuation rule-making dictators...
to shove it...
where only a colonoscopy will find it...

meanwhile...back from the rant...

though generally 3 periods in a row...
ellipsis can be made in many shapes...
and of many objects...especially in art...



there...of course...is always someone...
who goes too far...






and I detest "smiley faces"...even this one...
[I have the right to be grumpy if I want to be...]


but the piéce de resistance of my Google search was this...



a new project for MM... our talented knitter...
this is actually called,"the ellipsis hat"...



just what we all need on those cold evenings...
when we find ourselves getting "chilled"...
while saying "good night" in the parking lot...

it would look especially lovely...
done in shades of purple...

hee... hee... hee... *snort*

How did I miss this ?

I had been thinking about adding a "copyright" notice to my blog for quite some time. I discussed the subject with my blogging mentor, MM, and decided to act on my idea.

After searching for a notice that I could add,"whole cloth", and not having any success, I copied MM's notice and set out to include it in my layout format.

I found the correct "gadget" format and began typing. All went well until I came to the place where I needed to insert the © symbol. I was stopped in my tracks. There was no © symbol on my keyboard.

Searching my rapidly vanishing brain cells for clues, I vaguely remembered some tips that I had received on alternative symbols from MM, so I began to press "alt" with keys on the top row of my keyboard. No luck. So I went down to the next row, pressing first,"alt" and then a "key". I was still unsuccessful, until I pressed the letter "g".

Suddenly, there it was ! The symbol © that I had searched for was available by pressing "alt", then the letter "g". What a concept !

Spurred on by the expansion of my "keyboard universe", I did a bit of research and discovered at age 60 what most of you already knew. Specifically, that there is a lot about my computer that I am not taking advantage of, due to my ignorance of all it's possibilities.

Much like my recent discoveries, (yesterday), of some of the basic features of my camera[s] that I had no idea existed.

Who knew ? Apparently, most everyone else, but that's OK, because now, I know too. It's a good thing that "you're never too old to learn". Now, if I can only remember these things the next time I need them.

[editor's note : MM, there is not ONE group of "triple dots" in this post until now...[hee, hee, hee...]

...a really nice Thanksgiving, 2.0

this morning, after putting gas in my car...
and gloating about the price drop...
I made my way, "over the river & through the woods..."
to the "sleepy village" home of Mr.& Mrs. Green Thumb...
where I was to celebrate Thanksgiving with them...
and several of Mr. Green Thumb's family members...



when I arrived, HRH, Minka was lurking in her castle...
and would soon "dissolve" as more people arrived...
into her "invisibility cloak" mode...
and hide in the computer hutch...

then Mr. GT arrived with his Mom & sister...
just before we sat down...
daughter "R" arrived...

so as we sat down to dinner...



out came the cameras, as Miz Minka & I...
took pictures of each other taking pictures of...
well... you get the idea...

Mr. GT had roasted a 22 lb turkey...
I joked that it was the biggest one I'd seen...
since I stopped teaching jr. high...

there was a wonderful stuffing...
that included some of MM's homemade whole wheat bread...
and a secret ingredient that I'm NOT going to tell you...
but it was g-o-o-o-o-o-d...

we also feasted on roasted yams...
homemade mashed potatoes with garlic herb butter...
8 hour green beans, gravy, roasted Brussels sprouts...
roasted carrots, fennel, red onion & garlic..
there were 2 kinds of cranberries...
and Mr. GT's absolutely wonderful tabouli...

after we had finished stuffing ourselves...
daughter E arrived with her husband and new baby...
as well as another daughter, D...
they had already eaten elsewhere...
and were just "dropping by"...

if you're keeping score...
that's...Mr. GT's Mom & sister...
3 of his daughters, one son-in-law...
and the new grand-daughter...
Miz Minka, Minka[the cat]& me...

the grand-daughter was an instant hit...
as babies often are...



causing an attack of "click-click" fever...
which went on for some time...

finally, everyone started leaving...
on to the next stop...
work for some, home for others...



Mr. GT left to take his Mom & sister home...
MM & I traded pictures & visited until he returned...
we packed up the left-overs...
of which I was sent home with a generous sampling...[yum]

we visited some more...and soon...
I was on my way back to Mudville...
having spent a second really nice Thanksgiving...
with the Green Thumbs...

since I don't really have any family...
it was nice to spend the time...
with a multi-generational family...
on this family feast day...

so thanks to all the Green Thumb clan that I met today...
it was fun visiting with you...
and a special thanks to Miz Minka & Mr Green Thumb...
for including me...it was a memorable & happy day...