Getting closer to the big election

post #509

            I'm not a credentialed political pundit, but I have always cared about politics/ social change/ community support and such. (I was going to be a government major in college until I decided to go with a degree in French literature.  After I discovered photography, I began to wish I was young and hardy enough to be a photo journalist.)

        Our current national mess interests me. When it gets dangerously out of hand, like it currently is, I am always trying to figure out WHY something is happening, what can we each do to make it better, and why do so many people accept the difficult without thinking they can instead contribute to the search for change. Even the Appalachian area of Kentucky, where I live, has a long history of passionate political activity. It's like a glue that keeps our national heart beating and renewed.

     I'm also curious about a lot of things. I like figuring stuff out for myself. I'm fortunate to have discovered a love for photography in my fifties, so I continue to have a lot to learn. I wanted to share tonight just some pleasures I get from noticing the small and the lovely in my every day walking around.  And I found a cartoon from the The New Yorker in July that I recently realized speaks to what I do every day.

This is actually lavender, one of my few tended plants, and it has provided blooms almost all summer! The deer don't eat it.

Panicled Aster! Who knew! A weed is never just a weed....

 I totally missed seeing this poor squashed baby snake at first, but there it was on my return.  Then the next night, it was all gone. Was it eaten? if so, by what or whom? or totally smashed by a tire?

 

 

(See the cartoon ahead.)

a Golden rod variety -- this is the first year I've noticed it

        Yesterday I happened on this cartoon in a pile of New Yorker magazines, and this time it struck me as hilarious, my own little way of seeing the world.  No one is going to believe me all that much either. I don't arrange my photos. I just work with what I see, though that does require getting out in the world you're in. None of us needs to be spectacular every day, but we can still be both amazed and honored to be present.

         Now it's fair to remark that some day no one is going to believe the close call we are currently having concerning our precious democracy.  We are letting our President get away with doing anything he pleases with no concern for the well being of others or of the world. Right now the main thing I ask is for EVERYONE, including Republicans in the Senate, to be clear-eyed about our tomorrows. Let's be kind and be attentive to the world we are forging for our kids and grand kids. Greed or fear have never provided a true key to happiness or made our lives better. 

 

a very full few days in early fall 2020

post #508

        Have been busy trying to make sense of the personal and the public, and I've been very emotional about the death of Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg. In general I try to keep track of things by more or less following the news, but it's way too hard to believe how power hungry people can be.  Our nation is supposed to be a democracy with fairness and with ways of cooperating.  Dog fighting does nothing to move us forward. 

        FIRST, here's the photo I said I'd "include next week." However, I didn't find it until today. It shows a rally Amy McGrath had during her first run for office. We were in a former high school gym, and Joe Biden had come, and he too gave a speech.  It was crowded, with good energy, but she didn't win the election.  Anyway, I'm tall, so I was able to get this photo.  (I've posted it two years ago on this blog.)       Now, Find Amy. Find Joe:

      SECOND, Here are two photos taken from the TV screen during this time of honoring a most remarkable Supreme Court Justice, Ruth Bader Ginsburg. I know that many of us have found her to be a determined and visionary leader in the path toward a place on earth where men and women have equal opportunities. She died Friday evening, and now her spot is empty on the Supreme Court and there is great drama about the future. She contributed so much for our nation over a lifetime of brilliant work, and now she is not even being given the respect of an acknowledgement of her contributions and achievements. It's shameful. Dog fight.

        I took both these photos as snapshots from the TV.  The first one is RBG, sharing the screen with Dahlia Lithwick, one of my favorite commentators about the courts. I greatly admire her. The second one is the MSNBC host, Chris Hayes, with someone who is showing how so many of us feel about the wrenching loss of this great defender of equal rights and our democracy. 

       The following photo comes to me via my daughter -- it was taken about a year ago by Moira Duvernay, in California, who is the niece of one of her close college friends. Thank you, Moira, for permission to share this wonderful moment in a young girl's life..

 

 

      A few days ago, I sent in for my ballot for voting in November, like I did in the spring for the primary. Just sayin, but I am SO TIRED of our president proclaiming that mailed-in ballots will be rigged!  HE IS JUST SETTING IT UP SO THAT IF HE DOESN'T GET THE MOST VOTES HE CAN BLAME IT ON CHEATERS [TOTALLY UNPROVEN AND NOT HAPPENING] instead of on his poor leadership and all those needless Covid 19 deaths.

        I guess I will spare my visitors tonight from more of my concerns about what lies ahead. At least for now.  I have had several phone calls this evening, including a Norwegian friend who lives in Canada, where procedures for dealing with the virus are way more stringent than in the USA.  And the border between Canada and the USA is still strictly monitored.  No crossing allowed. She had planned to be in Paris this week, but of course that's not happening. Her son is a commercial airplane pilot who reports the planes are seldom full. 

          Well, one last photo, in honor of the season and Sandy, my friend and neighbor.

 

                       HAVE YOU DONE THE CENSUS?  DO YOU HAVE A VOTING PLAN? 

 

the meadow, the tractor, and the sky

post #507 

            Hello, world, here is a hopeful try for the once again repaired system to upgrade blogger's posts. So far so good. I'm giving it another try.

        I'm writing Sunday evening after a week with wet weather, political revelations, my meadow half mowed, and finishing reading a book.  I wish I could say I have some new things figured out, but that's for all the weeks that follow.  I've even met recently over Zoom with college friends and with my writers group. I feel very privileged.

        However, I'm distressed about the horrible fires in California and the rest of the West, I don't think Trump is any healthier mentally than he ever has been, and then there's the virus.  It's sad that so many people have to get sick before they actually believe how serious the virus can be. Very sad to get sick, very sad to pretend it will just go away. I have been encouraged that now, when I go to our local Kroger store for groceries, everyone is wearing a mask. This is major. Thank you, everyone, for taking one for the team of your neighbors and community.

        OK, some photos to share from the week:

The wind had now started to blow, as shown by the leaves not holding still for the shot..

I call my meadow beautiful, despite its rough, unkept look, but the time had come to cut it all back for the winter, an investment in the future: 

        This last space is reserved for my photo of Amy McGrath in her first campaign, when Joe Biden came down for a rally for her in a small gym. I have had SUCH A POSITIVE EXPERIENCE this evening with the revised blog procedures that I am NOT going to look for that photo too hard right now. Tomorrow instead. Tonight has left me encouraged.  I love doing my blog every Sunday, and I'd hate to have to give it up in frustration.   [LATER: PHOTO IS IN NEXT WEEK'S POST.]

         My motto for the day: believe and hope but consider the science. 

Thanks for wearing a mask.

 

      

 

on the way, neither denying nor accepting

post #507
          I am so thrown by our nation's turmoil. I recently had a very cordial catching-up conversation with a neighbor who, when I asked, calmly stated that she wasn't so sure the coronavirus was any different than the flu. She was willing to wear her masks at work, but she didn't think they made any real difference.  Yet the family that lives almost at the end of my road has several members in quarantine because some are sick. And who knows how many Americans will defy the science and not be careful this Labor Day weekend.  They won't all get sick, but some will and some of those will die or they might pass the virus on. It's happening all over the world, it's confusing, it's hard on our kids, and it definitely collides with what some would call the American myth that our right to do anything we want is more important than looking out for each other.  
          I'm not complaining so much as disbelieving, but it means I am compelled to bring it up, because anything about anything else doesn't work without bringing up these concerns. It's just hard to accept that we aren't all --- every one of us --- speaking to the current fragile balancing of the personal and the political that faces us as citizens of our shared world.  (And, no surprise, I am sick that our president is going out of his way -- purely for his own selfish purposes -- to undermine the voting procedures the constitution guarantees and requires for the health of our democracy.) 

          OK, enough words. I'm glad Blogger, for this week again, at least, has returned to a saner blog posting operation. Since I'm not sure it will last, however, I remain basic in how I try to present a few photos. 

stopping on Sideway Road to take 2 photos..

My mini-bumper stickers, which -- LUCKILY -- mainly serve to stand out in the Kroger parking lot so that I can find my car after grocery shopping! Well, it is true that several times I have seen people taking photos like this one I made. There don't seem to be a lot of other stickers this year. These are at least non-partisan sentiments.

A BRIEF BRAGG: I have never been the one to be the fixer of anything, but this time, after early consults with J., I managed to get this bottom freezer to stop acting like a toddler.  So far, no more leaks!.

It's meadow time around here, soon to be mowed, so goodbye iron weed...

   The following photo is by my daughter, Rebecca, this weekend.  I think it's a really good photo, but it also shows the location for where the downy woodpecker family feeding photos happened -- in front of the upper window on the left.  I have added one of those earlier photos as a point of photography interest. I was inside that window, looking out, and the light was OK for being able to make it work. Nothing was planned. Thank you, Curiosity. That discovery moment went on for at least a half dozen feeding sessions.

Downy Dad dinner prep, while I'm looking out the window to the limb that's part of a trellis (see previous photo)

           Did I mention to please be kind, please be safe, please envision why and how we could -- with bravery -- restore democracy, and please VOTE? 

A lovely end of August

post #506
           After complaining lately about Blogspot's failed revision, I feel I should report that, maybe, the recent effort to revise these blog mechanics has gone in for a redo!! Praise be....  But, in another glitch, now that I am using Mpix for my prints for the note cards I make, it seems they have currently been cyber attacked!  
         This viciousness seems to mirror some of the daily outrageous difficulties in our nation's dealings (or not dealing) with the virus, with our leadership, and with our efforts to confront the systemic racism we absolutely have to acknowledge and overcome.

         So, with all that in mind, I have several phone photos to share, and I hope the system works. There may be progress for the blog, but I'm not willing yet to take on anything complicated.. 
          As for the other stuff, we need to stay clear eyed and vigilant.  And everyone needs to vote.

my sweet pond, and house, and cattails

 OK, this next photo shows the makings of a BLT.  In August I eat a year's worth of tomatoes, because they are so tasty and juicy. Also in August, I eat the only pound of bacon that I eat all year. I have a thing about BLTs. I love them.  Today I finished the bacon. I thought I had finished with the tomatoes as well, because they are grown by my nearby family. THANK YOU. But as I sat outside dripping with mayo and bread and lettuce and bacon to go with my yellow tomato, my dear son-in-law dropped by with several more tomatoes. So now I get to gradually separate from the tomato part of August, while going cold turkey with the bacon. (delicious phrasing there.....) 

Soon after I went for a short walk -- after my early dinner..  Here are a few photos.
 

These are joe-pyes below my house. I have never become used to "owning a tree" or even "owning a showy weed" like the joe-pye.

I get to walk on a narrow paved road that has very little traffic. This was the first caterpillar I didn't step on. 

This is the second caterpillar I didn't step on, even though it was harder to see.

 My parting image tonight comes from the lady's restroom in our wonderful local bookstore, CoffeeTree BOOKS and the Fuzzy Duck Coffee Shop.  What could be better than this to replace "Happy Birthday"!! I wonder if the whole world can't help recognizing these words. I do know that the whole world can always stand a little humor and 20 seconds by Dolly! Enjoy.

short but sweet, sort of

This Sunday I am NOT going to struggle with the Blogger effort to frustrate us all in every possible way.  SURELY they will soon admit that they have royally screwed up and take us back to where we know how to make Blogspot work.... It has been very reassuring to discover that so many users have chimed in after having similar experiences to mine.

So, as is said, I'm going to give it a rest -- though maybe I will at least try to add a couple of sunset shots from two days ago ---  no secret message intended.  I will also make a brief comment before we have a week where dubious claims nightly will overload our political news cycle.  I hope everyone is a becoming a believer that the virus is real.  Nearby neighbor friends of mine may have tried to hide, but they were found this weekend. It's seriously sad. We all pray for their safety, for their recovery, for their families, and for all of America.   We are paying a high price for not having a national coordinated effort to combat -- via science -- the reality that the pandemic is world wide.  We need to have each other's back.  I have a lot more photos I want to make. And I'm way behind in giving and getting hugs.

facing SSE from my house:

and, last but not least, shared because we can always use a reminder of hope, a recent favorite photo of mine, from dear English friends, of a great grandson with his great grandfather:

What can I do to support efforts for less chaos and sham in the world?

post #506 --- PLEASE NOTE: TODAY (8/16/20) I WROTE ABOUT PATIENCE, AND IT TURNS OUT TONIGHT I NEED IT MORE THAN I HAVE IT.  I DECIDED TO GO AHEAD AND PUBLISH MY PROBLEM, AS A WAY OF SHARING MY DISTRESS AND FRUSTRATION.  OBVIOUSLY THIS IS NOT A BIG DEAL IN THE REAL HURTIN' WORLD BUT I DON'T HAVE TIME TO FIX THIS TONIGHT.  I HAVE NEVER SEEN MY SPACES WITHOUT THE PHOTO THAT HAD BEEN PLACED THERE. VERY STRANGE. IS IT GREMLINS? THE RUSSIANS? BAD LUCK? AN EXCELLENT LEARNING OPPORTUNITY? I WILL TRY TO RESOLVE THIS TOMORROW. STAY SAFE EVERYONE.

            The big question of my day today is both how to handle the need to pay attention to the community work that has to get done before our election AND what is it that one individual, such as myself, can bring to the table. For example, a friend tells me these posts of mine help her keep perspective and give her hope. I'm glad, though I know she is already doing her part to help fellow citizens during these lock downs, in New York state, all the while keeping an eye on the prize. Martin Luther King and other leaders have over and over reminded us of how important it is to keep that big picture in our view. She and I are among many who wish we were able to do more. Every one likes to feel she or he can make a difference.
             Well, one would think that as a photographer I am all over big pictures of any sort! Well, it's not that easy. I love sharing my photos and their story, so at least there's that. I also appreciate the cooler weather we are having and the common conversations that are taking place in many forms -- phone, Zoom, sitting outside 6 feet apart, emails and texts, the Fed Ex driver, friends in different time zones, and in our thoughts and dreams.  (The red wallet I forgot to bring to the grocery store Friday morning made it into my dream last night. Well, well.)
              One happiness is that this is the third week after I kind of freaked out about the new formats and shortcuts that are now used to do a Blogger post. Several revised twists and turns I've figured out by accident, but hey, whatever works. I have always learned best by making mistakes and trying again. However, some times I'm more patient than others.
            Now's a good time to try for the 4th week in a row to get those two photos to transfer to the blog, and to share some photos from exactly a year ago:

a photo from exactly one year ago

 #1 of the 2!

I put this on my rural mailbox.  It's easy to see how long their days are and how many of us rely on their services.

 

a version of #2 of two

This is also from an exact year ago. 

Final note (8/18/20): These photos are NOT totally where I want them to be, and I have only done whatever is showing up by reverting to the old system which is no longer pristine and which is set to be available only for maybe another month.  This breaks my creative heart that after ten years of loyalty to this blog -- and access to all 500 posts - that it has to be this difficult to move to so much unfamiliar territory.  (I must be bringing some of the fear of the unknown that comes from envisioning the impending election to the comparatively simple task of producing a post once a week!!) As always, thanks for your visit -- whenever you find your way here.