Wednesday was such a great day that the fun was bound to end somehow and how did it.  By evening there was emotional wreckage.  No one was upset at me personally but it is still hard not to react emotionally when someone else is very upset.  So that kind of threw me in a bad mood even though I tried my darnest  to go through my affirmations, positive self talk and deep breathing.  I thought I would wake up Thursday and feel a whole lot better but not so much so.  Today I decided all I would try to get done was get out in the sun.  So I went to upper park and took a short hike, relaxed on the benches in the sun and watched all the different kinds of birds.  There were lots of pretty woodpeckers in the dead trees and these other tiny birds I think that are called titmouse.  I might have saw a warbler with a pretty yellow chest of feathers and then a small bird of prey.  I better get a bird id book so I can figure them out next time.  I didn't feel like taking the camera and then, of course, I wished I had.

I also worked on uploading rewards and information for my Kickstarter Project.  I still need to make the video and put together some images also. I should have it ready to launch next week.  Tomorrow I am making my flight reservations for North Carolina. I'd be more excited right now but I am falling asleep while I am typing.

Here's a funny cup experiment idea I was working on.  Trying to make a non-funtional mug.  I like the way the green glaze breaks over the red clay. That's all she wrote.  I'm planning on making tomorrow a better day.

Magic in the Park

I've been pretty busy lately.  I would like to say that I have been super, crazy busy but I don't think that I am being that efficient with my time.  Either that or I have unrealistic notions of just how much I can fit into each day.  Or it might be that I spend too much time surfing the internet.  Hmmm...   Anyway my grad school applications are coming along nicely and I have gotten the worst part of it out of the way.  I have been making work to add to my portfolio and I have been editing images so that I can update my website. Since I have been spending a lot of time in either a dark room in front of the computer or in my basement studio I decided that I absolutely HAD TO get out of the house and out from under the trees and get into some the wide open space with sunlight.  Of course I had to grab my camera just in case.

I headed up to Upper Bidwell Park which is one of my most favorite places to go.  It always holds some kind of magic for me no matter when I go.  But this time was a special treat.  I'm not sure that I have been there before when the leaves are changing.  It was absolutely gorgeous there this afternoon.  Everything had that special glow about it.  I really felt like I had entered into some kind of fantasy realm.  Everything was entrancing. I was only going for a short drive through the park but it ended being a three hour walking photo shoot.  It was very relaxing and inspiring and now I feel like I need to go back everyday, all day.  Sigh, too bad other things have to get done.  Maybe I'll bring some of these colors into my work?  I have to justify more research, you see.

Oh the enchantment of it all.  I'm kind of lazy when it comes to writing creatively although I do have my aspirations.  This makes me want to sit down and write poetry.  I love the images but they don't recreate the smells and sounds like the hawk talking or the owl hooting or the silent, delicate flight of the bats skimming over the lake.  I didn't want to leave but the sun was going down and it was getting dark and colder by the creek so I decided I would end my adventure and try to get back home and back to work.  But this is what I found when I got back to my car...  And that meant I had to stay for another hour.  Smile.

 

 Yes, a truly delightful day!