Close your eyes, I'll be here in the morning.

"Close your eyes I'll be here for awhile" Ashley, 22, cis woman from California's Central Valley now living on the Northern CA Coast. Exasperated student, aspiring librarian, occasional photographer, knitter, lover of words, place, cats, etc.   “And what is your religion?” “I think it is California.” - Gottardo Piazzoni

[newyorker]

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[newyorker]

Fifteen-year-old Greta Thunberg has been protesting on the steps of Sweden’s parliament building for more than a month. The teen is demanding that the government undertake a radical response to climate change. She said that a number of members of parliament have come out to the steps to express support for her position, although every one of them has said that she should really be at school.

Read the full story, “The Fifteen-Year-Old Climate Activist Who Is Demanding a New Kind of Politics,” here. 

[televisionandchill-deactivated2]

[violentwavesofemotion-deactivat]

Antonia Pozzi, from Breath: Poems & Letters; “Scream,” wrtten c. September 1929 (x)

[metaphorformetaphor]

I feel you are never “away” from me. […] my heart and soul, my very guts carry you constantly.

Henry Miller, from Dear, Dear Brenda: The Love Letters of Henry Miller to Brenda Venus (William Morrow & Company, 1986)

[harddaysnite]

How can you’ve lived for so long and still not get it? This self-obsession is a waste of living. It could be spent on surviving things, appreciating nature, nurturing kindness and friendship, and dancing. You have been pretty lucky in love though, if I may say so. 

Only Lovers Left Alive (2013) dir. Jim Jarmusch

[maaaneater]

You may be a #plantnerd if you make a special stop just to see the silk tassel (Garrya congdonii) in bloom... (at El Dorado Hills, California)

[maaaneater]

Pentagramma triangularis aka Goldenback fern found along the North Fork of the American River. #plantnerd #californianativeplants #botanizing (at Auburn State Recreation Area)

[metaphorformetaphor]

[…] there was open sea to both sides, and the sea, it was like an old friend, […] many times I have stood like that in the night, looking out over the sea: there is a calm there to be found which at times I have badly needed.

Per Petterson, from I Curse the River of Time, transl. by Charlotte Barslund (Graywolf Press, 2010)

[fragmentarie]

All I ever did to that apartment was hang fifty yards of yellow theatrical silk across the bedroom windows, because I had some idea that the gold light would make me feel better, but I did not bother to weight the curtains correctly and all that summer the long panels of transparent golden silk would blow out the windows and get tangled and drenched in the afternoon thunderstorms. That was the year, my twenty-eighth, when I was discovering that not all of the promises would be kept, that some things are in fact irrevocable and that it had counted after all, every evasion and every procrastination, every mistake, every word, all of it.

Joan Didion, “Goodbye to All That,” Slouching Towards Bethlehem (via fragmentarie)

[maaaneater]

More black and white- a healthy community of native Santa Barbara Sedge (Carex barberae) along the American river. (at Effie Yeaw Nature Center)

[maaaneater]

Nerd alert! Got to see some really cool woody chaparral plants yesterday. A lot of them are California endemic and serpentine endemic with a pretty limited distribution. Pictured are a Pickeringia montana that was still flowering in November, for some reason, some species of Arctostaphylos (who can tell for certain?), and Garrya congdonii. (at Berryessa Snow Mountain National Monument)

[maaaneater]

Got to see some really cool woody chaparral plants yesterday. A lot of them are California endemic and serpentine endemic with a pretty limited distribution. Pictured are a Pickeringia montana that was still flowering in November, for some reason, some species of Arctostaphylos (who can tell for certain?), and Garrya congdonii. (at Berryessa Snow Mountain National Monument)

[maaaneater]

Sometimes a photo just speaks for itself. Some places there are no words for - at least not any that can do them justice. (at Leesville, California)

[maaaneater]

This photo had been sitting, undeveloped, in my camera for nearly a year until today- film is magical that way. This photo was taken last November (or was it December?) atop one of Humboldt's highest coastal ridges. I was out on a Sunday drive (even if it wasn't a Sunday it was in the spirit of a Sunday drive) with a good friend on a clear day during a particularly rainy fall. Everything was fresh, crisp, and clear in the way it only ever can be on a clear day right after the rain. I don't remember if I knew then, in that moment, that I would be moving away but I remember knowing in my heart that this trip was my way of beginning to say goodbye to the place that had become my home. I didn't know where I was headed and I didn't even really want to leave, but there was this small voice in the back of my head telling me that it was time to go. It's hard to believe that it's been almost a year since I've left my Humboldt home - a place so beautiful and remote and all-consuming. It's not even been a year and already I'm forgetting the names of streets I knew so well, the geography is starting to blur. I don't know if I'll have the privilage of calling the north coast my home again (I'd like to), at least anytime soon, but I am so happy to have rediscovered this photo that, for me, so strongly evokes a sense of the place that I have loved.

[maaaneater]

While most people are celebrating Halloween today, my little family (of two) is celebrating Tule's 2nd birthday! It was two Halloween's ago today that I was strolling the aisles of Target for candy to hand out to trick-or-treaters when I received a phone call from a lady that I had casually emailed about kittens. She really wanted to adopt them out that day and said she and the kittens could come to me. I said yes, and ended up with a Tule. This little fluff has brought me so much love, joy, and laughter (not to mention worry, mice, gophers, birds, and lizards). Happy birthday Tule Patchouli!

[maaaneater]

I don't think I'll ever grow tired of oaks. They are old, wise, and know a thing or two about being rooted. (at Cosumnes River Preserve)