Audience - Rancho Palos Verdes, CA

Audience, Ridgecrest Intermediate School Graduation - 12 June 2009

Nursing graduates - Cal State Long Beach, CA (Sepia Scenes)

From the Class of December 2009 (January 2010)

To view others visit MaryT, theTeach at Sepia Scenes Blog.

Reading Signs No. 2 - Chrystalaire Airport, Llano, CA

FLAMMABLE, 2 January 2010

Caution sign on top of the refueling truck at Southern California Soaring Academy in Llano, 25 miles south of Edwards Air Force Base.

Click HERE for the first sign of the series.

Fire / Water: 2 Things Challenge & Weekend Reflection

Sunset at Crystalaire, 23 January 2010

Firey sunlit clouds are reflected onto the water-like smooth surface of the glider's canopy & wing.

Join the weekly 2 Things Challenge hosted by Larry at Eeyores Ramblins.

AND the ever so popular James' Weekend Reflection.

Auto Repair - Seal Beach, CA

Seal Beach Auto Repair, January 2010

... or "My Other Boat is a Car " license plate frame.

With the recent rains in the area, hope the boat does not float away.

nobody,not even the rain,has such small hands

Mulan Magnolia Blossom, St. Helena, CA (8 March 2009)

somewhere i have never travelled,gladly beyond

by ee cummings

somewhere i have never travelled,gladly beyond
any experience,your eyes have their silence:
in your most frail gesture are things which enclose me,
or which i cannot touch because they are too near

your slightest look easily will unclose me
though i have closed myself as fingers,
you open always petal by petal myself as Spring opens
(touching skilfully,mysteriously)her first rose

or if your wish be to close me, i and
my life will shut very beautifully ,suddenly,
as when the heart of this flower imagines
the snow carefully everywhere descending;

nothing which we are to perceive in this world equals
the power of your intense fragility:whose texture
compels me with the color of its countries,
rendering death and forever with each breathing

(i do not know what it is about you that closes
and opens;only something in me understands
the voice of your eyes is deeper than all roses)
nobody,not even the rain,has such small hands

Reading Signs No. 1 - West Los Angeles, CA

Art Materials, Santa Monica Blvd. - 12 January 2010

Fowler Museum - Los Angeles, CA

Fowler Museum of Cultural History, UCLA - March 2009

Crystal Cathedral - Garden Grove, CA (Weekend Reflection)

Crystal Cathedral, 16 January 2010
Crystal Cathedral - detail, 16 January 2010
Crystal Cathedral - detail, 16 January 2010
This is my "no brainer" contribution for James' Weekend Reflection.

Performing Arts - Costa Mesa, CA

Segerstorm Concert Hall, 9 January 2010
Samueli Theater, 9 January 2010
In this theater, I attended a wonderful Gala concert as a fundraiser for the Serbian Orthodox church in Orange County.

Towers and Turrets - St. Augustine, Florida

Turret at Castillo de San Marcos National Monument(circa 1680) with Flagler College (former Hotel Ponce de Leon) tower (r) and Memorial Presbyterian Church tower (l).

December 2009

'Z' is for Zebras at the... - Palm Dessert, CA

Zebras, December 2008

These beauties (photographed in living color) are lunching at the Living Desert, a wonderful animal & natural botanical park preserving a portion Colorado desert.

See more Zzzz's around the world at abc wednesday.

PENINSULA ::.:..:::..:.::... - Torrance, CA

Closed Buick-Oldsmobile(?) dealer on Pacific Coast Hwy.

11 July 2009

(The lot is currently used as an overflow for another dealership).

Nativity Catholic Church - Torrance, CA

This beautiful church is located in Old Torrance at the intersection of Manuel and Engracia Avenues.

(November 2009)

Yo Soy La Virgen De La Caridad - Torrance, CA

A shrine to the Virgin of Charity next to Nativity Catholic Church in Torrance (November 2009)

Winter Details at St. Andrew's Abbey - Valyermo, CA

Workshop Window, 21 February 2009

Silver Bell, 21 February 2009

St. Andrew's Abbey is a Roman Catholic Benedictine Monastery and Retreat/Youth Center located in the northern foothills of the San Gabriel Mountains.
Saint Andrew's Abbey

This is my contribution for James' Weekend Reflection.

Douglas Park - End & Beginning - Long Beach, CA

SW corner of Lakewood Blvd & Carson St (August 2009)
Once the site of a thriving aircraft factory with different company names (Douglas Aircraft, McDonnell Douglas, & Boeing), is now a commercial & residential development space. In the view are white Boeing office buildings and the San Gabriel/San Bernandino mountains.

Unusual Monument - Torrance, CA

County Engineer Monument

Torrance Blvd. at Cravens Ave.

25 November 2009

'Y' is for bits of Yellow - Long Beach, CA

See the 'Y' posts around the world at abc Wednesday.

Getting Smart on East Ocean Blvd., Long Beach
Claire's at the Museaum, Long Beach Museum of Art
Fountain at Claire's.

Beauty and the Beach - 1910

Mary Ruder, my husband's paternal grandmother, somewhere on the Southern California coast in 1910. This must have been shortly after she came to California from Mankato, Minnesota.

Can anyone help me identify the pier?

Hva er det?

What is my New Year's resolution? Hmmmm...I wonder...

Remembrance of a Rose Parade Past (Pasadena, CA - New Year's 1971)

This really poor quality photo brings back great memories. That's me, when I was 12, with my mom in a coat over a maxi skirt at our first Tournament of Roses post-parade display. My dad took the picture. The pants were bought at Robinson's monthly sale...they were brown & rust & buff cords and I loved them.

Winter - Mammoth Mountain, CA

31 Jan 2009
Going down the easy run (Pumpkin - south side of the mountain).
31 Jan 2009
Going up, reflected.

Waiting - Getty Villa Museaum, Pacific Palisades, CA

December 2008

Memories of New Year's Past

Mama, me (5 years old) & tata (Dad) in our apartment on the 7th floor of the 10 story 'skyscraper' on 139 Marshall Tito St in Tuzla, Bosnia (former Yugoslavia). We were celebrating the New Year, which was when the "jelka" (fir tree) was decorated and "Deda Mraz" (Grandpa Frost) came to bring presents, in the then communist Yugoslavia.
Photos for festive occasions were taken by a professional photographer, this one from FotoServis. My mom is still a beauty. Photo from pre-school (obdaniste) - my friend and next door neighbor, Mischa (Milos S.), and I (we had just finished making the skirts and the hats). I remember that I had a fever that day.

Milos moved with his parents to Novi Sad, Serbia in '71 or '72.

Memories of St. Stephen's Day Past - Vienna, Austria

Father Adam of Monastery Daily Photo and Merisi of Vienna for Beginners, reminded me that today is the Feast of St. Stephen. This brought back a memory of the same day 20 years ago, when my husband and I spent Christmas holidays in Salzburg and Vienna. On the chilly morning of 26th, we found ourselves by St. Stephen's Cathedral in Vienna, and joined many Viennese and tourists inside for St. Stephen's Day Mass. Outside on Stephansplatz, a Romanian Dixieland Jazz band was celebrating the overthrow of the oppressive dictator Ceauşescu and the fall of communism in their country.

Merry Christmas - St. Augustine, Florida

Flagler College (former Ponce de Leon Hotel) tower, St. Augustine, Fl.
The St. Augustine Light tower was built in 1874, Anastasia Island, Florida.

St. Brigid - San Francisco, CA

"St. Brigid Church is a cultural and architectural landmark in the Marina, Pacific Heights and Russian Hill neighborhoods. St. Brigid’s survived the 1906 earthquake, the great depression, two world wars – and an attempt by San Francisco’s Catholic archdiocese to demolish it. The Committee to Save St. Brigid Church was successful in landmarking the exterior of the building, including the beautiful stained glass windows imported from Ireland."

St Brigid.org

(Photo taken while stopped at a traffic light on Van Ness, February 2009 - I was struck by the beauty and intricacy of the facade.)

At the Former Ponce de Leon Hotel - St. Augustine, Florida (2)

Flagler College - St. Augustine, Florida

Flagler College - History of Ponce de Leon Hotel
(When we arrived at JAX airport, we asked the rent-a-car attendents, "What is a something that we must see while in Jacksonville?" One of the women immediately responded, "St. Augustine.")

Downtown & St. Johns River - Jacksonville, Florida

Again taken from the 19th floor of the Hyatt Regency Jacksonville Riverfront (formerly the Adams Mark) hotel.

Night over St. Johns River & Main Street Bridge - Jacksonville, Florida

I had the best view of the city from the Hyatt hotel room on the 19th (& top) floor. The blue bridge is the Main Street Bridge. Note the railroad bridge under the 2nd highway bridge."The massive Main Street "vertical lift span" Bridge ... was built in the 1930s to carry US 1 over the St. Johns River. Made of eleven steel stringer spans and three Warren through trusses, the 365-foot long continuous truss vertical lift span at the center is the longest in Florida. The span-drive system, which puts the drive machinery on the movable span, utilizes concrete counterweights enclosed within two large steel frame towers. Although builders emphasized functional considerations, the bridge produces an aesthetic effect through its strength, 200-foot high lift towers, and commanding reach across the St. Johns River measuring 1,680 feet in length." http://bridgepros.com/projects/mainst.Jax/Mainstreet.htm