HIGHWAY 49 REVISITED (SOUTH)

CENTER OF SUTTER CREEK

FALL SEEMS TO HAVE JUST ARRIVED IN THIS TOWN

MY HELPER, MY FRIEND, MY LOVE

WE WALKED THE LOWER PART OF SUTTER CREEK, AMAZED AT ALL THE WONDERFUL HOMES WE SAW ON THE QUIET STREETS.

AROUND EVERY CORNER WE SAW HOME AFTER HOME THAT "CALLED" TO US.

THIS WAS JUST ONE WEEKEND AFTER HALLOWEEN AND THE REMNANTS OF THE HOLIDAY WERE EVERYWHERE TO BE FOUND.

QUIET FRONT PORCHES, SHUTTERS, FALLEN LEAVES. NOTHING MAKES ME HAPPIER THAN THESE SIMPLE PLEASURES.

AND DID I MENTION WHITE PICKET FENCES AND ARBORS?

THIS HOME HAD HISTORICAL VALUE. IT WAS BUILT IN THE EARLY GOLD HISTORY DAYS  IN THE TIME OF LELAND STANFORD. 

THE LAWN WAS COVERED IN A CARPET OF LEAVES AND THEY WERE FALLING FROM THE TREE AS I STOOD THERE PHOTOGRAPHING. NOTHING MAKES ME HAPPIER THAN THIS TIME OF THE YEAR. I WAIT ALL YEAR FOR THIS "SPARK" THAT NATURE PUTS INTO PLAY. I SUPPOSE IF I DIDN'T HAVE TO WAIT SO LONG FOR AUTUMN, I WOULDN'T APPRECIATE IT AS MUCH AS I DO WHEN IT FINALLY ARRIVES. 

I KNOW THAT IN MANY PARTS OF THE COUNTRY, AUTUMN HAS ALREADY COME AND GONE BUT HERE IN THE GOLD COUNTRY, IT SEEMS TO JUST BE REACHING ITS PEAK. ON SATURDAY WE WERE SOUTH ON HIGHWAY 49 AND ON SUNDAY I WAS NORTH ON HIGHWAY 49. I CAN ATTEST THAT BOTH DIRECTIONS WERE GLORIOUS. NORTH PHOTOS WILL BE POSTED SOON. HERE'S HOPING THAT WHEREVER YOU ARE, THAT YOU ARE ENJOYING WHAT NATURE HAS GIVEN TO YOU IN THE MOMENT.

..."The world was beautiful when looked at in this way---without seeking, so simple, so childlike. The moon and the stars were beautiful, the brook, the shore, the forest and rock, the goat and the golden beetle, the flower and butterfly were beautiful. It was beautiful and pleasant to go through the world like that, so childlike, so awakened, so concerned with the immediate, without any distrust."  (page 38---Siddhartha by Hermann Hesse)