A few days ago we had snow on deck for the Sunday forecast at lower elevations. Plenty of precipitation and the temperatures were supposed to dip below freezing, but just barely. As is often the case, the snowflake has turned into a more familiar rain cloud....bummer.

I really hope we get snow in Portland this winter. I know I can head east and get all the snow I can handle, but the city just looks so pretty under a fresh coat.

Image with my Hasselblad 500cm

We're Here! : Optimistic Cloudgoat

Strobist: AB1600 with gridded 60X30 softbox camera right. Triggered by Cybersync.

"An optimist is the human personification of Spring." ~Susan J. Bissonette~

Optimistic window box in alley, downtown Seattle.

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Flies are buzzing round my head

Vultures circling my bed

Picking up every last crumb

The big fish eat the little ones

Big fish eat the little ones

Not my problem, give me some

You can try the best you can

You can try the best you can

The best you can is good enough

You can try the best you can

You can try the best you can

The best you can is good enough

This one’s optimistic

This one went to market

This one just came out of the swamp

This one drops a payload

Of fodder for the animals

Living on an animal farm

You can try the best you can

You can try the best you can

The best you can is good enough

You can try the best you can

You can try the best you can

The best you can is good enough

I’d really like to help you man

I’d really like to help you man

Nervous messed up marionettes

Float around on a prison ship

You can try the best you can

You can try the best you can

The best you can is good enough

You can try the best you can

You can try the best you can

Dinosaurs roaming the earth

Dinosaurs roaming the earth

Dinosaurs roaming the earth

Radiohead

Optimistic

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"Flies are buzzing round my head

Vultures circling the dead

Picking up every last crumb

The big fish eat the little ones

The big fish eat the little ones

Not my problem, give me some "

Radiohead_Optimistic

Group of Four Optimistic Cactus Flowers In My Front Garden

These glorious cactus flowers in my front garden open at night and last for a single day. They are so optimistic that they will be fertilized quickly.

Warszawa, Poland

Winter

Links to all of my work. Instagram. Website. Behance. linktr.ee/ewitsoe

Optimistic Amsterdam

I wasn't terribly optimistic when I went looking for the BNSF's local on the Hanley Falls branch to Madison, MN. Good news! I saw a headlight when I crossed the tracks at this rural crossing west of Boyd. Bad news: it soon became obvious they were running east as light power. Consolation: the east facing locomotive was an ex-Frisco GP38-2 still wearing H1 paint. I gave a little chase back to Clarkfield, but I think I'll need to come back to try again. This telephoto view shows how little grading was done when the Minneapolis & St Louis Railway laid the first tracks down back in the late 19th century.

My (optimistic) Order...

Please deliver a massive Starling murmuration very close to home during the lock-down

Status...

Delivered

20-30,000 birds

Payment Details...

1 tube of meal-worms and crushed peanuts in the garden feeder every morning

(Only 20-30 Starlings will attend)

Done

Transaction completed

Thank you

20,000 Starlings

I'm not sure what this nursery web spider (Pisura mirabilis) was up to on the garden sage bush. It looks like it is eyeing up the Bombus lapidarius queen as a snack. Normally it goes for much smaller prey which it subdues physically rather than poisons so the bee represented quite a challenge!. I shall never know as the bee flew off before the spider could make its intentions clear.

This is the third species of queen bumblebee seen in the garden this year - the other two being B. terrestris and B. hypnorum. There have also been honeybees and a single male mining bee.

The spider is interesting because although I've seen them in the local countryside it's the first time I have seen the species in the garden.

Waning Gibbous, 53% illuminated. Captured in London, UK. January 2020.

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Rappelez-vous que les jours se lèvent toujours.

Savez-vous qu'être optimiste,

partager plus et vouloir moins,

vivre de manière plus simple et moins compliquée

est pour nous aussi protecteur que la lumière du jour,

chaque jour nous invitant à danser

avec la danse du temps d'aujourd'hui.

Oui c'est vrai mes amis(es),

: )

Ivan

---------------------------------------------------

Remember the days always rises.

Know you that being optimistic,

share more and want less,

try to live in a simple and less complicated way

for every day inviting us to dance

with the dance of today's time,

is for us as protective as the days'light.

Yes my friends, all will be fine.

: )

Ivan

..."Choose to be optimistic, it feels better." --Dalai Lama XIV

For ODC: Dalai Lama quotes

And Color My World Daily (yellow day on Wednesday)

After optimistically mistaking a pair of turkey vultures for our resident hawks, I spotted Mom perched in a tree at the Oval. Before I could get my exposure set, she took off to the ballfield and into this pine tree. It was a very nice surprise to find her sitting next to T4. Yes, that is ice on Mom's right eye.

Fynn and his human and furry family wish all our Flickr friends a Happy New Year. May the sun shine on you and your loved ones in 2017 and may the year be all you hope it will be.

I have chosen Fynn for my New Year's greetings because it's often not easy to stay optimistic when you have to deal with his health issues. He ends the year with more problems than he started it and I'm not sure what the next months will bring but I know that Fynn is a fighter otherwise his life would have been over years ago. If anyone has taught me not to give up easily it's him.

Heliopan red filter dark

The way this weed looks at it, it has all this space in which to spread out....and there's no competition.

Or as John Stewart put it:

"It's time I should be thankful

For all that I have got,

Instead of bitching and complaining

Of all that I have not. . . ."

- - lyrics from "Midnight of the World."

Best viewed LARGE.

He knew with his deadly new bait, he'd catch a Narwhale eventually.

We're Here: Optimistic Cloudgoat

It was a glorious day in Lichfield today!

Feeling good after spending some time chatting with the steering wheel harvesters, Pinky is optimistic about the latest world to which the jump drive has transported him.

Pinky steps from his rover, and gazes around at the striking purple terrain and the interesting vegetation. Soon he notices an interesting vehicle and two green-skinned creatures nearby.

Hello. What a beautiful planet you have. I'm Pinky, the wandering Space Alpaca. I'm just passing through on my way home...I hope.

The green stranger with the big purple hairdo smiles benignly.

Welcome, traveler. We are glad you have joined us. Please, stay for a while. I am Sirene, the Governess of this place. We were just about to play some music...Would you care to listen?

Pinky makes himself comfortable on the soft pink terrain while Sirene and her associate begin creating the most unusual melodic sounds that he has ever heard. Sirene plays a strange guitar while the other creature sings, the sounds amplified and accompanied by various tone coming from the nearby vehicle.

Soon, Pinky finds himself in a trancelike state...carried away by the phantasmagorical and mellifluous music, unable to move or even think clearly. In is not unpleasant but quite uncanny.

...

After a time, Pinky regains his senses and find himself quite alone. There is no sign of Sirene, the others, or the vehicle, not even tracks in the soft purple soil.

Wondering if they were ever there at all, Pinky returns to his rover, climbs aboard and presses the Quantum Drive ignition.

ZZZZZZaaaap

Crackle

Flash

As the smoke wisps away, one can almost hear faint, unusual music in the distance...

More Views

(Or the optimistic civil servant ;) )

"Little girls from Sweden

Dream of silver screen quotations"

Sounds

"Love is better than anger. Hope is better than fear. Optimism is better than despair. So let us be loving, hopeful and optimistic. And we'll change the world.” - Jack Layton (1950-2011)

St. Margaret's Anglican Church which I have photographed over the years. It looks so different without the huge tree that was removed by the City of Toronto, because it might become a hazard if it fell.

Thanks for visiting, take care, stay healthy and hopeful. #BeKind

Portrait

Be optimistic, things should come up roses....tulips, in the long run.

Captured in London, England. May 2021.

(Copyright: Epiphany Appleseed / @FunkyAppleTree)

Optimistic ~

www.flickr.com/photos/sexydesperate/

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Headed out optimistic this morning to catch the sunrise as the forecast called for "mostly clear" and the tide was scheduled to be fairly low. Weather forecasts are always such a shot in the dark....as we had heavy cloud cover. Finally the sun broke through a few gaps in the clouds and gave us some pretty amazing scenes. Ended up still being worth the effort.

Just hanging out on a telephone pole.

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