“there is no there there” is a quote from Gertrude Stein in her Everybody’s Autobiography (although, I have to admit that I thought it was Virginia Wolfe). I often – often being used pretty liberally here – hear it  characterized as to mean that, after Paris, Oakland is nothing, but I like Oakland and I think it actually has another meaning. I think that it means that the emotional charge that her home and street carried while Stein was growing up in Oakland is no longer there when she returned.

In 2004, shorty after Michele gave me my first digital camera, I spent an afternoon photographing one or two giant, hybrid, Epiphyllums. I love the pictures from that afternoon. The two pictures above are from then. Over the years, I got more Epiphyllums and, over the years and I have shot more pictures of them. This year was particularly outstanding with lots of orange flowers, a couple of pink flowers, and for the first time, two white flowers. The flowers are better than ever

but the pictures aren’t.

There really is there is no there there and chasing the there doesn’t bring it back. The good news is that there are lots of other theres around.