Resurrecting Picnik

I've been mourning the loss of Picnik ever since Google shut it down.  Then today I received an email from a friend showing me a picture of her new kitty that she edited in PicMonkey. 

OMG - let the celebrating begin.  If you haven't heard of PicMonkey, click HERE and start exploring.  It's full of all your Picnik favorites, it's fun, and for now it's FREE.

Taphophile Tragics #26

The National Cemetery at Santa Nella, CA is the resting place of my parents.  Santa Nella is a small truck stop by-pass on the road north or south on Interstate 5.  It is the exit/entrance point for Hwy 152 leading to the coast or into the Central Valley.  Its golden hills change to green or delicate pastels of wildflowers depending on the season.  And, there is always the wind.  Nestled against the foothills that separate the coastal range from the valley floor, it is a natural passageway for the wind.

I love Santa Nella for its unique quiet; its invitation to sit and be still; the sheer history of warriors at rest. My dad was a veteran of Pearl Harbor.  My mother served two years in the WACs.  They both lay there together, not only two people who served God and country but two people who shared a life together.

Taphophile Tragics

In 1977, I was in my last year at UC Riverside.  A history class during that last year introduced me to Agua Mansa Cemetery in San Bernardino County.  It was an old decaying cemetery then and 35 years later, it still is.  Back then there were, of course, no digital cameras and the pictures I took are tucked firmly away with the research I gathered at the time.  Tucked away in a box and not surfacing easily.

I've always had a soft spot for this particular cemetery.  It is here that I trace my love for old cemeteries and hopefully the research and photos will surface soon and I can share my own work here.  Today, as I was exploring for Agua Mansa online, I ran across an image that lead me to a blog.  I scrolled through two years worth of posting and found, to my delight, Hoboannie's  forgotten graves of  Agua Mansa Cemetery.