Tag: photography

Howdy, neighbors!

We have many deer that roam our neighborhood, being located close to a number of greenbelts.  We enjoy them.  Like most of our neighbors, we restrict the tasty and ornamental flowers to our fenced backyard, and have learned to plant the more pungent deer-resistant greens in the front yard.

This week I noticed two deer have taken up residence in our neighbor’s large fenced backyard.   It’s unlikely that they cannot get out of the yard, so I assume they are just very content to stay put.   They are not overly concerned with us tramping around our back yard.    I took this picture using my telephoto from about 150 feet away.

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At dawn’s door.

Not as pretty as a sunrise, but I love watching the sun light up the windows in the morning.  Enjoy the day.OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERA

A fantastic weekend, so far.

And it’s only Saturday!

In my life, I’ve picked up and moved from one city to the next over a dozen times.  Each time saying goodbye to old friends, making new friends, and making a home and new memories in a brand new place.   My last move, to Austin, was different.  Not only did I stay, but when I moved here, so did over 700 of my colleagues.   One day we were all working together on one campus, in one state.   A few weeks later, we were all back together again, but everything else was different.

Many of us took root here, getting married, having kids, living out our passions, and spending a very big chunk of the time that we’ve been given here on Earth loving living in Central Texas.   We’ve scattered.  Some moved back home.  Some moved on.  Some have passed from this life.  But, this week marks the 20 year anniversary of our migration.  So, last night we held a reunion to celebrate.  A hundred and fifty or so people turned out.  And it was amazing!

I don’t know what the next 20 years holds for me, but I’ve enjoyed this last round.  🙂

TODAY, we headed to the lake, of course.  The winds were blowing 20-30 knots.  So Lori and Kurt jumped aboard Nirvana with us and we all headed out.  This is a shot of Lori at the helm.  Sunny.  Windy.  A tad chilly.  But a wonderful day.

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How’s it hanging?

I’ve crossed off another project from my growing wanna-do list in my head this weekend.  As you may have come to know through this blog, we like to make homemade pasta.  A lot.  Spaghetti, fettucine, ravioli, waddevah.  It’s the food of the gods.  Over the holidays, I ran across a fresh pasta hanger on Amazon and it looked so simple and easy to make, that I refused to put it in my cart.  We have a gynormous wood shop out back.  So I did a little recon and found what I needed already in the shop and… voila!   Ye olde pasta hanger.  I made it without glue, so I can take it apart to store easily in the cabinet.

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Tonight I tried it out.  So, here’s how it went down:

  • 2 1/4 cups flour

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  • 3 eggs

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  • stir / mix with a fork, blending the egg & flour crater from the inside out.  You may not need all the flour.   When the dough stands on its own, knead by hand for 10 minutes.  Till it looks a like more or less like this:

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  • Wrap dough ball in saran wrap and let sit at room temp for 30 mins or so.
  • Afterwards,  I cut the dough ball into 3 equal-ish sided pieces, ready to put through the pasta roller.

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I used our Kitchen-Aid roller, starting on setting 1 – ending on setting 5.  Rolling and dusting the dough with flour several times on each setting.  After rolling each of the three balls into a sheet at setting number 5, I cut each in half.  I found that each of my six pasta sheets ended up making about 2 ounces of pasta – a serving.  So 3 eggs + 2 1/4 cups of pasta yields approximately 6 servings.

Next, I put the fettucine pasta cutter on the Kitchen-aid

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I hung each section on my new, handy-dandy pasta hanger.  (Awesome!)

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Then I threw the pasta into a pot of boiling water.  I sauteed the other bits in a skillet with some olive oil and I let the flavor develop.

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Yummm!

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The sun sets on January.

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Wow.  That was fast.  January flew by.  This weekend is very un-January-like, though – sunny, with temps inching into the 80s.  I took this shot as the sun was dropping last night.  The light through the trees was gorgeous.

We’ve decided to leave the signpost up that I made for last summer’s family reunion.  It just seems right.

Currying f(l)avor.

We roasted a whole chicken the other day and I took both cooked breast pieces and transformed them into a magnificent, mouthwatering curried chicken salad.

Simply delicious.

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Here’s more or less what went in.  It made 2-3 cups of chicken salad.

Curried chicken salad

  • 2 cooked/skinned/boneless chicken breasts, diced
  • 1/2 c mayonaise (I like Duke’s light olive oil mayo, tastes just like regular)
  • 1/2 c sour cream
  • 5-7 tsp curry powder
  • salt & pepper to taste
  • 2 scallions sliced finely
  • 1 apple (I used a sweet, crunchy gala), peeled and diced
  • 1/8 c sliced almonds
  • juice of half a lime

Mix well so everything is coated with yellowy goodness.  Then put it in the fridge – for several hours before serving, to make the flavor pop.  Be patient, it’ll be worth the wait.

By the way, the baguette came from Baguette House over on North Lamar.  They make the best baguettes I’ve ever tasted.  Hands down.  Go get you some.

Breezy day.

Yesterday we went to the lake and Joel joined us with his out of town visitor, Chris.   We sailed up to the basin and back.  Winds gusting in the high 20’s & low 30’s made for a great day.

This is a shot of Kurt & Kevin on Dancer, who sailed along with us for the day.OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERA

I loves me some cheese. 

🙂

 

On the threshold.

Here we are again – the last day of the year.   2015 brought lots of things:   fun parties with friends, lots of visits from friends and family, more time spent in Washington State,  a wonderful family reunion, the passing of my mom, happy moments on the lake, stargazing, beautiful spring flowers, roadtrips, the passing of a friend, cooking, sunsets, Seahawks (!), much more reading, breakups between good friends, exploring local breweries and wineries, El Niño rain, a nearly full lake, birthdays, more sunsets, amazing girlfriends and our trip to New Orleans, music, dancing, laughs, tears.

Tonight we are headed to a friend’s house to ring in the new year.  Last year we hosted the New Year’s Eve party – here’s a shot from that night a year ago… how fast time flies:

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My moon shot.

I have much to learn about my new camera.  I was waiting for this rare Christmas Day full moon to see if I could capture a decent shot.   But, this morning the moon was already shrouded in the trees when I got out there.  And tonight it was mostly overcast.

This is the best shot I took.  I’ll keep working on it.  🙂   Here it is, folks, the Full Cold Moon of Christmas Day 2015.

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A girl can hope…

  
Merry Christmas!

Macs don’t bounce. 

I made an evening run to the Apple Store tonight for a service appointment with my MacBook.   *sigh*

On the way home I got a quick snap of the Christmas tree in front of Macy’s (tweaked with an iPhone app called Brushstroke).  ‘Tis the season!

Food fight.

There’s quite a bit of action at the bird feeders lately.   A vibrant red male cardinal has been lurking about, but I have not been able to get a shot of him.   This afternoon, I saw a flash of red out back, and grabbed my telephoto.  I had to take some shots through my less-than-crystal-clear sliding glass door, since the birds scatter whenever anyone ventures outside.

OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERAAfter a bit, I tried to quietly open the door and take a few shots … not great detail, but a little clearer, and you can see how much more vibrant the red is.

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The whole shooting match.  

Went to see a screening of a restored 1978 made-in-Austin film tonight, said to have initiated the local indie film genre and inspired Robert Redford to start the Sundance Institute to support independent filmmakers, along with its annual film festival.  The film was The Whole Shootin’ Match, at the Bob Bullock Texas State History Museum.   I enjoyed it quite a bit.