From time to time, we like to stop in at the pet store where Keeto found us. They have birds of all sizes, bunnies, fish, and the new resident — a large tortoise. His name is Columbus, because he walks around the store, exploring, all day. He’s a big one, over 2 feet long.
I guess my iPhone camera skills are ruined now that I have my new camera 🙂 This was the best shot I took. 
Julie has moved back to Austin! She’s staying with us, ’til she moves in with friends next month. Her dog, Blake, is part of the package. She’s such a pretty dog – my model for the day. 🙂
We drove to Wimberly today with Tom and Doray. They have property there. We toured the town and their land and made a nice day of it.
Their property is covered with the live oaks that I have grown to love. They look beautiful no matter which way you look at them.
I thought this wavy cloud formation was interesting. A cold front came through early this morning and the skies eventually cleared to become a clear sunny day.
The red oak out front is sporting its awesome fall foliage.
Yesterday was my last day of work for the year! A shot of my office for the day:
We have lots of different types of trees in the yard. Their leaves are turning lovely shades of autumn color. This is the mimosa tree out back.
…a juvenile yellow-bellied sapsucker. He suprised me while I was trying to take a picture of something else. I had to use google to help me identify him. Pretty cool, though!
“It is Christmas in the heart that puts Christmas in the air.” —W.T. Ellis
I was pleased with this one, taken while walking around a nearby pond. Was able to focus through the brush to get a shot of this Great Egret.
Then back at home caught a lady cardinal on a feeder.
I’m trying really hard to focus on work. After next Friday, I’m off for the rest of the year (!) But, when I get a chance, I pick up the new camera to take a few shots. I’ll share a few.
Possumhaw holly out back has donned its Christmas red and green.
A little wren flitting in the vines along the fence – I think it’s a Carolina Wren, from its coloring. One of the first shots taken with my telephoto lens.
And a picture of the bouquet of flowers from Thanksgiving, still hanging in there – vivid pink lilies and white hydrangeas.
Monte has nurtured my love of photography over the years; starting with the gift of my first 35mm film SLR camera – a Nikon FM10. On it, I learned the basics: how to manually adjust aperture, shutter speed, film speed, focus, depth of field, flash… everything. It was the only camera we brought on our honeymoon, to capture all those once-in-a-lifetime moments – a bit risky since we wouldn’t be able to see how they turned out until we got home. I was thrilled to see that they all turned out to be beautifully captured images after getting the film developed.
Then he got me my first digital camera – a Nikon Coolpix 7600 point and shoot. It was his first experience w/ digital photography as well.
Once we started making regular sailing trips in the Caribbean, I bought a Canon PowerShot D10 for underwater photography. It turned out to be such a great camera that it has been my main, go-to camera on land or sea, and it sparked my desire to start this photoblog almost 6 years ago.
In the last year or two, pure laziness has led me to use my iPhone camera for many of the shots I post here, though I still drag the Canon along everywhere I go.
But my wish all along has been to get a “real” and quality digital camera – a big-girl camera – one that might allow me to take my photography to the next level.
Last week, since I had a whole week off of work, Monte took me camera shopping. He helped me pick out The One – an Olympus OM-D E-M10 Mark II. Along with two lenses, this is the latest (and best!) gift of photography equipment from him to indulge my hobby; for which I cannot thank him enough.
All of a sudden I feel like a real photographer!
The camera is amazing. I am taking the time to study the 170 page manual to learn about each of its features in the range of all-automatic to all-manual operational modes. I’m only taking practice shots for now, but with the rain and lack of sunny days lately, I haven’t yet taken it for a real spin outside.
I can’t wait to see what develops. 🙂
I have been side tracked a bit since my last post 3 1/2 weeks ago.
Summary of excuses:
But, I’m back!
I may share a bit more on some of these moments in future posts. But for now, here’s a photo from New Orleans – St. Louis Cathedral and Jackson Square as the sun was heading for the horizon.
I have a running list, mostly in my head, of things I want to try. Homemade mozzarella cheese has been on the list for quite some time. We go through enough of it, so I wanted to give it a shot and see how it turned out. So here we go…
The recipe I used is here. And it is a good one. My additional notes with pics below.
I ordered some citric acid powder and Fromase rennet tablets (vegetable-based) from my trusty Amazon account. 
1 1/2 tsp citric acid powder dissolved in 1 cup of cold water. I used bottled spring water, since chlorinated water is a no-no. Set aside.
1/4 tablet Fromase rennet dissolved in 1/4 cup bottled spring water. Set aside.
1 gallon whole milk. Homogenized but NOT Ultra High Pasteurized (UHP) – another no-no. I used HEB-brand whole milk, and I will again.
1 tsp kosher (not iodized) salt
Pour milk and diluted citric acid unit a 5-quart or larger stainless steel or ceramic NON-REACTIVE pot. Stir well. Aluminum or iron are bad… from a cheese-making perspective. I have a Le Crueset enamel-over-cast iron dutch oven that was a good size, and the enamel ensures it won’t interfere with the citric acid / milk reaction.
Raise heat, slowly, to 90 degrees Farenheit. Remove from heat. Add diluted rennet solution and stir, most lightly, for 30 seconds. Cover and don’t disturb for 5 minutes as the curd sets and starts to separate from the whey liquid. The consistency of curds you’re going for is soft tofu-ish. After 5 minutes, mine wasn’t very solidified, so I covered again and let sit for another 3 minutes.
Uncover and make 1″ x 1″ cuts from top to bottom. I used a stainless steel cake frosting spreader.
Return to low heat, stirring lightly, until temperature is 105 degrees farenheit. Remove from heat and continue stirring for another minute or two. The curds start separating from the liquid whey and will want to begin to clump together.
Separate curds from whey. I used a stainless steel colander on top of a large plastic bowl, and a stainless steel scoop. The picture below shows the remaining whey at the top, and the glass bowl of almost-mozzarella curds in a microwavable bowl at the bottom – ready for the next step.
Heat in microwave in small bursts, measuring temperature, and stirring in between bursts, until mixture reaches 135 degrees farenheit. My microwave is pretty strong, so I used 20 second intervals of heating, and then stirring, until it reached 135 degrees.
Strain off remaining whey. Begin kneading (like dough) and stretching, alternating, until mixture becomes cohesive and stringy.
I forgot to add the kosher salt until after the cheese got to the ball stage. So, this attempt yielded stringier portions than I had imagined. But it held together alright. Next time, I will use less salt than called for in the recipe (I’ll try 1/2 tsp next time). I formed my first batch into 3 loaf-ish shapes.
And then I put in a container with part whey liquid / part water and covered in the fridge.
First taste… caprese salad…. delicious!
I’m going to get another gallon of milk proto! I’m hooked.
I had a lovely morning.
This is a shot at anchor tonight. The rains in Central Texas have moved on. 
Sheila365 