The sun comes through the kitchen window as it rises and shines a bright beam of light across the room.
I looked down at my coffee cup before taking the first sip and saw this crescent moon.
The swirls of milk immediately make me think of the “..clouds in my coffee…” lyric from Carly Simon’s You’re So Vain (give it a listen here).
and, oh, yeah… TGIF!!!
Today started out with a 7AM tooth drilling at the dentist that made my head hurt the rest of the day.
I decided to end it with a manicure at the salon. I should do this more often.
Monte roasted up a delicious chicken for dinner. Yum!!
The day definitely ended better than it started.
My oh my, it’s June already!!
A couple weeks ago, my friend, Teresa, told me that she was making homemade vanilla extract. I was intrigued! And I want to make some, too. It’s going to take about 2 months – so, this is not an instant gratification project.
Here’s the recipe I’m using:
Homemade Vanilla Extract
Cut each bean lengthwise, splitting them in half, leaving an inch at the end connected.
Put vanilla beans in a glass jar or bottle with a tight fitting lid. Make sure the beans are completely covered by the vodka.
Give the bottle a good shake every once in a while. Store in a dark, cool place for 2 months or longer.
The resulting extract should lasts for years. Shake before using.
Update (18 months later!): This batch turned out great. I kept it in the pantry, which is out of direct sunlight, and after about 3-4 months it turned pretty dark. I have been using it ever since. I keep the bottle topped off with vodka after every couple of uses. I just added a new vanilla bean or two as well. That way it’s become a bottomless source of vanilla extract!
Early this afternoon I was standing in the kitchen and saw a deer about 10 feet from the house. I soon realized that she had a baby with her. I was able to get several shots from between the slats of the wooden blinds. The baby can’t be very old.
After the mom and baby walked into the neighbor’s yard the fawn fell down while crossing the street. I think it was scared of a car that was approaching very slowly. The car hung around so long that the mom ran away!
We called 311 to see if they could tell us what the city might do if the baby is abandoned, and they said not much. So, we are keeping a watch to see if the mom comes back. 😦
Update: We kept an eye on the little guy all afternoon and evening. When I woke up at 4 AM the next morning, i looked out the window to see this (momma deer laying down on the lawn next to where the fawn was). Yay momma deer!
I’m glad I saw this or I would have always wondered what happened to the baby deer.
Happy Memorial Day!
Every Memorial Day weekend the Austin Yacht Club holds the 2 day Turnback Canyon Regatta – sailing about 25 miles upriver on Saturday to the K-bar Ranch and returning to AYC on Sunday.
We sailed up one year as a cruiser, but the last 2 years or so there has been little wind, and some rain, so we have decided to stay close to home and watch from our anchorage in one of the Arkansas Bend coves.
This year, however, the wind was strong – gusting in the high 20’s.
Today we hung out at the opening of Hurst Harbor to watch the boats sail by. This is a shot of Kurt and Wally on Dancer as they zipped by. I believe they took first in their class yesterday. I think they were the first Catalina 30 that went by today, as well. Nice job guys!
This is the Friday before the long Memorial Day weekend. And we are headed to the lake! We’ve packed up everything to spend 2 nights on the boat and made it to the cove before sunset. We’re rafting up with Marty & Sue tonight, and tomorrow Lori & Dave will join us as well.
The lake is low, 651′ and dropping about 2′ per week. It’s so sad to see the water disappearing, but we’ll keep coming back to play.
Tonight we went for a walk with our neighbors and the Austin Parks & Recreation Department through the city park adjoining our neighborhood. The City wants to turn it into an off-leash dog park. So we’re all getting ready to take a position on whether we want that in our backyards or not.
Afterwards we went out for dinner. This is a shot of a custom wood wall covering that looked very cool, right above our table… taken with my not-high-tech cell phone.
Enjoy!
First zinnia shot of 2011.
Pasta. Pizza. Provolone. Prosciutto. Portobello. Pottery. Pinot Noir. Passion. Patience. Polenta. Palapa. Prayer. Peace. Painting. Parmesan. Projects. Persevere.
Photoblog.
Back in Austin. And it’s nice to be home. We went to the lake today and everyone jumped in. The baby ducklings are growing up fast. This one seemed very comfortable hanging out with the humans by himself.
This is the Ha Tu Ba Di memorial totem pole, carved by Makah Nation artist Frank Smith. It honors a man who worked to conserve tribal artifacts.
It’s located on the waterfront in Port Orchard. In the background is south end of the Puget Sound Naval Shipyard.
I was able to catch Francine’s soccer game tonight. This is a shot of Mount Rainier that I snapped as I was driving to the game. I can’t look away when the mountain is out.
Many years ago, a friend of mine came home with me for christmas holidays, and looking out the window as the airplane approached for landing at SeaTac declared this place to be “the land of giant christmas trees.” It’s true. Forget about 5 or 10 or 40 foot tall evergreens. These trees are more like 100′ feet tall.
Amazing, awesome and humbling all at the same time.
Ok. Now for something a little different. I am experimenting with a photographic processing technique called the orton effect. I’ve never done this before, and am not exactly sure if I’m doing it right, but i’ll give it a shot. I used Gimp to manipulate the image. I think it’s a tad on the overexposed side, but here goes….
Sheila365 