Do It Yourself

A couple of weeks ago we drove out to a farm in Suffolk county that sold plants.  Kathy had seen an advertisement for the place in the newspaper.  So out we went.  She was looking at plants and I was looking for photographs.  She was admiring the planters that had already been put together with various plants, but thought that they were a bit expensive, so she bought a number of plants and then came home and put together her own planter, which now sits on the back steps!  Nicely done, I thought.  It is dark out now, or I would go out and photograph how it looks now, after all the plants have grown.  She got her plants and I got my photographs  I just need to edit them.  Stay tuned.

Bebe is Beat!

Poor Bebe.  We don't like the heat, and the cats really don't like the heat either - they just lay around all day.  Even the air conditioning, when we have it on, it doesn't seem to make the cats more comfortable.  Bebe suffers the worst of the three, and that's probably because she is older (like we are...   :-)  We feel badly that she is so uncomfortable.

The Morning Paper

I was on the way to the recycling center this morning and as I passed the baseball field, I caught a glimpse of this man reading the morning paper.  What a nice place to sit and get the news.  But my camera was in the trunk, so I couldn't stop, get the camera out, and photograph without anyone noticing.  So I continued on to recycling, and while there took my camera out of the trunk, put the telephoto lens on it, and on the way back, as I passed the park, I slowly pulled over, and stopped, and made four pictures.  I am glad he was still there.

Surprise!

"Surprise?"  What does surprise have to do with this photograph?  Who will be surprised?  I will tell you who - my friends Babs and Hutch, who are faithful readers of the blog, and who live nearby.  I went over to their house the other day to help them with a new DVD player installation, and as I walked across their lawn toward the front door, I saw this and stopped in my tracks!  I quickly took three photographs, before I knocked on their door, so they have no idea I took this!  So this is fun - they will fall over when they see this tomorrow, which is really fun!

The First Quarter Moon

Yesterday was the first quarter moon.  This is best time to look at the moon because with the light raking across the surface of the moon at the "terminator" - the division between dark and light - the views of craters and mountains is spectacular!  I took my telescope out and spent a fair amount of time cruising up and down the terminator looking at the amazing details of the landscape.  It has been a while since I spent any time looking at the moon, and it was a wonderful experience!

This is a detail from the full view of the moon.  You can see the craters in more detail.  But a photograph cannot begin to show the beauty and detail of the moon, that you can see in person through the eyepiece of the telescope.

Fresh Sourdough!

Kathy has been baking bread again!  There is no hope for my diet!  This is a fresh sourdough loaf that Kathy has made from scratch.  She made her own sourdough starter which can be difficult.  She made another loaf the other day which we have been eating for breakfast.  Not only will this taste really sour, but it is stunning to look at!  When the loaf is ready to bake, at the last minute she uses a special razor blade knife to cut some very thin slices into the top of the loaf, and that is why there are darker areas.  She also flours a special basket and lets the rising bread sit in that, and that's why the spiral pattern on the top.

So this is the remains of the sourdough "starter" in a large glass, covered with Saran wrap.  The starter is the part of the mixture that makes the loaf rise, instead of using yeast, and it is also the thing that makes the loaf sour.  Now that you have seen what a glass of starter looks like, you will probably not want to eat the bread!   :-)

Sometimes I Can't Remember...

These Japanese Painted Ferns are in the front garden of a woman down the street.  These are absolutely stunning, aren't they!  I *think* I remember passing the garden while carrying only my infrared camera, and stopping to take a photograph of the ferns.  And the infrared photograph was not very interesting because you couldn't see the contrast in the leaves, and I was kicking myself for only having the infrared camera.  So on this day I had the color camera, and here is the result.  I actually did a search to see if I had posted the uninteresting photo of the ferns - I thought I did a blog post, but can't seem to find it.   Sigh...