The Spiral of Seasons

The blog is dead. Long live the blog.

2011-02-04T07:43:00.000-08:00

The Spiral of Seasons blog served its purpose long ago. I am shutting it down with this final post to announce my new blog: Joy’s Book Blog! The topics are the same on the new blog—they just include books! In particular, I am still blogging about food by participating each week in Weekend Cooking. Check out my most recent food post, a book review of Love in the Time of Cholesterol by Cecily Ross, accompanied by a recipe for Avocado Pizza. Please join me at Joy’s Book Blog this weekend for my Grand Opening, complete with a door prize!

Alisa found alive!

2010-07-07T01:36:00.000-07:00

Alisa Maier found alive in Fenton

Alisa Maier

2010-07-06T19:53:00.001-07:00

I grew up in Louisiana, Missouri in a time and place when kids owned the neighborhoods in the summertime from the moment that dads left for work in the morning until the streetlights came on in the evening. We rode bikes, played in and around all the houses that had kids and some of the ones that didn't, and hung out in places that our parents pretended that they didn't know about to give us a sense of indepence.

Louisiana, Missouri is the town where a 4 year old girl was abducted, apparently by a stranger, last night while playing in her front yard with her brother. Please take a moment to look at her photo on the Amber Alert Page and offer up a prayer.

Grow Your Own (Salmonella-free) Sprouts

2010-06-03T09:39:00.000-07:00

I feel myself becoming a zealot about having everyone grow at least a little of your own food. It makes such a difference how you think about all of your food if you put a little effort into even one small plant. If you haven't bought your basil plant yet, now's the time!

Here's an idea for growing your own food that doesn't even involve dirt: sprouts! Growing sprouts recently got a whole lot easier because the Sprout People put videos on their website. I had an Easy Sprout (bought from another company) for a couple of years but the instructions that came with it were so bad that I wasn't using it. With the videos, though, I'm now completely confident.

I've been making sprouts for several months now. I switch between Mother's Mix (no, I'm not pregnant -- the nutrients match up with what I read about the needs of perimenopausal women) and Nick's Hot Sprout Salad. I keep them in the freezer and start two tablespoons every time the Easy Sprouter comes out of the dishwasher from the last batch. I'm growing enough sprouts for us to have some on every salad, sandwich, and pizza that we make. They are yummy, too -- I actually catch myself craving sprouts!

Hermann, Missouri

2010-05-20T12:35:00.001-07:00

We ended up with a perfect May day to take a 3 mile walk with our cameras around Hermann.

R was fascinated by the iron crosses that the German blacksmiths made for St. George Cemetery.

We also got a kick out of this staircase which, on paper for the original city plan, was supposed to be Mozart Street. But these steps are all that exist of the one block that was way too steep to join the two sections of the road. A staircase was the only option. I imagine kids and parishioners still use it, though, since St. George church and school sit on the top of this hill. R took this photo.

More photos on my Flickr page.

Bamboo Shoots

2010-04-28T17:13:00.000-07:00

I bought a bamboo shoot at the Maplewood Farmers Market at Schlafly Bottleworks from the lady at the Ozark Forest Mushrooms booth. She sold them with this brochure (pdf) from the Extension Office of Washington State University. I peeled the shoot, sliced it into rings, and boiled the slices for twenty minutes. According to the brochure, you can then serve it just about anyway you would any other vegetable -- on a salad, in soup, stir-fried, etc. We thought the flavor was pretty delicate (reminds me of Heart of Palm) and so decided it would suit us best on a salad.

If you haven't been to a Farmers Market this spring, things are really popping out early. I bought a chicken, beet leaves, and mushrooms. There were all kinds of other greens available as well as radishes and chives. I saw a sign that said strawberries, but they must have sold out before I got there. Also, lots of plants for your garden.

Class Field Trip 2

2010-04-18T15:15:00.000-07:00

For the second Sunday in a row, we got up before sunrise to meet our photography class at the Missouri Botanical Garden, two hours before it opened to the public. The azaleas and tulips are spectacular.

More photos on my flickr page.

Evening light at the Garden

2010-04-17T10:19:00.000-07:00

We stayed at the Missouri Botanical Garden after volunteering at the Archive during the day on Wednesday. It was fun to see how active the ducks and geese were at that time of day. The azaleas were brilliant.

More photos on my flickr page.

Photography Class field trip

2010-04-11T14:37:00.001-07:00

Rick and I are taking a photography class through the Missouri Botanical Garden. Today's adventure was a field trip starting two hours before the Garden opened to the public. I took 269 photos, but culled them down to 21.

The Japanese Garden has beautiful light at 7:00 in the morning.

The class is called "Understanding Exposure," so I took many shots of this white bridge to get a good exposure.

The tulips are blooming with more to come.

Many more photos on my flickr page.

Celery Growing In St. Louis

2010-03-15T14:13:00.000-07:00

Rick and I are volunteering in the Archives of the Missouri Botanical Garden. I am cataloging the slides of Walter Hodge, botanist and photographer, a collection numbering in the tens of thousands of photographs arranged alphabetically by genus. I might get through the Acers (maples) next week. Rick is scanning the same slides that I cataloged in the fall of 2009, the photographs by Jack Jennings whose work graced the annual Garden calendar for decades.

Rick's work contains a fair amount of downtime as the slide scans, so he has been reading old issues of the Missouri Botanical Garden Bulletin. An article he read last week has to do with growing celery in St. Louis and was published in March, 1915. Here is the link to the 1915 volume on Botanicus; the celery article starts on page 41. According to the article, "it is possible to grow good celery on a small scale and with but little effort." It also says that celery "is a garden product good only while perfectly fresh. Its flavor and crispness are soon lost after the plants are removed from the conditions surrounding their growth." If that's true, we both believe we may have never eaten a good stalk of celery.

Another reason to grow celery is that it is number 4 on the list of highest pesticide load. So, celery is a great candidate for growing instead of purchasing conventionally grown and marketed stalks.

There are late and early varieties of celery. The article mentions three early varieties that are recommended for St. Louis: White Plume, Golden Self Blanching, and Golden Heart. Of these, only the Golden Self Blanching variety seems readily available now. The White Queen and Giant Pascal varieties "should be selected for winter use." White Queen is available at Kitazawa Seed and Giant Pascal is available from several seed companies.

Much of the celery article explains how to blanch or bleach celery. We found this confusing in all details from "why?" to "how?". I think, to start, I'll try the Golden Self Blanching variety and look for some modern sources about how to grow celery. If anyone in the St. Louis area is growing celery and would like to offer me a demonstration, I would love to see your garden in action this summer.

Sunday Transcendentalist Quote

2010-02-21T08:59:00.000-08:00

From Ralph Waldo Emerson's address at Harvard Divinity School in 1838, as quoted in The Concord Quartet by Samuel A. Schreiner Jr.

The stationariness of religion; the assumption that the age of inspiration is past, that the Bible is closed; the fear of degrading the character of Jesus by representing him as a man; indicated with sufficient cleanness the falsehood of our theology. It is the office of a true teacher to show us God is, not was; that He speaketh, not spake. The true Christianity, --a faith like Christ's in the infinitude of man, --is lost. None believeth in the soul of man, but only in some man or person old and departed.

It's really no wonder that we have become a nation where most of us don't go to church with this in our past. But, I think the Transcendentalists would be disappointed in us as a society. We don't take the time and effort that we used to put into church and seek God in the woods or in our hearts.

Sunday Transcendentalist Quote

2010-02-14T09:47:00.000-08:00

Emerson, reflecting on a Higher Power, before it was called that:

I find this amazing revelation of my immediate relation to God a solution to all the doubts that oppressed me. I recognize the distinction of the outer and inner self; the double consciouness that, within this erring, immortal mind, whose powers I do not know, but it is stronger than I; it is wiser than I; it never approved me in any wrong; I seek counsel for it in my doubts; I repair to it in my dangers; I pray to it in my undertakings. It seems to me the face which the Creator uncovers to his child. It is the perception of this depth in human nature, this infinitude belonging to every man that has been born, which has given a new value to the habits of reflection and solitude.

This is from Ralph Waldo Emerson's journal during a trip to Europe that he took after relinquishing his pulpit and before writing Essay on Nature, as quoted on page 26 in The Concord Quartet: Alcott, Emerson, Hawthorne, Thoreau, and the Friendship that Freed the American Mind by Samuel A. Schreiner, Jr.

Orchid Show

2010-02-10T16:39:00.000-08:00

We went to one of the evening opening parties for the Orchid Show, but were back at the Missouri Botanical Garden today and took the opportunity to see the orchids in the daytime.

Peter Raven passed through while we were there. We didn't realize until we got home that he must have been leaving the press conference that announced his retirement, as covered by the Post-Dispatch here. We're pleased that Dr. Raven is staying on as president emeritus and that the new choice, Peter Wyse Jackson, has wonderful experience in the botanical world.

Sunday Transcendentalist Quote

2010-01-31T08:38:00.000-08:00

Louisa May Alcott wasn't a Transcendentalist, but her father, Bronson Alcott, was. Her story "Eli's Education" is the way she imagined her father developed from farm boy to educated man. It was originally published in St Nicholas: a monthly magazine for boys and girls, which has been scanned by Google books.

The story begins with his self-education:

Many years ago, a boy of sixteen sat in a little room in an old farm-house up among the Connecticut hills, writing busily in a book made of odd bits of paper stitched together, with a cover formed of two thin boards. The lid of a blue chest was his desk, the end of a tallow candle stuck into a potato was his lamp, a mixture of soot and vinegar his ink, and a quill from the gray goose his pen. A Webster's Spelling-book, Dilivorth's New Guide to the English Tongue, Daboll's Arithmetic, and the American Preceptor, stood on the chimneypiece over his head, with the Assembly Catechism and New Testament in the place of honor. This was his library ; and now and then a borrowed Pilgrim's Progress, Fox's Book of Martyrs, or some stray volume, gladdened his heart; for he passionately loved books, and scoured the neighborhood for miles around to feed this steadily increasing hunger.

Young Eli goes through many trials and tribulations, but all ends well:

There his youth ends ; but after the years of teaching he began to preach at last, not in one pulpit, but in many all over the land, diffusing good thoughts now as he had peddled small wares when a boy ; still learning as he went, still loving books and studying mankind, still patient, pious, dutiful, and tender, a wise and beautiful old man, till at eighty, Eli's education ended.

Sunday Transcendentalist Quote

2010-01-17T08:35:00.000-08:00

Have you seen the American Masters program about Louisa May Alcott on PBS? I was fascinated by the experience she had as a child at Fruitlands, a commune built on Transcendentalist ideals founded by her father, Bronson Alcott, and his friend, Charles Lane. Utopian communities are easy to make fun of, and this one is probably funnier than most. The only person who lived at Fruitlands and wrote extensively about the experience was Louisa. Her piece, written many years later as an adult, was a parody called Transcendental Wild Oats.

Ralph Waldo Emerson famously wrote in his journal after a visit to Fruitlands, "I will not prejudge them successful. They look well in July. We shall see them in December." In fact, that statement proved prescient as the community broke up in January, unable to feed themselves, in part because the two founders spent the growing season traveling and lecturing rather than working the farm.

Another source of contention was a belief by Charles Lane that their community should be celibate like the Shakers. Mrs. Alcott did not share this vision and one assumes that she had intellectual and other means to persuade her husband to see her side of things.

However, in spite of all the fun to be had at the expense of Fruitlands, many of the ideals were admirable and some seem quite modern. I was startled at how much the following passage, from a published letter written by the Fruitlands founders, echoes things I have read in the last couple of years about eating locally, the inefficiency of cattle as a provider of meat or milk, and the merits of veganism.

Debauchery of both the earthly soil and the human body is the result of this cattle keeping. The land is scourged for crops to feed the animals, whose filthy ordures are used under the erroneous supposition of restoring lost fertility; disease is thus infused into the human body; stimulants and medicines are resorted to for relief, which end in a precipitation of the original evil to a more disastrous depth. These misfortunes which affect not only the body, but by reaction rise to the sphere of the soul would be avoided, at least in part, by the disuse of animal food. Our diet is therefore strictly of the pure and bloodless kind. No animal substances, neither flesh, butter, cheese, eggs nor milk, pollute our tables or corrupt our bodies, neither tea, coffee, molasses, nor rice, tempts us beyond the bounds of indigenous productions. Our sole beverage is pure fountain water. The native grains, fruits, herbs and roots, dressed with the utmost cleanliness, and regard to their purpose of edifying a healthful body, furnish the pleasantest refections and in the greatest variety requisite to the supply of the various organs. The field, the orchard, the garden, in their bounteous products of wheat, rye, barley, maize, oats, buckwheat; apples, pears, peaches, plums, cherries, currants, berries; potatoes, peas, beans, beets, carrots, melons, and other vines, yield an ample store for human nutrition, without dependence on foreign climes, or the degradations of shipping and trade. The almost inexhaustible variety which the several stages and sorts of vegetable growth, and the several modes of preparation afford, are a full answer to the question which is often put by those who have never ventured into the region of a pure and chaste diet: "If you give up flesh meat, upon what then can you live?"

Originally, this quote was from a letter published in the Herald of Freedom, September 8, 1843. I transcribed it from an appendix of Transcendental Wild Oats and Excerpts from the Fruitlands Diary by Louisa May Alcott, a 1981 printing by The Harvard Common Press.

Sunday Transcendentalist Quote

2010-01-10T09:17:00.000-08:00

Students of Transcendentalism despair at arriving at a satisfactory definition of the movement, but I quite like this one by Elizabeth Peabody (1804-1894), educator, bookstore owner, and publisher.

Transcendentalism belongs to no sect of religion, and no social party. It is the common ground to which all sects may rise, and be purified of their narrowness; for it consists in seeking the spiritual ground of all manifestations.

As quoted in A Journey into the Transcendentalists' New England by R. Todd Felton, pp. 5, 7.

Garden in December

2009-12-28T20:21:00.000-08:00

We test drove Rick's new little camera at the Missouri Botanical Garden today. The Garden has half of their parking lot closed for renovation. With a crowd to go to the holiday train show, the parking lot was full. We parked on a side street. Other than the train show and the restaurant, the Garden was pretty quiet.

The camellias are starting to bloom in the Linnean House, so we want to go again soon.

Here I am in my wool coat, petting one of the new pair of lions along the path to the Chinese Garden.

And here's Rick in his new coat, next to the witch hazels he likes in the Chinese Garden because they have been pruned to look sculptural in the winter.

We were impressed with the winter showiness of the Heavenly Bamboo (Nandina domestica) -- red berries and green leaves in December!

More photos on my flickr page.

Happy St. Nicholas Day

2009-12-06T16:01:00.000-08:00

Sunday Postcard Art chose St. Nicholas for today's theme, of course! So, I dusted off my rusty Photoshop skills.

St. Nicholas from Vintage Santa/Christmas Postcard scanned by Suzee Que and posted on flickr.

Everything else from a collaborative scrapbook kit called White Christmas by Ziggle Designs and Pixel Geek Designs.

Little Wishes

2009-12-05T10:25:00.001-08:00

There are still lots of wonderful gifts to give to foster children in the St. Louis area available at the Little Wishes website. Check out the Activities -- you can, like I did, give a child the experience of visiting the City Museum!

The End of Overeating

2009-10-27T13:47:00.000-07:00

It's been more than two months since I read The End of Overeating by David Kessler and I haven't had a candy bar, potato chip, or nugget of orange chicken since then. I have cut out commercially processed foods before, most aggressively after reading Michael Pollan's book In Defense of Food, but this feels permanent. If I do slip again, I'll re-read The End of Overeating and expect to be reinvigorated in my conviction that abstinence is the only way for me to cope with an eating environment that caters to my worst instincts.

The book finally convinced me that what I'm experiencing in relation to doughnuts, bacon cheese burgers on toasted sourdough, and french onion dip is addiction. And that addiction has been carefully orchestrated by the food industry's ever new creative ways of inserting more fat, salt, and sugar into the foods they process as well as sophisticated marketing techniques that have conditioned me to think that I deserve a break and an edible treat is just the way to get it.

Getting angry at the food industry helped, mostly because it gave some energy to the idea that I need to set some rules for myself about eating. Normally, the notion of rules pulls out my inner teenage rebel and the whole endeavor goes down in fiery turmoil. But with anger at the food industry at the root of this, my inner rebel had a different way of looking at things. My rules help me subvert the conditioning of the food industry while asserting my will. My inner teenage rebel likes being subversive and independent.

The rules that made the biggest difference for me were "No eating in the car" and "No eating anything purchased from a drugstore or gas station." Kessler points out that each person reacts differently to the stimuli in our environment, so my rules may not help someone else overcome their conditioning by the food industry.

The End of Overeating made it clear that my environment was not supporting a healthy lifestyle. I am now carefully building an environment that does. For me, this new environment includes a constant influx of health books from the library, an almost daily presence on the forums at 3 Fat Chicks, and a commitment to eating food made from scratch in my own kitchen with very few exceptions.

Why I grow basil (and you should, too)

2009-08-16T14:56:00.000-07:00

1. It's so easy! Grow it in the ground or in a pot, outside or on a sunny windowsill.

2. It's so cheap! A basil plant will often cost you the same as a package of fresh basil at the grocery store -- and it will keep giving you more basil.

3. It's so good! We use basil all summer in cucumber and green bean salads, on pizza and pasta, in my favorite vegetable breakfast dishes.

And then, there's the pesto. For the last couple of years, I've made pesto in August and again on the day of the first predicted freeze. (There's another thing I love -- caring about the first freeze and having a traditional activity to do that day). I cut the basil back to a third of it's size in August and there's still plenty of basil left to make more pesto when the freeze comes about ten or twelve weeks later.

Here's a picture from before I started harvesting today. The Genovese on the right is about four feet tall! The purple basil on the left is a little shorter but very lush and dense. And I thought my purple crocs looked good with all of this.

I was inspired by a recipe on Farmgirl Fare to make a lower fat version of pesto than I did last year. But I still wanted to incorporate the traditional ingredients that were in last year's recipe from Simply Recipes. Also, I leave out the salt and cheese because I prefer adding those to the final dish rather than to the pesto. So, here's the recipe I used today:

Pesto

3 cloves garlic

1/2 cup pine nuts

4 ounces basil leaves (Farmgirl says this is about the same as 4 packed cups -- it's easier to weigh)

6 Tablespoons olive oil

In the food processor, coarsely chop the garlic. Then add the pine nuts and basil, processing to the consistency you like. Scrape the bowl down once during processing. While the processor is running, add the oil a little at a time through the chute.

As I described last year, I prefer a quantity that gets me enough pesto to fill two ice cube trays (once they are frozen, I pop the cubes out and store them in freezer bags to use all winter) and a little extra for immediate use. This recipe didn't quite fill one tray, so next time (tomorrow?), I'll triple the recipe. That will be a pretty big project. Today's adventure, though, took less than an hour. Tripling it is unlikely to triple the time although most of the effort goes into removing the leaves from the stems.

Of course, the first question when encountering a recipe like this is "how much basil do I harvest to get 4 ounces?" I don't have enough experience to know, but I got lucky. This is our second largest bowl (we only use the largest for making stuffing for very large birds). Overfilling it with cut basil netted 4.6 ounces of leaves.

Memories and Family News

2009-07-26T12:24:00.000-07:00

I realized last week that I may not actually remember seeing the first time that man walked on the moon. As my brother said, I remember remembering it, but that's not quite the same thing. The memory I have in my head is of a different house than we lived in during July of 1969, so I've likely mixed up a later moon walk with the first one.

A few weeks ago, Dale and I swapped some emails trying to piece together time lines of memories from our childhood. I have a slight advantage in getting things straight by being one year and three months ahead in age. Having that discussion fresh in my mind is what made it suddenly clear that I had the first moon walk memory in the wrong house.

Walter Cronkite's voice is present in my memories of the Apollo program.

This month has been challenging for what's left of my family now that our parents are gone. Dale was diagnosed with follicular lymphoma in the same month that his girl friend of fourteen years, Jana, was diagnosed with heart failure.

Jana ended up in the rehab unit of a nursing home, hopefully for a temporary stint, while they work out what she may or may not be able to do now that she can't take many of the drugs she used to take for her rheumatoid arthritis. Jana's condition was critical for a couple of the days that she was in the hospital, so her current situation is much improved if still surrounded by a lot of uncertainty.

Dale's cancer is slow-growing, not aggressive, and very treatable. He's to undergo a battery of tests in the next week or so to determine the extent of the disease. Then, there will be a decision-making process about treatment with one of the options being "watchful waiting." The other options are a variety of chemotherapy regimens -- all of which are much less damaging than what I went through in 1985. With modern chemo, many people get a treatment in the morning and go to work in the afternoon, often missing very little work. The worst side effect is often fatigue.

Everyone involved is hopeful and in good spirits, most of the time, now that we seem to have turned the corner from what felt like an acute situation a couple of weeks ago to long term issues.

Collage credits: Everything from Phuong Ton's Veiled Moonlight kit except the earth which is from Tangie Baxter's Chronicles of Imagination, Chapter 3.

Lee Farm Tour

2009-07-25T17:51:00.000-07:00

The Family Harvest CSA, our source for our weekly box of produce, consists of two farms. We visited one of them today, Lee Farm near Truxton, Missouri.

Rick got a kick out of figuring out how this old planter worked, with the help of Rusty Lee, our host, and a neighbor farmer.

One of the workers is an intern who is doing experiments with cut flowers on the farm. Those rows were all blooming and pretty in late July.

We got a preview of the eggplant that we'll be getting in our box in the next week or two.

More photos on my flickr page.

The Garden 7-16-2009

2009-07-23T06:57:00.000-07:00

I'm late getting these up. I was mostly playing with reflections when we went to the Garden last week.

Here is a canna and it's reflection.

This is a waterlily with part of one of Chihuly's sculptures reflected.

And here's a bit of the Japanese Garden with reflection.

More photos on my flickr page.

Garden with company

2009-07-13T14:27:00.000-07:00

We took Rick's nephew, Philip, and his friend, Gabbi, to the Garden today. It felt more social to not pull out the macro lens and start leaning over flowers, so I used my camera to take pictures of them.

This was an experiment in using the reflector. It's especially apparent on Philip's face that we were able to eliminate some of the shadows.

And, this is a crop of the previous photo which I quite like. Note to self: remember to zoom the zoom lens!

At the Garden, July 6, 2009

2009-07-06T20:00:00.000-07:00

I had lots of fun playing with waterlily reflections

...and bumblebees

...and a colorful flower called sagittaria

Many more photos on my flickr page.

The Garden on a Monday

2009-06-29T17:17:00.000-07:00

I had a good time trying to capture the best bumblebee photo.

The daylilies are still blooming. I thought this one, King James, had interesting shaped stamens -- almost like an open mouth.

We spent some time admiring the containers on the steps of the Tower Grove House.

More photos on my flickr page.

Pond-O-Rama 2009

2009-06-28T15:46:00.000-07:00

We went on the St. Louis Water Gardening Society's annual garden tour this weekend. Yesterday was the hottest day yet this year, but today was very pleasant in comparison.

Day 1

We saw lots of pretty fish on the tour.

Our last stop on Day 1 was this huge set of water falls. I deliberately photographed it with people to get a sense of scale, but I'm not sure it fully worked. When Rick and I walked up to this we had the same thought: someone tried to build a National Park in their own backyard.

Day 2

We seem to like these kind of wide falls over flat rocks.

How would you like this view from your hot tub? Besides the pond, pool, and shelter below, the tree line at the top is just in front of the Missouri River.

More photos on my flickr page.

The lotuses are blooming

2009-06-26T20:24:00.000-07:00

The lotus bloom season doesn't last long, but they are beautiful right now in the Japanese Garden at the Missouri Botanical Garden.

The daylilies are impressive right now, too -- a riot of colors and some pretty amazing stamens when you look closely.

Keep an eye out for honey bees around the Garden. The hive is in the Kemper Center. It has transparent sides so that you can watch the activity.

Many more pictures on my flickr page.

Art Creations Friday

2009-06-26T14:42:00.000-07:00

The challenge at Art Creations Friday was to use this lady in an art piece. I combined that with a challenge on the Studio Matters blog to use things from Tangie Baxter's Mystery Leftovers. And ended up with this illustration of one of my life mysteries.

Hot day at the Garden

2009-06-19T16:53:00.000-07:00

Yesterday and today were hot and humid. We worked outside yesterday so we decided to play outside today. We discovered that heat really cuts down the crowd at the Missouri Botanical Garden -- many varied and beautiful things are blooming.

Here's a zinnia:

And some daisies:

And some fuchsia:

Rick declares this bench on the Mausoleum Grounds to be the coolest spot in the garden:

More photos on my flickr page.

Are you Warm?

2009-06-14T13:04:00.000-07:00

The new Three Muses challenge blog offered us Mona Lisa as its first theme. At the same time, Scrapbook Graphics had a "frameworthy" challenge about the artist Donato Giancola. I used his work Jessamyn to inspire my piece with Mona Lisa.

Credits: Mona Lisa extracted from Studio Tangie's DaVinci kit, bird extracted from Studio Tangie's Merrie Birds kit. All papers from Tangie's DaVinci kit. Lyrics from Nat King Cole's song Mona Lisa.

New (to me) camera

2009-06-13T04:57:00.000-07:00

When I got serious about taking photos (ie. signed up for a class), I took over R's old Canon 10D camera. We knew from the beginning that something smaller and lighter weight might be more appropriate for me but since it was a new hobby it seemed prudent to start with a camera we already owned. It's several months later and I'm still taking photos and still wondering if a lighter weight camera wouldn't work as well for me and feel better when I'm hauling it around.

R's friend J recently decided he wanted to get more serious about taking photos. He looked at the smaller cameras but his first exploration into photography happened in Vietnam when a good government-owned camera was sturdy and heavy. The new light weight cameras didn't feel right to him, but my 10D was just about perfect.

So, R went shopping for us at KEH. We had some recent success selling them used photography equipment so we were hoping that the buying experience would work well too. He found me the equivalent of a Canon Digital Rebel Xti (it actually says "Kiss" on the camera -- apparently the Rebel is marketed to women in Japan under that brand) and a lens to go with it. We sold the 10D to J at the price KEH would have paid us for it. And I have a new-to-me lighter weight camera. It's been fun to play with around the house. I'm looking forward to taking it further afield.

Blueberry Monday

2009-06-08T14:52:00.000-07:00

I have two pots of blueberries, these two patio blueberries from Stark Bros Nurseries. Stark's is in my home town and my home town can use all the help it can get!

There have been only two tricky things about growing blueberries.

They don't like our tap water because it's too basic. I've been giving them distilled water when there isn't enough rain, but we're looking into a rain barrel.
They need some protection in the winter since they are in containers. We buried the pots in a somewhat protected location on the south side of the house for the winter. And, I watered them whenever it was expected to get really cold at night -- wet soil freezes more slowly than dry soil.

I bought them last year and I'm already getting fruit! We, of course, tried them the instant they turned blue. They were tasty but very tart. I checked The Garden Primer by Barbara Damrosch today. She says that blueberries need to stay on the bush for a week after they turn blue. The tried and true method for harvesting is to "tickle" the clusters. Anything that drops easily into the container you hold below is ready to eat. Here was today's harvest.

Good thing there are only two people living in my house! It was the best blueberry I've ever tasted -- a perfect texture and still tart but not too tart.

Art Creation Friday -- Pretty in Pink

2009-06-06T13:44:00.000-07:00

Girl from Art Creations Friday on June 4, 2009. Everything else from the Pinkie Promise Kit by Studio Tangie at Scrapbookgraphics and sherrieJD at Scrap Orchard.

June in the Garden

2009-06-06T11:05:00.000-07:00

During yesterday's trip to the Garden, we saw more visitors than we usually see since we tend to go on weekdays. A combination of summer camp groups, vacationing families, the usual retired people, and wedding party photo sessions. Fortunately, the Garden is fun even when it's crowded. And there are always some quiet spots.

The irises are about done blooming -- although check out the ones by the Zig Zag bridge in the Japanese Garden if you get over there in the next week or so. The daylilies have just started.

We saw this palm during our last trip and thought it was beat up by the wind. But now it's labeled and we realized that's how the leaves are supposed to look because it's a Burmese fishtail palm.

There were a couple of these tiny turtles in the hardy pond that is currently hidden, just south of the floral clock.

Many more pictures on my flickr page.

Pantry Reorganization Day

2009-05-30T13:15:00.000-07:00

Yesterday didn't start out as Pantry Reorganization Day, although it was a project in the back of my mind. We'll probably call in New Space sometime in the next year or two to put in new shelving, but I couldn't decide whether to do a pass at reorganization first. The "pro" argument was that I might get a better end design if I put my own stamp on it. The "con" was: why should I do reorganization when I'm going to pay the professionals to do it?

Moot question, now. We had an unwelcome visitor in the kitchen this week with four little feet and dirty bathroom habits. Unfortunately, the timing corresponded with a broken door handle so the pantry door was open and we're pretty sure our visitor took advantage. I've seen worse at the cabin, but since I was thinking about reorganizing anyway, this seemed like a good time to pull everything out of the pantry, do a good cleaning, and organize as I put stuff away. The pantry door is fixed, so here goes. Here's the before picture:

First order of business: buy new containers. Every organization project should start with new containers! One of the big questions I had about organizing the pantry was whether we wanted to be the kind of people who put everything in containers or did we want to continue our current habit of rolling bag tops and closing them with binder clips or clothes pins. With a mouse in the house, the answer is obvious: containers it is.

As I pulled things out of the pantry, I sorted them into four piles by whether we used them daily, weekly, monthly, or rarely -- an organization system that I've read works well in kitchens. The only things that proved rather ambiguous were items like chili ingredients that are used weekly in the winter and rarely in the summer -- I took the compromise position and put them in the monthly pile.

Of course, the "by frequency of use" organization principle competes with another logical system, "like with like." But I'm a librarian -- I can handle "like with like." So, as I put things back I didn't always do it by frequency of use. For example, apple cider vinegar is a weekly use item. Habanero apple cider vinegar is a monthly use item -- but I'd totally forget about using it at all if it didn't sit next to the regular cider vinegar, so that's where it went.

The frequency of use system did help me identify some things that I was keeping together for no good reason. I drink reverse osmosis water in refillable gallon jugs. Part of my disaster planning is to always have at least three full jugs on hand, so I have many jugs of water. I was keeping them all together, but now I have the open one on the most convenient shelf and all the extra jugs on the floor.

And, here is the after picture!

Beating the rain at the Garden

2009-05-26T16:38:00.000-07:00

We went early to the Garden in the face of an impending rain forecast. I didn't get my camera out, much, but there are a few new photos on my flickr page, including this one:

The state of my garden

2009-05-22T16:01:00.000-07:00

I bought more plants today, beating out the holiday weekend rush, but here's what I had before I started planting.

It's time to stop buying greens at the Farmers Market and start eating the ones I'm growing.

There are two large Genovese basil plants, here, and six small purple ones that were a bargain. I also have two rosemary, two Greek oregano, two Black Beauty eggplant, and one banana pepper.

Shaw Nature Reserve

2009-05-20T16:42:00.000-07:00

We drove out to the Shaw Nature Reserve today -- a gorgeous spring day. The Missouri Evening Primrose is blooming on the glades. It's a beautiful flower with a short blooming season.

More photos on my flickr page.

A beautiful day for a trip to the Botanical Garden

2009-05-19T19:34:00.000-07:00

The irises are in bloom.

Here are some other photos I liked from today.

Many more on my flickr page.

Sunday Transcendentalist Quote

2009-05-17T08:11:00.000-07:00

I cannot believe that our factory system is the best mode by which men may get clothing. The condition of the operatives is becoming every day more like that of the English; and it cannot be wondered at, since, as far as I have heard or observed, the principal object is, not that mankind may be well and honestly clad, but, unquestionably, that corporations may be enriched. In the long run men hit only what they aim at.
--Henry David Thoreau, Walden

May flowers at the Botanical Garden

2009-05-13T19:42:00.000-07:00

We went to the Missouri Botanical Garden early today to beat the predicted rain.

My favorite photo of the day was this columbine.

I'm still finding the peonies photogenic.

But, of course, the roses aren't bad either.

And, I had a good time trying to get a shot of a bee.

More photos on my flickr page.

Just Do It

2009-05-09T15:58:00.000-07:00

This piece meets two challenges. The one at my digital scrapbooking home, Scrap Orchard, was to make an art journal page with the theme Just Do It. We were given the background to use if we wanted -- and I did! The other is a blog challenge, Art Creations Friday -- they provided the photo of the lovely lady with roses. Other elements are from the digital scrapbooking kit Comfy Cozy.

My take on this journal page was to address my unfortunate tendency to not make much effort in observing my birthday (which is Tuesday).

May flowers at the Garden

2009-05-06T19:15:00.000-07:00

The roses are just beginning to bloom at the Missouri Botanical Garden.

So are the peonies.

I thought this container in the Boxwood Garden was pretty.

More pix at my Flickr page.

Happy Cinco de Mayo!

2009-05-05T20:47:00.000-07:00

We had bean enchiladas for lunch. After some experimenting, we've settled on the refried beans recipe found in the cookbook Mexican Light by Martha Rose Shulman.

Supper was Acelgas Guisades or Swiss Chard with Tomatoes and Potatoes, a recipe from Authentic Mexican by Rick Bayless.

Both meals were muy delicioso!

Baby greens and a new pond

2009-05-04T19:33:00.000-07:00

Before supper, I thinned half of this bed and had enough greens to make a good-sized salad for each of us. It's thrilling to eat something from my own garden this early in the year.

In other yard news, R dug a hole in the side of the hill below the deck to make a level spot for a small round pond. This will be the summer home for the tropical water lily that's been blooming since Christmas in our bay window and the hardy water lily that is outgrowing its spot in the stock tank water feature.

Here is the pond, filled and reflecting the sunroom.

Sunday Transcendentalist Quote

2009-05-03T08:24:00.000-07:00

From Sermon CLXII "The Lord's Supper" by Ralph Waldo Emerson as printed in Transcendentalism: A Reader, edited by Joel Myerson. Emerson resigned from his ministry with this sermon.

Having recently paid particular attention to this subject, I was led to the conclusion that Jesus did not intend to establish an institution for perpetual observance when he ate the passover with his disciples; and further to the opinion that it is not expedient to celebrate it as we do.

The rest of the sermon is a well-defined logical argument against requiring Holy Communion in the church or with performing it with a sense of authority -- all new to me since I had never thought of the subject before. Some of it relates to High Church and Low Church, although he doesn't use the terms. I learned about those in a couple of classes at Wash U, particularly one that made the case for High Church. Emerson makes the case for Low Church, while granting that those who find meaning in the forms of High Church should continue to participate in them.

Self portrait

2009-05-01T12:07:00.001-07:00

Today, I learned how to use: a tripod, the self-timer on my camera, and a reflector to reduce shadows in a face. Oh, and I also learned how to reduce the glare on glasses using Photoshop Elements.

Digital Scrapbooking

2009-04-30T17:30:00.000-07:00

My latest obsession is digital scrapbooking. Of course, as with any new endeavor, my librarian training kicks in and I start with books.

My interest is less in scrapbooking for its own sake and more that it's an easy path to making art with my photos and my new Photoshop Elements software. Here's my first work.

I'm putting new pieces up in my gallery at Scrap Orchard.

Sunday Transcendentalist Quote

2009-04-26T08:52:00.000-07:00

From "Sermon CXXI" by Ralph Waldo Emerson as printed in Transcendentalism: A Reader, edited by Joel Myerson.

The true heaven is, in the raising of this poor sinful soul to His love, knowledge, and likeness; to purity, to humility, -- to kindness, to truth, to trust; to the possession of the treasures of unbounded truth; the fellowship and cooperation with all good minds in all works of love; and the enlargement of this soul to the great and increasing capacity for virtue. This is heaven.

Happy Earth Day!

2009-04-22T12:22:00.001-07:00

Here's what the earth is giving me today:

Lettuce

Chard

Collard

The Garden

2009-04-20T15:59:00.000-07:00

We went to the Missouri Botanical Garden today with my brother and J. I took just my small camera -- but it doesn't take much of a camera to make a pretty picture from blooming bulbs, azaleas, and phlox. I even managed a leading S curve that would make my photography teacher proud.

The case for a freezer

2009-04-18T15:37:00.000-07:00

It looks likely that I'll buy a small freezer next week during the Show-Me Green Sales Tax Holiday. Among other things, I'll freeze applesauce and pastured butter, two important ingredients in one of my favorite treats: applesauce bread. I mostly follow the recipe, but find that I can make it more of a whole wheat bread with 2 cups of whole wheat flour and 1 3/4 cup of bread flour. I also use Grade B maple syrup instead of the sugar.

This is the last of the applesauce I made from locally grown apples in the last six months. This container is from apples I bought about a month ago. They were #2 apples, with a few extra bruises and worm holes. But I got a 1/2 peck bag for only $3. That made enough applesauce for half a dozen loaves of bread.

I buy the butter from Whole Foods. The cows live in Wisconsin, so they only eat grass seasonally and thus pastured butter is only available from May through September. Last September, I bought five pounds and froze four of them. This is my last pound, so that worked out about right. But given the health benefits of grass-fed animal fats, I'm starting to find more ways to use this butter like biscuits for special occasion breakfasts. So, I may want more butter in the freezer by the end of September 2009.

The Missing Brush Pile

2009-04-17T15:37:00.000-07:00

For some reason my two-year-old picture on flickr of our brush pile was viewed five times the other day. I don't know what that was about, but it reminded me that I should probably take an "after" picture because that brush pile is completely gone!

So, here is Rick where the brush pile used to be.

Most of the brush pile went through the chipper/shredder. We've been really happy with the chips for making paths. The pieces that were too big to chip went to St. Louis Composting. They have pictures of some of their really big machines on their website.

If you want rabbits, one of the things you do is build brush piles. Since we don't want rabbits (see this post where I planted lettuce seeds), we were hoping the elimination of the brush pile would discourage their presence. It may have worked -- we haven't seen a single bunny in the yard all year.

When I took the picture below, I thought the whole rabbit thing might be a moot point, because it didn't seem that any of the seeds were sprouting. But, later, when I looked closer as I watered the bed, I discovered some very tiny sprouts. I would have to get my macro lens out to get a picture of them, but they are there!

Azaleas

2009-04-16T13:19:00.000-07:00

The first azalea blossoms opened up on the bushes north of the garage.

Here's a close-up view.

Spring again

2009-04-15T20:21:00.000-07:00

We've had a string of rainy, gloomy days, but let's forget all that -- today was beautiful! We celebrated by going to the Garden.

Rick had an illuminating conversation with a gardener about pruning.

There are still a few cherry trees blooming.

A few tree peonies have just started blooming and some of the regular peonies have big fat buds ready for May.

More photos on my flickr page.

Azaleas any day now

2009-04-11T09:22:00.000-07:00

Planting seeds

2009-04-08T14:23:00.000-07:00

We planted annual flowers in this bed two summers ago and vegetables last summer. I don't have a full plan for it this summer, but I planted seeds for salad and cooking greens in the back half today.

I have never successfully planted seeds directly in the garden. My failure began at the tender age of 7 when I helped a neighbor girl plant Bachelor's Buttons. I still don't know what Bachelor's Buttons look like because they never sprouted. The soil of this bed and my gardening skills are both only slightly improved over the conditions when I was 7, but I'm hopeful for some better results.

Rick laughed at my ruler, but, really, it was the only gardening tool I used with some sense of confidence today!

Hard freeze

2009-04-05T16:13:00.000-07:00

My blueberry plants are blooming! I brought them indoors this afternoon because we're expecting a hard freeze tonight -- and maybe two more nights after that. Sending warm thoughts to all of my farmer friends!

Sunday Transcendentalist Quote

2009-04-05T09:14:00.000-07:00

From "The Transcendentalist" by Ralph Waldo Emerson as printed in American Transcendentalism by Philip F. Gura.

Amidst the downward tendency and proneness of things, when every voice is raised for a new road or another statue, or a subscription of stock, for an improvement in dress, or in dentistry, for a new house or a larger business, for a political party, or the division of an estate -- will you not tolerate one or two solitary voices in the land, speaking for thoughts and principles not marketable and perishable?

Field trip

2009-04-04T16:25:00.000-07:00

For our second field trip, my photography class went to the Missouri Botanical Garden. In spite of the fact that I've been there several times recently, including earlier this week, it was useful to go there for no other reason except to take photographs. In three hours, I took 561 pictures! A lot of those were experiments, though. In some cases, I took four or more photos of one composition just to see what different apertures did.

Here, one of my classmates demonstrates how people look when they get serious about photography. I get into equally strange positions -- but she looks more graceful doing it! I've decided that yoga is vital to my long-term success in photography.

The tulips are blooming!

And so are the apple trees.

Many more photos on my flickr page.

Rick's birthday

2009-04-01T13:29:00.000-07:00

We went to the Missouri Botanical Garden yesterday in celebration of Rick's birthday. Yeah, I know, we go there a lot -- but he really wanted that to be his birthday event and the birthday boy gets to choose!

The cherries are blooming.

The peonies are emerging.

Many more photos on my flickr page.

A different sort of Garden blog

2009-03-30T16:22:00.000-07:00

Henry Shaw, founder of the Missouri Botanical Garden which is celebrating its 150th anniversary this year, is blogging! The blog is called Travels with Henry Shaw. I suspect he's getting some help from the archivist or some other Garden staff -- they are posting up an entry from his travel journals each day. So far we've accompanied him from St. Louis to Niagara Falls to Turkey! The descriptions are delightful and I'm looking forward to following the rest of his trip.

Blue skies

2009-03-29T16:29:00.001-07:00

I signed up for the Monday Blues group on flickr as a way to get myself to learn how to take blue skies. In most of my photos, the sky is washed out and white.

This technique for getting blue sky is to shoot away from the sun and to make use of the exposure compensation dial. White sky is overexposed, so set the dial to underexpose. It worked!

That's Missouri soap, a Lavendar-Rosemary Zum Bar. I can get it at Whole Foods, but I don't know if it's a nationwide product for them or a regional one. Blue soap is fun, but it's soap scum is dark gray so the sink looks dirty all the time. I think I'll try a lighter color next time.

Sunday Transcendentalist Quote

2009-03-29T08:36:00.000-07:00

From "Observations on the Growth of the Mind" by Sampson Reed as printed in Transcendentalism: A Reader edited by Joel Myerson.

As all minds possess that in common which makes them human, they require to a certain extent the same general development, by which will be brought to view the same powers however distinct and varied they may be found in different individuals; and as every mind possesses something peculiar, to which it owes its character and its effect, it requires a particular development by which may be produced a full, sincere and humble expression of its natural features, and the most vigorous and efficient exertion of its natural powers. These make one, so far as regards the individual.

Field Trip: Art Museum

2009-03-28T15:29:00.001-07:00

Today was our first field trip for my photography class. Unfortunately, we're having "out like a lion" March weather in Missouri (snow predicted for overnight!). We went to the St. Louis Art Museum to stay out of the rain, but my teacher couldn't do anything to give us more light. We all shot a lot of grainy pictures using high ISO values (the equivalent of fast film, but all us students shoot digital).

Here, I'm waiting in the car for the museum to open.

My classmates really liked this one, which sent me on a discovery tour of the museum to find more hands to photograph.

The trip ended with a special event -- a Chinese dragon dance in honor of the Ming Dynasty special exhibit.

Many more photos from the Art Museum on my flickr page.

Eye

2009-03-27T10:16:00.001-07:00

One of our assignments for my new, more advanced, photography class (HOW TO PHOTOGRAPH PEOPLE, PLACES & THINGS) is to look at lots of pictures of people to figure out what I like. I used flickriver to explore some of the groups on flickr that specialize in people pictures. I found the People Portraits group and the Portrait Classics group pools most useful for my purpose.

The first thing I discovered is that I like photos of children with black eyes. That didn't seem to be a terribly useful observation since there aren't that many black-eyed children in my life at the moment, but that may be something I can change.

In the meantime, I looked at another thousand or so photos and decided that a more general observation is that I like people photos that emphasize eyes. That tends to mean that I like head and shoulder shots or even closer (but not as close as the photo below-- I was playing with my macro lens). In general, I prefer photos where the head is turned rather than straight on poses. I seem to have a preference for subjects looking into the camera, but I also liked some where the gaze was to the side.

So, that's my eye. What color is it? My driver's license says green, but I have a chance to change it this year and I'm wondering if I should say hazel.

Blueberry buds

2009-03-24T17:29:00.001-07:00

My two blueberry plants survived the winter. They are small plants, meant to be grown in containers. I bought them from the nursery that makes my hometown famous, Stark Bro's in Louisiana, Missouri. Their advice was to put the plants in a garage in the winter if it stays just a bit warm, but our garage is both very full and very cold in the winter. So, we tried burying the pots. It worked!

The Garden through a macro lens

2009-03-24T13:14:00.000-07:00

We went to the Missouri Botanical Garden today in advance of our first big spring storm. The wind was blowing so hard it was hard to get the flowers to stand still for a picture.

The flowering quince bushes are blooming.

So are the magnolias.

More pictures on my Flickr page.

Sign of spring

2009-03-23T20:20:00.000-07:00

It must be spring -- there's compost on my shoes.

Sunday Transcendentalist Quote

2009-03-22T09:25:00.001-07:00

From "Likeness to God," a sermon by William Ellery Channing at an ordination, as printed in Transcendentalism: A Reader edited by Joel Myerson.

To me it seems that the soul, in all its higher actions, in original thought, in the creations of genius, in the soarings of imagination, in its love of beauty and grandeur, in its aspirations after a pure and unknown joy, and especially in disinterestedness, in the spirit of selfsacrifice, and in enlightened devotion, has a character of infinity.

Sourdough pizza crusts

2009-03-19T11:38:00.000-07:00

My sourdough adventures began last July when Alanna Kellogg gave me some starter. It's just been in the last few weeks that I have developed a routine that makes having sourdough starter in my kitchen really work for me.

For several months, now, our favorite bread has included a cup of sourdough starter. It's a variation of this Whole Wheat Zuchinni Herb Bread for the bread machine. If anyone is interested, I'll put up my recipe. The addition of sourdough starter, and a subtraction of half the yeast, makes the bread lighter and with a crispier crust. There is just a hint of the sourdough flavor.

I make that bread once or twice a week, each time following the instructions for Fast Track to Sourdough at the Sourdough Home website. By the time I've fed the sourdough starter three times in 36 hours, starting with a 1/4 cup, I end up with about twice as much starter as I need for the bread -- half goes into the bread and half goes into a canning jar in the refrigerator until I'm ready to go again. Then, a 1/4 cup goes into the new starter and the rest goes into the compost pile. That's a lot of sourdough starter in the compost pile!

I tried starting my feeding with just 1/8 cup of starter, but about a month later, my sourdough starter lost much of its characteristic smell and its rising power. I revived it following these instructions from the Sourdough Home website and went back to using a 1/4 cup.

I had hoped that English Muffins would be the answer, but they have remained a special occasion item for us.

The solution, it turns out is this pizza crust recipe, also from Sourdough Home. Every third time that I make bread, I use the sourdough starter in the older two jars to make pizza dough. Rather than one large crust, I form four balls before I let the dough rest and then roll them into four individual-sized pizza crusts. This makes them small enough to bake in the toaster oven. I bake them for five minutes right away and then freeze them (maybe leaving a couple out on the counter if we're eating pizza tonight).

With pre-made pizza crust, pizza is a remarkably simple and fast meal and very creative. I probably make my tomato sauce differently every time (but a simple one is to cook onions and garlic in olive oil and then add a can of plain tomato sauce, some oregano, and some honey) and, of course, the toppings can be varied by whoever is eating the pizza. Tonight, we'll have smashed balls of fresh mozarella cheese, pesto, artichoke hearts, and spinach. R's pizza will also have mushrooms. But that's a fancy version -- a lot of times I make it with any vegetables and cheese that are available in the fridge.

So, now, I make good use of nearly all my sourdough starter and my compost pile has to live on other kitchen scraps.

If you live in the St. Louis area and would like some starter, let me know. I can give my sourdough starter an extra feeding and easily end up with plenty to share.

Scavenger Hunt

2009-03-17T15:11:00.000-07:00

I went on a photo scavenger hunt at the Garden today to complete the assignment for my last intro class tonight (I start a new photography class next week). I decided that a scavenger hunt isn't really the best assignment for me. I get too caught up in finding the stuff and not caught up enough in taking good photos of it. Oh well, here are my best ones.

Reflections in water

Bridge

Architectural detail

Daffodil and a new lens

2009-03-16T16:33:00.000-07:00

Today is the first day we had daffodils blooming in our yard. I've noticed that we get ours a bit later than other people -- I guess because they are growing on the shady side of the garage.

Here is the most close-up photo I could take with my old zoom lens.

And here is the most close-up photo I can take with my new macro lens.

Heh. That photo doesn't really scream "daffodil," does it? But I like the kind of tribute to yellow that it makes. Here's a macro photo that captures a bit more of the flower.

Pruning

2009-03-15T14:39:00.000-07:00

R is taking care of our witch hazel.

Setting sun shines on the neighbor's fence

2009-03-14T16:25:00.001-07:00

Our new sunroom shades

2009-03-12T13:46:00.000-07:00

We got the last of sunroom shades installed today. This is from the balcony off my office looking down into the sunroom -- an architectual feature which is just so cool.

Cropped crocuses

2009-03-11T11:01:00.000-07:00

At my photography class last night, my teacher suggested cropping my pictures to improve the composition. Do you like these better than yesterday's versions?

Composition with Crocuses

2009-03-10T13:19:00.000-07:00

At least, I think these are crocuses. I didn't plant them. They are blooming in our yard and I'm assuming that's the only garden flower I would be seeing before the daffodils. The daffodils are still buds in my yard, although I saw some beautiful ones this morning at Antona's house.

Which composition do you like the best?

Country boys

2009-03-07T18:42:00.000-08:00

Glowing glass

2009-03-06T14:33:00.001-08:00

Flags and shutter speeds

2009-03-05T17:47:00.000-08:00

Flags "frozen" with a fast shutter speed:

And blurred with a slower shutter speed:

Shutter speeds and water

2009-03-04T16:52:00.000-08:00

Playing with shutter speeds. This faster shutter speed captures the movement of the water with some crispness.

With a slower shutter speed, the water blurs.

Photography class

2009-03-03T20:02:00.001-08:00

More water lilies

2009-03-02T11:43:00.000-08:00

I complained to R that I always overexpose his water lilies, so we played around with the exposure compensation in my camera. In the end, though, we decided it's probably best to let the camera do what it wants and I'll fudge the brightness with the software afterwards.

¡Hola, Amigo!

2009-03-01T19:03:00.000-08:00

Rick cooked refried beans tonight. The tostadas were yummy!

More with beans

2009-02-28T10:49:00.000-08:00

There are many methods for cooking dried beans. So many that it makes a very simple task seem more intimidating than it is. Really, any method you find in a cookbook should work. If you love your pressure cooker, you might want to start with the recipe book that came with it. Otherwise, choose a recipe from a favorite cookbook. The recipe in Food Matters by Mark Bittman looks good. The Joy of Cooking has a lot of material on beans including a section on pressure cooking.

I cooked dried beans for the first time about twenty years ago from Laurel's Kitchen. I suppose that was the first vegetarian cookbook that most people my age owned. Unfortunately, my copy met its demise during a horrific putrid zucchini accident. So, for this pot, I used a recipe that I copied from Heidi Swanson's Super Natural Cooking, mostly because it suggests using a bit of kombu to aid digestion and we have a lot of kombu left over from some experiments R did awhile ago with cooking rice.

I threw the beans in a flat baking pan and sorted through them last night, making sure that there weren't any rocks or mouse droppings, and then rinsed them and soaked the beans overnight. This morning I drained the soaking water, put the beans in a pot with water and some celery and onions and the kombu, and let them simmer for about an hour. That's it! Next I'll drain them, reserving the bean stock. I'll put half the beans and stock in the refrigerator and half in the freezer and they will be ready for any bean dishes that come my way.

My plan is to start cooking a pot of beans every other Saturday (on alternating Saturdays, I'll make chicken stock). That should help us eat lower on the food scale while decreasing our carbon footprint and grocery bill.

A Pot of Beans -- The Real Value Meal

2009-02-27T15:50:00.000-08:00

An Applebee's commercial has been annoying me recently, something about "A night out for the cost of a night in!" But they're advertising 2 meals for $20. I can't remember the last time that I spent anywhere near as much as $20 on a home-cooked meal for the two of us.

One of the lighter moments at our Book Club last night (we discussed Race Matters by Cornel West, which is not a light book) was when we were discussing the state of the economy and one of the black women bragged that black families know how to make a meal on a budget, "serve 10 from a chicken breast!" Another black woman countered, "...from a chicken bone!" I'm going to have to get recipes from Antona and Gretchen to do that well, but I got four servings from a chicken breast earlier this week and I routinely get two servings per breast with stir-fries like the greens and chicken dish.

The locally grown, organically raised chickens that I buy whole and cut up are about $11 each. Typically, we get eight servings from one chicken plus chicken stock. So, even using some of the best meat I can buy, the chicken works out to less than $1.50 per person. Add a few other ingredients, and we still easily get meals that are less than $3 a person -- that's considerably less than you can eat at Applebee's, or would typically spend at McDonald's.

Now, let's talk about beans. In Mark Bittman's new book, Food Matters (yes, I did manage to read Race Matters and Food Matters back-to-back and learned from both), Bittman says "I'm on a mission to make sure every fridge or freezer in America is stocked with a container of home-cooked beans." The book is new, so he wrote it before this current economic crisis fully hit. His argument is that beans are a healthy source of protein with a low carbon footprint. For the economical cook, we can also add that they are cheap.

I have less experience with beans than chicken. The package says I'll get 12 servings from this pound, but I suspect those are side dish servings. Let's assume I'll get 8 main dish servings, just like my chicken. I bought this bag of beans for $1.34 today. Now we're talking a serving price of under 20 cents! I'm planning to make tostadas on Sunday -- adding a tortilla, some lettuce, some cheese, a bit of home-made guacamole and this meal is going to cost less than a $1 per serving. Later in the week, I'll try Alanna Kellogg's new black bean burger recipe for a similar cost.

So, don't buy the hype that restaurants, including fast-food ones, are trying to sell that they are a good value. If you don't believe that you can have a meal for $1 to $3 a person, just ask some home cooks -- and make sure to ask some black home cooks!

Thanks for all the fish

2009-02-26T10:23:00.000-08:00

R's water lily has been blooming in the window since before Christmas. And, his fish are getting big. I took a rare sunny moment on a rainy day to take water lily photos while perched on a chair next to the bay window.

Fluttering by

2009-02-25T16:56:00.000-08:00

Today's photography adventure took me to the Butterfly House.

More photos on my Flickr page.

Make your own salad dressing

2009-02-24T12:25:00.000-08:00

Here's one of those old-fashioned thrifty ideas that feels new again. Instead of throwing away the last of the mustard or ketchup, dump a bit of vinegar in the bottom, shake it up, and put it back in the refrigerator to use as a base for homemade salad dressing. I thinned this ketchup with apple cider vinegar and later mixed it with mayonnaise and agave nectar (but anything sweet would have worked) for a creamy french dressing.

This would be a good time for me to promote my friend Alanna Kellogg's challenge: Never Buy Salad Dressing Again. Homemade salad dressing is not only economical, it's more natural (can you pronounce all the ingredients on a salad dressing bottle?) and greener (never have another salad dressing bottle to throw away or recycle again!).

The picture is my shutter speed experiment. At the relatively slow shutter speed of 1/125, the ketchup bottle blurred when I shook it in front of the camera. At the fast speed of 1/2500, the camera froze the movement so well that it looked like I was holding the bottle still in front of the camera.

Home movies to DVD

2009-02-23T16:14:00.001-08:00

This is one of several piles around the house that are covered by my New Year's Resolution with the fewest words: Unpack. Today was the day and this pile was the place to start because, believe it or not, I needed something in one of those boxes.

One of the things I found in my parents' house after my mother died was a small stack of Regular 8 movie rolls. Since we've been visiting Schiller's, a camera store in St. Louis, more frequently, I had an opportunity to ask them what they can do with those. It turns out that they can convert them to DVD, but not for much longer. The manufacturers have stopped making the parts for the home movie projectors. I forget the full story, but I think Schiller's had something like five machines and only two currently work -- the other three are being robbed for parts. When they reach a point where they have no more available parts, they will be out of the home movie to DVD business. So, if I wanted this done, I couldn't let them sit around in a box for three more years.

Four of the six rolls were labeled: Sara and Bob's Wedding, Joy's First Film, Parade Labor Day 1962, and Christmas 1962. I was born in May 1962. The other two are not labeled but are presumably in the same general timeperiod. I'm hoping that they are after August 1963 when my brother was born.

I figure this is good for one entertaining evening with my brother and the cost was less than a nice meal out for four, so that seems reasonable.

Hawaii Dreamin'

2009-02-22T18:33:00.000-08:00

Late in the winter, I find myself drawn to music of the tropics. I tend to alternate locales. Last winter it was Caribbean, particularly steel drum bands, so, 2009 is a Hawaiian year. New, for me, this year are the hula DVDs and the Israel Kamakawiwo'ole (affectionately known as Iz) CD. I've heard the CD before, borrowed from the library, but I like it so much that I bought my own copy.

This is the album with the "Over the Rainbow / What a Wonderful World" medley. It's an amazing piece. He sings it with full awareness of the tough times in life while expressing all the optimism and hope of a Hawaiian rainbow -- a beautiful song given the current situation. According to the Wikipedia article on Iz, at least two large 2009 New Year celebrations featured this song, so I'm not the only one to think that this is a song of our times.

Chocolate Chip Bread

2009-02-21T15:19:00.000-08:00

This Chocolate Chip Bread from the bread machine is a treat that's not too decadent. Since it's a yeast bread, rather than a cake or quick bread, the fat, sugar, and sodium are all at reasonable levels. I reduced the fat a bit and used a blend of pastured butter (from Whole Foods -- I froze several pounds last summer) and canola oil. I also snuck in some whole grain flour. The secret to getting the chocolate chips to stay intact is to freeze them the night before baking the bread. Otherwise, you'll end up with chocolate marble bread or even entirely chocolate bread.

Soup's on

2009-02-20T18:31:00.000-08:00

My new skill this winter is making soup from whatever needs to be used up in the refrigerator. This version had Mexican flavorings because, among other things, I had a tablespoon of lime juice and some chopped cilantro to use.

A tale of two rosemary pictures

2009-02-19T15:19:00.001-08:00

I'm still working on understanding apertures. Here's a nice visual. I focused on the closest rosemary sprig for both of these pictures.

In the first one, the aperture is 10 which is about as small of an opening as I could manage without noticeable camera shake under the conditions. In this picture, the tall sprig behind the first one is also in focus and the ones behind that are recognizable as rosemary. Smaller apertures are appropriate for landscapes when there is lots of light available and you want everything in focus.

In the second photo, the aperture is 5, a larger opening that allows in more light but creates a narrower depth of field -- less of the picture is in focus. So, now the tall sprig is out of focus and the sprigs behind are ghosts. Wider apertures are appropriate for flowers when you want leaves and ground to blend into the background highlighting the flower itself.

This plant is our barbecue rosemary. The sprigs grow tall and straight and are supposed to make nice kabob sticks for the grill. So far, we've used it for it's tasty herb flavor. Rosemary is not a perennial around here although there are some newer varieties that can survive at least most Missouri winters. We experimented with one of those varieties but we think we lost them -- those plants are looking pretty brown. The rosemary in our bay window is doing fine.

Fun with f-stops and flowers

2009-02-18T19:49:00.001-08:00

An f-stop, I learned last night, is the same thing as aperture but not the same thing as a full stop. Having those two confusions cleared up was probably worth the price of the class! With a wide aperture (think eyes wide open), I get lots of light and a narrow depth of field, meaning that flowers will be in focus with a soft and fuzzy background. That's pretty much perfect for taking pictures of flowers inside greenhouses at the Missouri Botanical Garden on a cloudy winter day.

Here is one of the camellias that are blooming now in the Linnean House. It's probably sacrilege, but I like the camellias better than the orchids -- the Orchid Show is the current special exhibit at the Garden. Many more pictures on my Flickr page.

First photography class

2009-02-17T19:51:00.001-08:00

OK. It's not a very exciting picture, but it's my first ever aperture priority picture. So, it's pretty exciting to me!

Preparing for new shades

2009-02-16T15:31:00.001-08:00

We spent much of the day moving furniture and washing windows in preparation for new shades on these four windows. The TV is in the same room as this sitting area so we have a glare problem when attempting to watch television, even when the shades are down. The new shades are similar, but they will be black and have special light blocking powers.