Category Archives: Photo Essay

Backyard Photo Visit

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My dear friends from church invited me over for coffee and a visit to their garden this morning. Obviously, I took my camera along to see what new and interesting images I could collect. With a little cropping, my trusty Canon Rebel T3i worked its magic again.

George wanted me to take a photo of this chenille plant. 

We fussed around with the lighting until I got something interesting.

I worked on getting the movement of the water frozen in time.

And then I tried to get the reflections of the trees in the water.

The flowers are a little worse for wear from the heat, but still beautiful.

Despite all of our requests, that bumblebee would not stop moving!

Love the sentiment, love the friends. Peace out for today!

Provence Week: Anthony Bourdain in Provence

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Provence “looks like the inside of Martha Stewart’s head.”

Thus says Anthony Bourdain, host of the Travel Channel’s No Reservations. Although I had totally forgotten that I had seen this before, I got all excited about an episode of Anthony Bourdain’s No Reservations that was filmed in Provence. My brother even texted me to tell me it was airing, I’m that obviously hooked on both Tony and Provence.

This episode actually makes Bourdain seem normal and almost humble.

As Tony learns to make aioli from an elderly Provencal woman, he is respectful of both her process and her experience.

It’s very gentle, the process…You gotta be careful.  You have to keep your voice down.  Show a little respect for the process…

It makes me want to learn how to make aioli.

Sorry, I had to delete the video because it’s no longer available. 🙁

There are lots of good scenes in this episode.

Tony and friends do a wine and charcuterie tasting.

He tours a winery.

His friends tell him that if you ask for Ricard instead of pastis, the locals know you know what they drink.

It’s really funny to see the usually brash Tony worrying about cooking for his Provencal friends.

Apparently I’m not the only person who’s dreaming of Provence; this remains my top post of all time because of the beautiful photo of Provence I used. I guess it’s time to use it again!

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Flower Stories: It’s Daylily Week

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We call these simple orange daylilies ditch lilies because they grow wild in the ditches here in the Midwest. They’re still beautiful and worthy of a photograph.

According to invasive.org, “Orange daylily is a popular ornamental that has escaped to invade natural and disturbed areas throughout the United States. Plants are 2-4 ft. (0.6-1.2 m) tall with round stems. Leaves are grass-like, bright-green, 1-3 ft. (0.3-1 m) long and curve toward the ground. Flowers develop in the summer and are large, showy, and orange in color. Flowers occur in clusters of 5-9 at the apex of the stalk. Flowers in a cluster open one at a time and only for one day each. Flowers may have spots or stripes. Many cultivars of daylily now exist in a wide variety of sizes and flower colors. Orange daylily infestations often occur adjacent to plantings or at old homesites. Areas invaded include meadows, forests, floodplains, ditches, and forest edges. Once established, the thick tubers make control difficult. Orange daylily is native to Asia and was introduced into the United States in the late 19th century as an ornamental.”

Writing Workshop: Lessons from Dad

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I’m linking up to Mama Kat this week —

My prompt: Share a lesson you learned from your father.

On Friday, while visiting our son in Oakland, California, we also visited a salvage store. I had been struggling with this week’s prompt, since I’m also struggling with poor internet connections at the hotel, and wasn’t sure I could do my father justice this year. Then the visit to the salvage store made it all clear.

My father taught me to value the unlikely, to see the beauty in the ignored, to have the joy of creating something out of nothing.

Today I met another dad — one who would have loved being friends with my dad. It was hard for me to see all of his work, because it reminded me of my dad and how much I miss him. It was, however, a powerful reminder of how important it is to keep the memories of our loved ones alive through the legacies they leave behind.

Thanks to Grandpa Nick for the new memories I have of Father’s Day.

Food Cult: Dinner at Plum

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One of the best parts of traveling is meeting new restaurants. For Tech Kid’s birthday, we went to a highly touted Oakland restaurant, Plum. I’m still struggling with my cameras, but I just had to share photos of the inventive work of Plum’s chefs.

Beet Boudin Noir, with brussel sprouts and turnip

Avocado Risotto with pistachio,lemon, and cucumber

Raviolini with mixed milk ricotta, nettles, and green shallots

One perfect raviolini

Samples from the Plum Charcuterie with pickled vegetables and violet mustard. I’ll leave you to guess what’s in these delectable morsels.

King Salmon with fava, potato, radish, and vandouvan (curry-like spice blend).

Roasted Pork and Belly with young chard, new onion, and mustard

I’m not sure what this wonderful dessert was — it was ordered specially for the birthday boy.

This lonely little turnip is all that was left on the plate when we finished this sumptuous and scrumptious meal.

If you are visiting Oakland, I highly encourage you to seek out this very good restaurant (make reservations!). The portions are on the small side, but every bite is full of interest.

Orchid Week: Wednesday

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I’m in my last week of teaching — is that even possible? — and won’t have a lot of time to blog this week, so I’m leaving you with a series of photos of orchids that I took at the nursery. Enjoy!

Today’s teacher task: Graduation rehearsal and cleaning my room, followed by graduation in the evening. It’s always bittersweet to participate in graduation festivities.

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