A Square Foot of Chocolate

I currently subscribe to two magazines: 
1.  Better Homes and Gardens--because I have both of those and I am always interested in making them better.  Plus it is relatively inexpensive so I don't mind ripping out pages to add to my idea file.
2.  Real Simple--because it has big pages with big pictures and everything in it is real simple. 
Here is the difference.  The August BHG offers 50 ways to eat a peach.  Including Cheddar Stuffed Turkey Burgers with Peach Ketchup.  Chances I will ever gather the dozen required ingredients and make this recipe?   0.05%
Real Simple offers 26 (Note: half as many as BHG) summer recipes that have only three ingredients.  Including Buttery Grilled Corn.  Chances I could pull together 4 ears of corn, 2 tablespoons of butter, and 2 scallions?  5%  (But I think the percentage would go up if I just modify the recipe and omit the scallions.)
The thing that caught my eye this month was in BHG.  A tiny little mention with a tiny little picture of Chocolate cosmos.   Yes, a flower that is cocoa colored AND cocoa scented.  I believe I could spend so many summer hours tending and arranging and rearranging chocolate cosmos that I wouldn't even think about cooking anything.  Well into September.  So I went to the link BHG.com/chocolateplants to find out more like the tiny little article suggested.  And here is what I found:

 We're sorry, but we can't find

the page you're looking for.

Because BHG is not real simple.  Maybe it will not be on the website until August,  even though they send me the August magazine in mid-July.  By the time August gets here, I will forget to go back and see if the page about chocolate plants can be found. 

I need a magazine called Really Simple that would have great big scratch and sniff pictures of all the chocolate plants, and a seed packet of chocolate cosmos stuck onto one of the pages with that sticky booger-like adhesive.  And a dollar off coupon for a Milky Way bar to get me through until my square foot of chocolate cosmos bloom. 

Chances of that happening? 

The Sun Also Rises

Benefit of early shift at lab 30 minutes from home: seeing the sun rise.

Benefit of living in the middle of nowhere:  no traffic to interfere when you need to pull off along the side of the road and photograph the sun rise on your morning commute.

Benefit of having a God in control of the universe:  The sun rises and His lovingkindnesses are new every morning.

Great is His faithfulness. 

Amen.

Things To Photograph Besides Red Rocks II

CLOUDS

 Clouds are easier to photograph than lizards or collie dogs.  Even though they move, they do not disappear in an instant.  For some reason you can take a picture of them from a car going 70 miles per hour and they are not blurry.  This makes them excellent subjects.

Bonus Points for clouds shaped like things--such as mermaids. 

Bows and flows of angel hair...

This is picture 823 from my Sedona/Grand Canyon file.  If I had discovered clouds earlier in the week, who knows how many pictures I would have taken.

Clouds and sun.

But now they only block the sun...

Close ups of clouds and sun. 

Clouds are good for zooming.  And it is difficult to hold the camera wrong.  Up?  Down? 

I've looked at clouds from both sides now

From up and down and still somehow...

Reflections of clouds and sun in a window, on the side of your car, in a mirror. 

If you can't get close enough, you can use the smoke and mirrors trick.

(Remember objects are closer than they appear.)

 It's cloud illusions I recall...

Clouds at sunset.

I really don't know clouds at all.

I suggest you put some oldies on the radio and go for a ride.  Or just take a blanket out in the yard.  And take a few cloud pictures.  Unless its a cloudless day like today.  Then you better hope there are some red rocks nearby.

Tour Training and Time Capsules

Today we started seriously training for this summer's tour.  Which is to say, we dusted off the bikes, put air in the tires, and actually rode our bikes.  We chose a road in the wilderness with a few hills, in case this year's tour has a mountain leg.  We practiced taking the group picture. 

This gives you an idea of what I mean when I say 'road in the wilderness'.  The camera is sitting on the STP's bike helmet on one side of the 'road' and we are standing on the other side of the 'road'.   The road is actually a county road off of Lane 16 1/2.  Near Lane 22 1/2.

This shows you what a good time we were having.  This is on the way out.  There are no pictures of anyone having a good time on the way back.   Again, I am of the opinion that all of my life should have a sag wagon, but definately all bike trips should have one.   On the way back, the sun was high in the sky and I was having hallucinations at the bottom of each hill of an air conditioned sag wagon loaded with iced tea and chocolate bars.

Here is the Goob and his bike.  I share it with you because it is still a source of amazement to us that they appear any where together.

I made this sound way more grand than it was.  Know that we loaded the bikes in the back of the truck and drove to the wilderness. Remember that it was our first training day.  Remember that my bike needed dusting at the beginning of the day.  Remember that I had no memory of riding my bike at all last year. 
Now let's talk about my memory.  I forgot the gorilla pod, but I remembered my camera and my waterbottle.  I forgot to pack any candy.  When we arrived in the wilderness and I opened my bike bag to put the camera and my water bottle in, there was no room.  That is because I forgot to empty out my bike bag the last time I rode my bike.

Here is what was in my bike bag:  My favorite Eddie Bauer water bottle--with a few sips of water.  My tupperware dish--with the slimy black remains of one of last summer's salad.  My library card.  A fork--one of my good ones that you are never to take out of the house.  A hair clip.  And the original Star Wars trilogy on DVD.  All things I have looked 'everywhere' for over the past year.  None of which (except the hair clip) were particularly useful on a bike ride in the wilderness.  All of which is proof that I must have ridden my bike at least once last year.  (So my training is ahead of schedule.)

It was like a time capsule that I inadvertantly created.  I have never made a time capsule, but if I were to make a time capsule for today here is what I would put in it:  A smooth red rock from along the road.  The first three pictures in this post.  A copy of the menu from the sub shop where we ate lunch.  A pressed sunflower that the STP stopped  for me to pluck from along the road on the way home (because he loves me).  And a bag a starbursts--just in case we open the time capsule when we are on a bike trip in the wilderness. 

Things To Photograph Besides Red Rocks I

THE GPS

The GPS was indispensible on vacation. It read aloud two complete Ted Dekker books.  It answered the oft asked question, "When will we get there?"   It kept us on track.  

(Not that the track was all that difficult to follow.) 

These used to be my jobs on a road trip.  Reading the map.  Telling the STP where to go.  Reading a book out loud.  Keeping track of time.  The GPS and I had a few moments. (I am jealous of the GPS?)  But eventually we agreed to coexist peacefully.

Let me take your picture, GPS.

"Right back at you," says the GPS.

 

 "Er, let me adjust my settings."

Eventually the road took a few more interesting turns (can you say "switchback"?) and I was free to look out the window and let the GPS handle the navigation.

Until the GPS learns to squirt canned cheese on Ritz crackers I feel pretty secure.

My Aha! Moment

The Magnificent Uncle M sent me the link to this.  He has no idea what a delight it was to receive it.  I, too, have been pondering how to get to the proverbial m&ms.  (As an aside, I failed to figure in the size proportions with regards to the prize. If I were scaling a 40 ft wall, the m&m field would be 60x60 feet, or 3600 square feet of m&ms.  Lets say it together: Recalculating.)  I was pondering this yesterday while I was tying up my tomato and pumpkin plants, when along came a small white butterfly, fluttering over the garden and landing right in the middle of the lettuce square.  AHA!!  Oh, I thought, I must share this.  So I ran into the house to get the camera.  And when I returned the butterfly was still sitting in the lettuce.  So I carefully framed the shot and just as I snapped the picture (Lassssieeee) it flew away, leaving me with just a picture of lettuce.  But now I know how long it takes a white mothy butterfly thing to lay eggs in a lettuce patch.  Just a little longer than it takes me to run in and out of the house.  Also, I will wash my lettuce a little more thoroughly from now on.
Thanks Uncle M.  See you the end of the month when I will have your unannounced blog giveaway prize-a pack of m&ms and 4 Yellowstone quarters. 

Red

I am starting to process the 1700 pictures that are currently on my camera.  I have not downloaded, printed, stored, or deleted any images since I started using my camera on Christmas morning.  My problem is where to begin.  It is not a new problem.  I have had it since the beginning of my photographic endeavors.  Any pictures, slides and negatives from my pre-digital days are in a box or two.  There is no order.  None of the pictures are labeled.  It is only complicated by the advent of digital photography.  

I have no idea how to organize.  And that is not just in the realm of pictures.  I used to have my recipes filed alphabetically.  Green Jello Salad was under  'G'.  Potato Salad under 'P'.  Plum pudding also under 'P'.   Chocolate Chip Cookies--'C'.  Tea Cookies--'T'.  Shortly after I married the STP he reorganized them by categories.  All cookie recipes filed under 'cookies'.  All salads under 'salads'.  Any recipes I owned at the reorganization are still filed accordingly.  Any that I have acquired in the last 28 years are stuffed in a manila folder.  The ones I use most often are near the front or back of the folder, unless I haven't gotten around to replacing them in the folder.  Then it is anyone's guess and more often than not I just call my Mom and ask for the recipe which I scrawl on the back of an envelope.  Obviously this system works for recipes, as no one is starving here. 

My old camera randomly ate files that were on it, so I quickly dumped them onto my computer, which arbitrarily filed them by date taken.  Now that I am beginning anew, I am trying to figure out how to organize my pictures.  Do I want to continue to use dates?  Or should I do events--weddings, vacations.  Or categories--the house, the garden, the mountain, wildlife, wildflowers.  Or maybe I should just use colors.  All red pictures in one file, blue in another.  Hence, most of my 950 Sedona/Grand Canyon pictures will be in the 'RED' file.  (I had 1100 Sedona/GrandCanyon pictures, but I ruthlessly deleted all the ones that were blurry, duplicates, and pictures of lizards that moved even faster that Lassie.)

 I'm certain red signs go here.  Especially red danger signs for people who may not read English.

But what about yellow signs that include the word 'red'? 

Or red rocks that don't really look red in the picture?

The same rocks look much redder at sunset.

But I really think I will need an entire file for sunsets.

And quite possibly a file for wildflowers.  Maybe a folder for just red wildflowers.

For now I have downloaded the 950 pictures in a file labeled sedona/grand canyon on the STP's computer. The STP copied them to a DVD which he labeled SEDONA VACATION 2010.  I'm thinking about deleting them from my camera and from the STP's computer. But not right away.

Ms Brenda's Worm Farm

The square foot garden is coming along rather nicely.  The tomato plants are already bigger than last year's.  One pepper plant has a blossom.  The cilantro is looking like cilantro.   Only two of the onions took, so I planted a second crop of carrots in the 1/2 a square foot left vacant by the onions.  And the lettuce--well it is ready for harvest. 

So this morning I harvested a panful of green leafy lettuce and two fat green lettuce worms.  When I find a lettuce worm I carefully remove it from the raised bed garden and place it gently back on the ground.  And then I step on it.  Because I did not plant enough lettuce for all of us.  The worms are very persistent.  They keep showing up.  (I'm  pretty sure they are new worms-not the ones I have already stepped on.)  How do worms find lettuce?  The bed is raised 8 inches from the ground.  That would be the equivalent of me scaling a rock wall 40 ft. high.  I don't think I would do that for a square foot of m&ms.  I'm sure I wouldn't do it for lettuce. 

I felt a little bad about the worms because they look a lot like Heimlich from A Bug's Life.  But then I remembered Hopper's speech about the ants.  Something like this: 

 You let one of those worms stand up to you and pretty soon they're all standing up.  Those puny little worms outnumber us 100 to 1.  And if they ever figure that out, there goes our way of life.  It's not about lettuce, it's about keeping those worms in line...

So I will continue to squish any worms that show up in my lettuce beds. 

Until a big bird comes along and eats me.  (Maybe this is one of those analogies that doesn't hold up very well if you carry it too far.)