Showing posts with label Weekend Snapshot. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Weekend Snapshot. Show all posts
21 August 2009
18 July 2009
Monkey Got a Ride!
We went to our local tree store, the one where we buy our shrubs, and we bought a tree. We're getting a red maple, because they were all out of oaks and the ginko was too small. So maple it is. While Daddy went and payed for our new tree, Monkey and I went to check out the local Front End Loader.
They offered him a ride.
See that grin?! He was a happy boy!
They offered him a ride.
See that grin?! He was a happy boy!
17 May 2008
04 May 2008
Weekend Snapshot
These pictures didn't turn out the best, but I love them anyway: they communicate so well how enchanted he was with that bird book! We'd been working on identifying the turkey vulture, and he loves watching birds anyway, so the bird book was a treat.
24 February 2008
18 February 2008
Weekend Snapshot: Great Backyard Bird Count
We've been doing the Great Backyard Bird Count this weekend. It's been lots of fun, although I think that we would have seen more birds had we not been having an ice storm followed by a blizzard. But the weather makes it more interesting, right? Here are a few pictures of our weekend. Apparently our part of the state has been getting record breaking amounts of snow and other Wintry Stuff. That would explain why the snow mounds at the end of our driveway are nearly double the size of my Monkey. I plan to take pictures of that soon, but it's still snowing, so it may be even more impressive when I get to it!
Northern Cardinal, looking miserable. Notice the ice caked onto each and every branch in my lilac bush.
Bird feeder: deserted. This is how it looked more often than not when I wanted to watch birds this weekend.
Icicles on my gutter. I am impressed by how well we grow icicles. And check out how thick the ice is there under the snow! That stuff was all over the roads too.
This is what's left of my treat bell. There was actually a black-capped chickadee on it at one point this weekend, and also a dark eyed junco, but I didn't have my camera handy either time.
Lilac bush. I'm hoping that the ice doesn't make it so brittle that it breaks under the weight of all that snow. Maybe I should go out there and nudge it so the snow isn't so heavy. We're headed out anyway for more shoveling and picture taking.
Bird feeder: occupied. The poor little bird huddled there is a house finch. But you'll probably have to take my word on that. He stayed there for about 20 minutes, munching every now and then, but mostly just trying to stay out of the worst of the snow, I think.
Northern Cardinal, looking miserable. Notice the ice caked onto each and every branch in my lilac bush.
Bird feeder: deserted. This is how it looked more often than not when I wanted to watch birds this weekend.
Icicles on my gutter. I am impressed by how well we grow icicles. And check out how thick the ice is there under the snow! That stuff was all over the roads too.
This is what's left of my treat bell. There was actually a black-capped chickadee on it at one point this weekend, and also a dark eyed junco, but I didn't have my camera handy either time.
Lilac bush. I'm hoping that the ice doesn't make it so brittle that it breaks under the weight of all that snow. Maybe I should go out there and nudge it so the snow isn't so heavy. We're headed out anyway for more shoveling and picture taking.
Bird feeder: occupied. The poor little bird huddled there is a house finch. But you'll probably have to take my word on that. He stayed there for about 20 minutes, munching every now and then, but mostly just trying to stay out of the worst of the snow, I think.
27 January 2008
Weekend Snapshot: Just Can't Go On
Tonight, the Monkey just fell asleep on the floor. One minute he's playing happily, riding his sea-horse, then next he's asleep. Too funny. But I'm not going to complain about him falling to sleep without a fuss! Now all we have to do is move him without waking him up. Wish us luck!
20 January 2008
Playing in the Kitchen
It being so cold this weekend, I wanted to bake. Discovering Bread Baking Day gave me a direction to go! This month they are doing shaped breads. I've been doing round loaves with slashes for quite some time: they're easy to d and bake up so pretty! So I wanted to do something new. A bit of browsing around and I realized that it seemed like a number of folks were doing Challah, which I had never heard of. Turns out that Challah is a traditional Jewish bread & is used in both Sabbath and Holiday worship. It is also very beautiful & the symbolism in the braids & various other traditional shapes is also beautiful. So that's what I decided to do.
I took my recipe from here - Grandma Rosie's Fabulous Challah Recipe - and made it just like the lady said to do, no changes.
Monkey helped make the bread. (Warning: I apparently wasn't at my steadiest when I made this video... it's a bit jiggly.)
Then he helped me clean up the mess.
I didn't quite understand the directions for braiding the Challah, so I did a search and found a couple of U-Tube videos to help with that part. First, I did a 6 strand braid working with this video's directions:
Hmmm... looks like I'm going to have to head back to U-Tube and look for better video links... There. That's better.
Then I started a 5 strand braid for the second lump. I was a bit surprised at how hard it was to make strings out of the bread dough, but I eventually got it to work and this second one was easier, perhaps because I didn't need as many strings.
Errrr.... this video's having problems too...
OK, now they're both working. Not sure what that was all about.
We had some family stuff that I had to pay attention to, so I just did a simple 3 strand braid for the last lump of dough. Then I put them in the oven to rise. It's terribly cold, so I took the suggestion in the recipe to warm up the oven and have the bread rise in there. Worked like a charm, although the 1st rise took longer than it was supposed to and it was still only barely double when I started shaping the dough. The second rise also took longer than the recipe, but this time it was because I forgot to keep track of time and left them for almost an hour longer. They looked fine, so I declared the 5-strand braid to be my favorite (although the 3 strand came out surprisingly nice in its simplicity; the 6 I think perhaps needs longer strings than what I used to show its pattern a bit better), brushed them with egg, and popped them in the oven. At 20 minutes they were smelling great, but the recipe said that they were supposed to take 30 minutes & you may have to tent them with tinfoil to prevent too much browning, so that's what I did and I also rotated things around in my oven to get more even cooking. I've decided recently that the back (upper?) left is hotter than other areas.
Of course, the real reason for doing all this was to eat it!
I took my recipe from here - Grandma Rosie's Fabulous Challah Recipe - and made it just like the lady said to do, no changes.
Monkey helped make the bread. (Warning: I apparently wasn't at my steadiest when I made this video... it's a bit jiggly.)
Then he helped me clean up the mess.
I didn't quite understand the directions for braiding the Challah, so I did a search and found a couple of U-Tube videos to help with that part. First, I did a 6 strand braid working with this video's directions:
Hmmm... looks like I'm going to have to head back to U-Tube and look for better video links... There. That's better.
Then I started a 5 strand braid for the second lump. I was a bit surprised at how hard it was to make strings out of the bread dough, but I eventually got it to work and this second one was easier, perhaps because I didn't need as many strings.
Errrr.... this video's having problems too...
OK, now they're both working. Not sure what that was all about.
We had some family stuff that I had to pay attention to, so I just did a simple 3 strand braid for the last lump of dough. Then I put them in the oven to rise. It's terribly cold, so I took the suggestion in the recipe to warm up the oven and have the bread rise in there. Worked like a charm, although the 1st rise took longer than it was supposed to and it was still only barely double when I started shaping the dough. The second rise also took longer than the recipe, but this time it was because I forgot to keep track of time and left them for almost an hour longer. They looked fine, so I declared the 5-strand braid to be my favorite (although the 3 strand came out surprisingly nice in its simplicity; the 6 I think perhaps needs longer strings than what I used to show its pattern a bit better), brushed them with egg, and popped them in the oven. At 20 minutes they were smelling great, but the recipe said that they were supposed to take 30 minutes & you may have to tent them with tinfoil to prevent too much browning, so that's what I did and I also rotated things around in my oven to get more even cooking. I've decided recently that the back (upper?) left is hotter than other areas.
Of course, the real reason for doing all this was to eat it!
02 December 2007
Weekend Snapshot: Camera Games
My camera is able to go fully manual. Only I don't know a whole lot about using that f-stop/aperture stuff. But it's fun to try it out. Today, while playing around with my camera I realized that if I push the shutter button halfway, then it shows me the settings! Quick, quick! Turn that dial over to manual & play with it! These are what I got.
Merry Christmas!
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