Category: Food

Lunch Interrupted

Midday Sunday.  We were making lunch before we ran out the door to take care of some errands.

I was pulling the vegetables out of the drawer for a salad when I became distracted.

For the next couple of hours.

It’s a good thing that Goddess is patient.  She took advantage of the time to not only finish preparing lunch, but to eat it and take a nap.

That was time well spent.

The subject of my distraction was a pair of lovely carrots that we received from one of our local farmers in our Community Supported Agriculture (CSA) program.

Aren’t they lovely?

You’d never find these in a store.  Honestly, I don’t know why.  It’s not like they are less nutritious.  The human mind is odd.

Truth be told, mine is too.

Watching these carrots suspended in space in my makeshift studio (the hallway) for a while gave rise to many different stories in my mind.

Which stories can you come up with?

Later this week will be our last delivery for this winter through our CSA.  This is the second winter that we’ve received bountiful baskets full of in-season vegetables from Barking Moon Farm.  Thanks for the flavors and the exploration, Melissa and Josh!

Walking

There has been a lot of walking around here lately.  A lot more than usual.

We do live in quite a walkable town.

But we’ve got a longer walk to get ready for, you know. So it’s a lot more hours on the feet, more frequently.

Today was one of those days, complete with errands and appointments.  It helped that our errands and appointments in town today were spread out.  That forced us to get walking early.

It was also a great opportunity to test the rain gear that we have on hand (we’re still mulling over a couple of  items), plus check to see how the sock/shoe systems work while soaked (verdict: swimmingly).

The best part is that once the appointments were done and we were waiting for the shop to finish with the car, the walk delivered views like this:

We took the rainbow as a sign that our car was done at the shop.  Three hours later, we found that to not be true.  But four hours later, all was right.

That image was shot right after we stopped for our “lunch”.  I put “lunch” in quotation marks because we’re working on our feeding schedule on these walks, trying to stick to every 90 minutes or so for a snack, then keep moving.

This specific feeding was closest to noon, so that counted as “lunch”.

Just 90 minutes later, it was mid-afternoon and it was time for a break.  It had been raining pretty steadily and hard for several hours, not to mention all of the water blowing off of the trees in an increasing wind.  But we were comfortable.

Just a touch hungry.

As Goddess boiled the water for some hot tea, I snapped a couple of pics, which didn’t stop her from eating some of the salami and rehydrated veggies.  But her look here, a look that I did not notice at the time, is proof that if I didn’t act fast, I was not going to get any of it.

Now that’s what I call “hangry”.

 

Rolling Along

It has been a busy week here.  We are less than 100 days from starting our PCT thru-hike.  We have a lot to do between now and then, including moving out of the house.  But we aren’t rushing that.

As of this week, we have about half of the house either in storage, donated or disposed of.  We are working on downsizing, too.  It’s amazing how much stuff we accumulate, even moving every few years as I have my entire life.

Too much stuff.

But we’re also walking to do our errands in town, getting the feel for our new backpacks and other items.  Like these Bear Canisters, full of our bi-weekly haul from our CSA.

image

The Bear Canisters are required through stretches of the Sierra Nevada Mountains.  They are supposed to keep the scent in, but really they are just meant to give a bear a big playtoy while it tries to get at the contents as we sleep peacefully nearby.  Ha!

These canisters have been tested with Grizzly bears.  Luckily there won’t be any of those, just black bears.

Each canister holds 11.5 liters of stuff.  Our longest stretch through bear country will be about nine days, so we need to get all of our food, plus any scented items (toothpaste, etc.) in them.

A friend was kind enough to let us borrow his canisters, with the stipulation that they come back scarred from curious bears.  That may or may not happen, as we can’t control the bears.  But it will be fun to see them come late June.

Anyway, he dropped them off for us the same day that we picked up our Community Supported Agriculture (CSA) delivery.  It was a perfect trial run with the canisters in our backpacks.

Our CSA is with a local family-run farm.  We sign up with them in the winter so they can grow the vegetables that we won’t in the winter.  Plus, they provide things that we would have never bought from the market, so it pushes us to try different veggies and recipes.  And it actually turns out being cheaper per pound than the markets.  Plus we’re supporting a local farm.

We like that.

There will be more and more posts like this over the next few months.  Hopefully they will help answer the questions that family, friends and casual readers have about our hike.

Speaking of questions, if you have any, ask below.  I may answer right away or I may use it as a topic on a future post.

As always, thanks for reading.

Tradition

Well, it’s already 2015 in some parts of the world, but it’s still New Year’s Eve here and in Europe.

Our German neighbors introduced us to their NYE traditions and this is one of our favorites, watching Dinner for One.  It has now become a tradition on this blog.  Sit back, have a good laugh, then be safe out there this evening.

Goddess and I hope you have a great year!

Here’s a fun little read on the history of Dinner for One (click here), along with the longer cut, complete with German introduction.

Globes

GlobesWe are marking the first full day of winter today with a grin.  Yesterday was the kick-off for this year’s Winter Solstice offering over on my photography site and it was a good day (thank you everyone!).

But if you’re following via social media sites, they do a fine job of squashing certain posts that contain certain words, especially words that are a single-word representation of an offering of anything at a reduced level of currency.  Why?  Because they want us to pay them to increase viewership of those specific posts to normal levels.  Or pay even more to increase viewership even higher.

If you are looking for a holiday present, it is too late to get it this week, but if you’re looking for a different look on your wall, now is your chance!  Please click on the picture above and you’ll see the code at the top of my website.

Again, thank you all for your support!!!

Winter Solstice Sale

In a few short hours it will be the official winter solstice for those of us north of the equator.

For some that means it’s now the the beginning of a long, dreary winter.  A season to dread.  But not us.  Winter is another great season to get outside, explore and play.

This past Friday was opening day for our local ski mountain.  Goddess and I were able to get more than a few runs in on uncrowded slopes before school let out for the holidays.  And the rain today.

It’s currently raining up on the mountain, on top of the minimal snow.  Hopefully it doesn’t melt the snow and start another rough winter for the mountain, which never opened last winter for the first time in its 50-year history.

Fingers crossed.

As is tradition here on the solstices and equinoxes, I’m offering a sale on my photography.

All products are 20% off (does not apply to shipping costs).  Just enter Winter14 in the coupon field when you are ready to check out.  Just click on the coupon below to start browsing.

BAP - Winter14Thank you so much for your continued support.  I do appreciate you!

Snowy Skirt

It’s not Throwback Thursday, but I’m not bothered with that right now.  This is quite a throwback, one that predates this blog by a good six months.

That makes it almost nine years ago.

I am revisiting this photo for a personal project of mine and since it has never been introduced in this blog, I’m sharing it with you now.  There are quite a few stories to this image.  I’ll tell one, but have fun creating some for yourself.

Snowy Skirt

The setting – Sapporo, Hokkaido, Japan.  February 2006.  We were visiting the annual Sapporo Snow Festival, which is amazing.  After an evening of watching the light and laser shows around the large snow sculptures, we decided to head down the side streets.

The sidewalks are kept clear all winter long since they are heated.

Goddess, The Boy and friends were in a convenience store (I don’t remember which, but it could have easily been a 7-11) looking for warm drinks and a nibble.

Fact – if you find yourself in Japan and are realizing that it’s getting expensive to eat at restaurants for all three meals, head to the convenience stores for your food for two of your meals.  The trays of sushi, sashimi, meats, rice and vegetables are top notch and quite a bit cheaper than a restaurant.  The money you save will go a long way towards a very nice dinner.

Anyway, it was crowded and I had my large camera backpack with me, so it was a bit tight in the store.  I headed outside to watch all of the activity and enjoy the gently falling snow.

Then this young lady walked past, headed down an empty sidewalk.  Rarely does that opportunity present itself in any Japanese city.

What an opportunity it was.

A few months later, I had this image on display at a showing and a musician friend happened to see it, along with a few other images.  He liked what he saw, so we started talking about a planned CD release of his music.

The image paired quite nicely with one of the songs on the CD called “City Girl“.  Go ahead, click on the link and let it play while you’re reading.

If you had an actual CD in your hands, this would be inside the front cover with a line from his song along the bottom – “young girl, cold and lost in the city”.

Fitting.

He liked another of my images enough to make it the cover image.  But it wasn’t just the image, it was the name, which he used for the title of his first CD “Delicate Eye“.

Since then, Kluso has released two more CD’s: “Young Hard Red Spot” and “Determination“, each with my images as cover art.

While it is fun to have images printed, framed and hanging on walls of other people’s homes, it is a unique experience to reach up onto a shelf and pull down CD’s with your pictures on them.

I know it’s early on a Monday morning.  Hopefully it’s a good start to a great week.

A week filled with good music and good images.

But first, tell me what story you created when you looked at the picture.  I’d love to hear it.

Tradition

Well, it’s New Year’s Eve.  By the time this is posted, it’s already 2014 in some parts of the world, evening in Europe.

Our German neighbors introduced us to their NYE traditions, and this is one of our favorites, watching Dinner for One.

Goddess and I hope you have a great year!