Winter Haiku: Pigeons

grey contour feathers fluff,
weary pinkish claws hold fast--
steady, despite odds.

Breathe in, breathe out… YOU AND I ARE ALIVE!

Adventures in Baking: Bread, Part II

YUMMY!
I find myself progressively challenging myself to make more and more complex things in the kitchen. It started with simple dishes, progressed to making bread through the use of a prepared mix and a bread maker and, most recently, I made bread using a recipe and the bread maker.

This Adventure in Baking started out as a father-son activity--something to fill a few hours on a late December afternoon. I had shared with him my (new) interest in baking so invited him to help--and even at nearly fifteen years of age, who can resist the urge to mix up ingredients and watch them grow?

My son and I actually set out to make an oatmeal bread, but due to my inability to keep the pages from turning (and my ingredients straight, we were well on our way to a traditional bread before I realized my error and there was no turning back.

Though this looks like a mix, I swear it's not... it's just the
ingrediants for a very plain bread recipe!
The doughy goodness is ready to bake.
Looking pretty tasty right about now!
If things hold true to form, you can expect that I will be culling a recipe from the bread baking book I received for Christmas in the next few days in an effort to complete an even more eclectic bread recipe.

Breathe in, breathe out… YOU AND I ARE ALIVE!

Testing Christmas Tech

A red tail hawk atop a light post at Lake Riley, taken this morning from the front seat of my car at maximum zoo-in.
For Christmas, my wife gave me a new lens for our Canon EOS Rebel XS (a gift I had received for my birthday last May). The purpose of the new lens is to allow for better resolution close-up photos taken from a distance. Anne and I have both enjoyed looking a local birds (primarily in our backyard) for a number of years now and slowly we have gained interest in photographing them.

While the standard lens on our camera did take nice pictures, the zoom-in feature was somewhat limited. The new lens, a Tamron, extends out to allow for a higher-resolution close-up. Lacking the patience to wait for birds to land in my backyard, I stopped at Cobb Hills this morning on my way to get get coffee to take a few test shots, including the one at the top of this post.

The same photo, trimmed and enhanced using the Canon ZoomBrowser EX software.
I'm looking forward to getting out into the field with my wife this week (well, to a local park anyway) to see what we can photograph and how well the pictures come out. Any suggestions for these recreational nature photographers would be appreciated :)

Breathe in, breathe out… YOU AND I ARE ALIVE!

Another Successful Christmas in the Books!

Gracie and her most recent holiday "baby"!
Everybody had a fine holiday season at the Scott household, what with wonderful gifts, visits with family and the anticipation of the next few days (including the weekend) free from both work and school!

Gracie, our English Springer Spaniel, was especially proud of her latest Christmas gift, a stuffed plush pheasant with a horn inside, which she took to carrying around the house honking almost immediately... good GREAT times!

Breathe in, breathe out… YOU AND I ARE ALIVE!

Raising the Manger: Joyeux Noël!

"We hear the beating of wings over Bethlehem and a light that is not of the sun or of the stars shines in the midnight sky. Let the beauty of the story take away all narrowness, all thought of formal creeds. Let it be remembered as a story that has happened again and again, to men of many different races, that has been expressed through many religions, that has been called by many different names. Time and space and language lay no limitations upon human brotherhood."~New York Times, 25 December 1937

When last we left our manger, the plaster inhabitants had all arrived, except, that is, for the center of attraction. Traditionally, in our family, the plastic Baby Jesus stays out of the manger until Christmas Eve, at which time he is placed in the cardboard cradle at the center. As you can see form the pic above, He made it safely to His appointed spot for (roughly) the twentieth year(!) in a row.

And so, for another year, the raising of our family manger is complete...

Breathe in, breathe out… YOU AND I ARE ALIVE!