|
Here and There…Now and Then |
Cæsar
I went over to Cathy’s mom’s this evening to work on her computer. Between doing things I took some pictures of the birds. This one of Caesar was taken through the bars, which is what makes the lower part of the image a little soft. The bars are about 3/4 inches apart, so I can’t just shoot between them. By keeping the depth of field low, I was able to mostly ignore them. I did take a few of Roscoe through the opened cage door, but didn’t risk it with Caesar.
Potatoes and Kale
I went to the grocery store this evening to buy a few things. Included on my shopping list were potatoes and kale, both of which are ingredients in caldo verde, a Portuguese soup that I plan to make for Sunday. When I was younger, I didn’t care for cooked greens but now I like them quite well. The soup is good, being thickened by the potatoes, which are cooked until they basically fall apart. Unfortunately, I have to make it ahead, and that means that by the time it is served, the kale will have lost its bright green color. It will still taste the same, but won’t be quite so appetizing a color.
Tim and Jeffrey
We had X-Factor this evening and, as is so often the case, I took some pictures. Naturally, some of them are good and some not so good. I find it interesting which people are easy to photograph well and which are not, and find that it has little to do with good looks, somewhat surprisingly.
Anyway, this is Tim (or does he prefer Timmy?) and Jeffrey (or would he like Jeff?). Like the hats, boys.
Holly Leaves
The American holly, Ilex opaca, is endemic to the eastern United States. It is a broadleaved, evergreen tree growing to as much as 65 feet tall. As do many hollies, the leaves of the American holly have spines around their rim. The consensus is that they are a deterrent to herbivores (predominately ungulates). One paper by J. R. Obeso in 1996 concludes that the absence of browsing ungulates during a one year period significantly decreased the spinescence of leaves in the subsequent year. I like the word “spinescence.”
Cracked Crackers
I don’t have a lot to say about this photograph. We had cheese and crackers out this evening, as we often (almost always) do when people come over. Some crackers were broken so they didn’t get put out. Don’t you hate it when you open a box of crackers and they’re all smashed up? But what can you do? Anyway, there were plenty that were not, in this case. Those that were got left in the kitchen and I took this picture after everyone had left. Even little pieces of cracker are fine, though, for some types of cheese, so they got eaten.
Dorothy at Wonder Books
Dorothy needed a copy of Slaughterhouse-Five, by Kurt Vonnegut, for book club in her literature class. She wanted to be able to annotate it, so we went to the local used book store to buy a copy she could write in. We found that and browsed a little while, coming home with about a dozen books. I love a good, used book store. There are actually two in our area, Wonder Books (which used to be the Book Alcove) on Shady Grove Road and Second Story Books on Parklawn Drive. I can spend a lot of time in either of them, but really, I shouldn’t be buying books when I have so many already waiting to be read.