Tuesday, December 29, 2009

Turtle Tchotchke Tuesday

A Fred Conlon Turtle made from an army helmet.



Santa dropped this off on Christmas morning. He leaves a turtle every Christmas.

Monday, December 28, 2009

Don't get fresh with me!

One morning, while I was eating my breakfast cereal, Jerry was in the kitchen putting together our lunches to take to work. He was cutting some pineapple spears we got at Costco into bite-sized pieces. As I was swallowing a mouthful of cereal he said, "I sure am glad to know that my pineapple is 'Alpine Fresh.'"

It took a bit of time to regain my composure and wipe up the cereal that had sprayed out of my nose.

To add to the absurdity, the pineapple's label tells us Alpine Fresh is in Florida, a very flat state. Its highest point is a whopping 345 feet above sea level.

Alpine, indeed! But no doubt fresh!

Friday, December 25, 2009

I'm Dreaming of a White Christmas

Well, a frosty Christmas. Poor little birds...their birdbaths froze over on Christmas morning.



But I broke the ice so they can get their morning water.

Merry Christmas!

(Damn gophers!)

Tuesday, December 22, 2009

Turtle Tchotchke Tuesday

A pot signed "Shutiva Histia Acoma N.M." (probably Jackie).


Monday, December 21, 2009

Summer Solstice to Winter Solstice, 2009

Six months have passed since we saw my first stab at solarography.  I took down the cameras at sunset the evening before the summer solstice, reloaded them with paper and put them back up in time to start recording some solstice-to-solstice pictures.

I made two cameras out of Guinness beer cans and two out of quart paint cans. The beer cans weren't terribly successful. The paper in both of them curled up and stopped taking their pictures. At least they got some of the sun's progress recorded.

This first picture is from a beer can that was strapped to the old clothesline pole. It isn't the full six months because I looked at it some time into the exposure and noticed that the paper had shifted over the pinhole. So I took it down and put up a second one in its place.

Here is June 20 through sometime before August 2 from the clothesline pole.


Here is a shot from the clothesline pole from August 3 till the paper curled and blocked the pinhole.


Here is the view from the weather station on the roof. Its paper curled so it didn't record much of the sun's progress. I'm really confused about how it got some of the sun early in the exposure then conked out completely for a long time then kicked in every now and then some time later. This is a mysterious picture.


I was amazed at the amount of detail that was seen in the foreground of the spring-summer pictures but was disappointed that the top part of the sun's path was cut off. When I put the cameras back on the roof for these pictures, I put the pinholes higher on the cans so they would record higher in the sky. That worked but now I have none of the roof showing. Oh, well.

Here is the view from the paint can that is facing southeast. It kind of looks like June Gloom persisted into July by the fuzzy trails in the higher passes of the sun in the mornings (on the left) but my weather station seems to say that we were gloomy only until about July 1. Maybe it's just that the edges of the pictures just don't record all that well.


And here is the view from the paint can that is facing southwest. The tree on the left is the tree on the right in the above picture.


(In case you happened to notice, I got some of my pictures' names wrong. The got the beer cans mixed up so their names are swapped.)

Sunday, December 20, 2009

The cranberries are nestled all snug in their bowl

I just made the cranberry sauce for Christmas dinner from a recipe Karen sent in 1996.




1½ cups sugar
¾ cup water
3 whole cloves
3 whole allspice
2 (3-inch) cinnamon sticks
1 (12 oz.) bag cranberries
Zest 1 orange

Bring sugar, water, cloves, allspice and cinnamon sticks to a boil in a 4-quart saucepan. Cook, stirring, until syrup is clear, about 3 minutes. Add cranberries and cook until they just begin to pop, about 5 minutes. (Do not overcook the cranberries; the little pop when you eat them is fun.)

Remove from heat, add orange zest and cool.  Keep in refrigerator at least 3 days before using. Makes 2 1/2 cups relish.

[I cook longer than "until they just begin to pop." You'd have a lot of uncooked berries if you stopped that soon, wouldn't you?]

The chain is going down to a steeping ball that is holding the cloves and allspice. This keeps us from having a surprising little extra crunch.

Tuesday, December 15, 2009

Turtle Tchotchke Tuesday

A lamp with a crane on a turtle (much like another thing you've seen).


Sunday, December 13, 2009

A spectacular tree in our yard

Well, it was supposed to be a spectacular tree.

Our Floss Silk tree is blooming. For the first time. Ever.



Poor little tree. It was supposed to be huge by now.

Floss silk trees are "resistant to drought and moderate cold" according to the Wikipedia article. Apparently our cold is more severe than "moderate." The frost burns it down to stubs each year. It comes back and grows out again. Then frost strikes it down again.

We keep saying that we ought to just get rid of the tree.

Poor thing. Frost's a-comin'.

Tuesday, December 8, 2009

Turtle Tchotchke Tuesday

A Tower-o-Turtles.


Tuesday, December 1, 2009

Turtle Tchotchke Tuesday

A leather turtle (with a turtle bell you've already seen).