pecunium

Last week I commented that I'd not had much luck taking photos of some kinds of flowers (specfically Birds of Paradise/Strelitzia (which happens to be pollenated by birds, which is why they have such a thick, and gooey, nectar, but I digress).

So I've done a bit more work on them (incorporating some of the techniques suggested). I also took a stab at Statice/Limonum (which I think of as "crepe flowers" because of how the wrinkled petals make me think of crepe paper, even though they are much stiffer).

I've not had much luck with them either, because they are so busy, and the self-same purity of color which draws the eye, seems bland when I try to take a picture.

Hard at Work


I don't know if I'd have tried this without the bee. The pattern of the blossoms (and the interesting nature of them, papery white-bits which are fleeting, and the purple which seems to last forever), is interesting, but I can't seem to make it arresting.


Ghost


This one is interesting because it was affected by the weather. The exposure was for 1/125th That's usually fine for flowers. The day, however, was windy, and while the shutter was open the flower bobbed. If you look at it closely you can just see it above the projection. It's also got some Georgia O'Keefe like aspects.


Headress


This one is a better treatment of a subject I've really struggled with; shooting these blooms in close up. They are fascinating, but I've been missing some essential aspect of them, and they come out either busy, or dull.

Headress B&W


A bit of variation, so the shape , and texture, can be more evident than the colors.

There are also a number of photos of spiders, and a few more flowers, of a sort I've never had trouble getting decent shots of.

Three pictures; without clicking through, do you know what they are? So all may play the game, please use ROT-13, to post answers.







They are all of the same thing, though they aren't all the same one.

I take pictures. I happen to think some of them are pretty good. But thinking one's own work is decent isn't hard to do. Harder is to figure out what other people will like.

I think this



is a pretty good picture. Based on other people's reactions, I'm wrong; it's a damned good picture.

On the other hand, some of the things I think are outstanding, e.g.



don't seem to resonate with people.

So, yesterday I got a comment on this picture, telling me the detail was really good.



I got it from, of all places, the National Museum of Wales

It took a little time for me to realise this was the actual flickr account for the Museum of Wales (why shouldn't they have one, the US Library of Congress has one). I don't know who manages the account. I don't know what criteria that person (or people) use to decide what to look at, much less what to praise.

I do know the various photos they have (at the museum's flickr account, and at the actual museum pages) include some nice macro, to include some wing scale details.

So I'm feeling tolerably pleased with myself.

(this was written while I was in Germany. Because I wanted to add photos, I didn't make it public. Because I did add photos [and rather a lot of them; athenais there are a couple of stained glass pieces for you] I am putting in cuts. If you just want to read, then you can. If you want to see the pictures, you know what to do. The comments to the photos are independent of the narrative)


It’s been what it always is; mostly they could do the whole thing without me. The corollary is that every so often, they really need me. I earn my pay for the ten minutes every couple of days when my presence is essential.

Saturday was a social evening. I was checking some e-mail when Joe came in (on his way to the night shift of overwatch. Should something go wrong which needs a linguist, he’ the poor schlub on the spot), to tell me that Merrill had been drafted to go bowling and wanted some backup. I like bowling, so I changed into mufti and hied myself off to the lanes.

Where I wasn’t needed at all. It seems everyone was there. I did take advantage of the apparent relaxation of the rules on drinking to get some local dark. It was tasty. As for the bowling... I wasn’t at my best. I was barely at “acceptable” Three games, not one of them was I able to get so much as 120. I did manage to break 100 in all three, and (amazingly) I won all three (relative to the people with whom I was playing). The last was the reason I say amazingly. In the 5th frame I was down 30 points. I was unable to pick up a trivial spare because a pit had fallen forward of the sweep, and was blocking the 10-pin.

Trying to deal with it in the top of the 6th, I guttered, and then bounced the ball off of it to pick up a 10-pin spare.

I was down 20 points in the 8th, but a pair of strikes and a 7 pin final throw put me not only over 100, but over my competitors as well. Back in the day it wouldn’t have been close. There was a time my average was about 145, and 120 would have been the score for my last game of the evening; because my arm was getting tired. Saturday I was robbed of a few strikes (I was using a light ball, both because I am out of practice/bowling shape and because my joints aren’t what they were when I was 20, so flinging 14 .lbs; accurately, isn’t as easy as it once was), but I missed some easy pick-ups (single pins, from my failed strikes). A couple of those and I’d have been more where I want/expect my game to be.

The next morning we all headed off to Nürnberg; there to enjoy our day off. As days off go, this wasn’t the best planned. Germany isn’t really open on a Sunday. The Christkindel’s Markt was open, and cafés, and most museums but shops; not really. No matter, this was our best chance to play tourist all planned to avail themselves.

( Photos )

Joe skipped sleep (if he wanted to sleep he had to forego the city) and we piled onto busses. Got to the town and we told to be back to the busses twelve hours later. Weather was nice (temps in the forties), and scattered breaks in the clouds threatening to turn into actual sunlight; which hopes were, eventually, dashed.

Before that, however we did get to see one of the more charming aspects of the town. On any number of walls were to be found sundials, so that one might know the hours, in the absence of clocks and watches.

( Photos )

The market was a pleasant madhouse. Joe and I grabbed a kinderpunsch glühwien and warmed our insides. Then we headed into the throng and, almost immediately bought a brötchen. I had mine with butter and emmentaler (I didn’t feel like salami, and am not so fond of camembert). Thus braced, we strolled the booths, looked at the wares, smelled the food and listened to the people. It was reminiscent of Dickens’ Fair, mostly because of the smells.

The air was awash with the smell of wursten roasting, glühwien mulling, and someone; somewhere, roasting nuts in cinnamon and sugar.

We worked our way out the far side, up to the museum of handicrafts (we decided not to go in), and up the street, to a cafe. I wanted coffee, and got some hot chocolate. It wasn’t as good as the chocolate in Ecuador, but was more than worth a few moments indoors, with the strangest streudel I’ve ever had.

Mostly because it wasn’t anything I would have described as streudel. It was filled with a pleasant mix of lebkuchen spices, but the wrapping of this filling was more a dense, slightly sweet roll. Coffee wouldn’t have gone with it very well. The whipped cream was very good.

One of the things one notices, when strolling about, is the large amount (at least in the older city) of carvings on the buildings. Arms, knights and other relicts of the past are everywhere. Above it all, is the castle. Nürnberg, to Nürnburg

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We’d signed up for a walking tour, but missed the start, so I bought a couple of tickets into the castle museums. It was worth it. A nice selection of things found around the grounds, coins, tools, old swords (some dating back to the earliest days of the castle [ca. 1300] and decayed to a blackened lacework of corroded iron. One still had a couple of letters, inlaid in silver, from an inscription on the blade) and other pointy toys. As the things got closer to the present, they were in better shape, until; by the 16th century they were pristine.

We saw a relief of Gustav Adolph (who fought part of the 30 Years War here).

From the tower we could see all the town, the peaked roofs of apartment buildings, the domed projections of renaissance dormers and more modern garrets; the scaffolding which shrouded the church towers, and all the modern impedimetia which blocked the “pure” view of the city (cranes, radio towers, etc.).

( Photos )
So we wandered some more. Back to the market, around the shuttered shops (the sex shop was closed, the brothel was open), and into the festival in the Rathaus. It was vaguely medieval. I got some thaler (which were very pretty, but more than I wanted to spend on a coin as souvenir, rather I did as was done at glüwein stands all over town, and kept the cup I bought my biertrinken in (the way it works is, you pay a deposit to get the cup of drink, if you wanted to reclaim the deposit, you returned the cup. If you didn’t, they would give you a new cup. I now have three of them. Each different to the other, and each about 200ml). The biertrinken was a mulled dunkles, mixed with dried orange slices, clove; some cinnamon and (I think) a hint of nutmeg. Being long stewed I don’t think it was a violation of the no-drinking rule (which was idiosyncratic to the Utah Delegation). After about 150ml it was also a bit much. I finished and when I asked for the cup to be rinsed, so I might take it away, they looked as me as if I were simple; and gave me a new one.

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As the sun was fading we saw a small marketplace (enclosed, just inside the 16th century city walls, and wandered about the tin shops, haberdashers, lebkuchen sellers and into a wienstube A meal of kraut, nürnbergers (a type of wurst, much like a breakfast sausage in size, and spicing) and braunbröte, with a glass of dunkles (it was amusing, everyone assumed that the non-Mormons would be drinking their way across the city. I decicided this was an off-day, and allowed myself one beer. I don’t know what Col. Summit would have done had he seen me drinking. I suspect I’d have gotten a stern talking too; and he’d have been disappointed, but his concern was to keep people from being stupid, and I wasn’t, to quote him, “puking on a clean floor”).

On the way out the gate of the market, I bought 200g of chestnuts. I realised, as we walked the dead ground in front of the old curtain wall, part of why I like chestnuts, and why Maia doesn’t, they remind me of lobster. The texture is, somewhat, like them, one has to break into them (harder with gloves on) and they are richly flavored.

As we trailed our way through the shuttered shops (and the market was closing up) we saw a final piece of history under glass... a wakizashi which was (IMO) a lot overpriced.

( Photos )
Then we worked our way back to the rally point.

Back to the bus; back to the barracks, and back to the war.

I've been getting up at the same early hour Maia does. Some mornings for the days baking (I bake about three times a week, for a total of about five lbs. of flour).

Other mornings, when the clouds are in abeyance, it's to drag my sorry self to the beach, and take pictures.

There are several really nice places along this part of the coast for taking pictures, Morro Bay, Avila Beach, Pismo, Oceano, Pelican Point, the Dragon Caves.

Pelican Point has become a favorite because there are a lot of birds. Cormorant, Grey Gulls, Seagulls (the sort with the red spot on their beaks) Rock Doves (a more evocatice name for the common pigeon), and some various birds of the foam (long billed and long legged, digging for small animals in the wet sand) as well as the seals, sea lions, surfers, passing dolphins, California Grey Whales, and Sea Ottters (I saw one this morning. I was giddy to the point of slap-happy glee. I was glad no one was there to see me as I bounced around going, "I saw an otter!" interspersed with moments of tongue lolling agogment, staring to see if she would come back. I pointed her out to an Italian family, a pair of elderly women wearing dusty perfume, a couple who might have been from Britain; a long time ago, and a middle aged woman who was stopping to stretch her legs on a trip from Carpenteria to SF. This was the first otter I'd seen in the wild. At first I thought it a seal, or sea lion pup, but the lens told me different).

The air is redolent of kelp, and salt. There is sound, the crashing surf, the crying gulls, beak-clacking pelicans, pebbles being dragged by the turning tide, wind, and the occasional person.

So, just in case any of you wondered what sorts of things one can see at such beaches.

Behind the links (all open in new windows) are some pictures.

Stretch
Be warned, this first one is large (and has some so-so photoshopping to remove a sprig of grass which was in the way), because I just couldn't bear to crop it anymore. It's 1200x795, at full size, so I sent you to the picture page, which is adequate, click through at your own risk.
Soaring
Morro Rock
Surf's up

A few people have said I ought to take pictures of my food.

To them I say, "hah!". Food is notoriously hard to shoot.

On the other hand I had Maia take some pictures of me when I was butchering the meat Thursday, and I post them for the hell of it. Any apparent flaws are my fault, as this is not her camera, and my preferred settings make the auto-focus less reliable; for the non-familiar.

I may elect to use one of them, as an Icon, to let people know I'm doing food porn (as the Kelp Bubble is being used to let you know this is a photography post, though perhaps the line is blurred on this one).

The pictures are here Cutting Meat

Preparation was straightforward. Strip the table, cover it with plastic, lay out the knives, steels, a bowl and the cutting board.

One big knife (I'm fortunate to have a quartering knife, which is suitable, in size, for anything from sectioning a whole steer into primal cuts (but isn't really the tool for the job, it won't go through bone) to the big cuts I was doing.

One general knife. I used my favorite all-around knife. Straight backed, with just a touch of clip at the tip, and rounded on the edge-side. Moderately thick in the blade. I tend to like square handles.

And a flensing knife. The house has two of these because when one takes the beef-production class (which she an Alexa have both done, one must by both the knife, and the text (and for proof that tinkering with the tax code leads to funny things, meat is no longer butchered after slaughter [which is now called harvesting] but manufactured, which means commercial butcheries get the manufacturing credits of the first Bush II tax cut, but I digress. It took me awhile to find out why this infelicitous language was being used).

It's a handy little knife. The sharp rake means it will dig very deeply into a large piece of meat with a nominal amount of wrist action, but the short length makes it easy to work around things. It has a thin blade, and a lot of flexibility. I was happier with it in action than I thought I would be when I was sharpening it.

The steels. I use stones to put the shape, and edge on my knives. But use dulls them, so steels take off the damaged teeth (to simplify the mechanics of sharpness, the edge of a knife is like a microscopic saw, and the teeth break, and bend with use). I have a ceramic steel, for big repair, a fine steel after that, and a satin steel for the last bit of edge.

I don't have one of the block steels sold with knife sets. They are too coarse for the edge I keep on my knives (which is both sharper in angle, and finer in detail than that recommended by most cutlers, and even cooks [save those who make sushi). The satin steel comes out only when I need to do something like this, and a razor's edge is needful.

I think I touched up the knives three times, after the cutting started.

The procedure was about the same for both pieces of meat. Look at the whole thing, decide on a couple of uses, make the cuts, look at the rest and repeat, until I ran out of smaller cuts to make. Even at that, I left a couple of larger cuts for roasting/using for lots of people (we are planning to have weekly get-togethers, starting next quarter), and I can still cut them down.

The loin was sliced at the 1/3rd point, turned sideways and sliced again, and then cut into disks for medallions. I can also cut those down again for chili verde, or stir-fry.

The rest of the loin was easy, as I just made it into roasting pieces, from some I will probably cube, or sliver for ingredients, to the monster I'll use for a tuesday night when we expect to have eight people at the table. I got ten sub-cuts from it, which will probably, when leftovers are figured in, make for 12-13 meals.

The rib-eye was about the same. The shape of the parent cut is pointed oval. So I cut the narrow part off, which makes it easier to cut thick steaks and still have a reasonable portion size. It also made it easier to slice off the fat which runs along the edge, in a hard ridge ( about 1/12 lbs, clean, white and flaky. Too bad I don't have need of it. We'll use it to train the dogs).

I cut some steaks, about nine, made a couple of small roasts, one medium roast, sliced some, along the grain for stir fry and made a lot of stew chunks; for soup, chili, stews, with the really densely marbled bits, and the meat in, and around, the fat.

It took about an hour and-a-half, from slicing the first one open, to sealing the last piece into the vacuum bag.