Light and shadow
Month: February 2014
Lighthouse, Goderich
We drive to Goderich today. Among other sights I admired the lighthouse from the beach, an angle I have rarely thought of. The tree’s round, soft, monochromatic shape is an interesting counterpoint to the lighthouses’ right angles and the red of the lantern house.
Playing
I’ve owned Stella for over ten years now and Achilles for almost seven. For all of that time they have gotten along well and been good play partners. Stella is the more assertive of the two so Achilles’ more deferential temperament is a good complement. Having said that Achilles is often the one to instigate play sessions.
Beng older now (Achilles who knows, our best guess is ten with Stella being almost eleven) they play less. It’s interesting to see how Achilles uses his 20 pound size/weight atvantage to push missy dog around while Stella counteracts with her quickness, darting and boxing. Sometimes Achilles would (and still does) simply butt-tuck and race around the yard, zooming up to and past a nearly stationary Stella. I came across this sequence from March 2010.
Chili Dog circles in. Stella waits, hackles slightly raised yet ears and mouth relaxed.
Full speed and flat out he reaches the speed of sound. Zoom zoom. Hackles up but Stella’s facial and head expression was still playful. Achilles swept past and came in for one (or more?) strafing runs.
I’ve learned a lot about canine body language. The unknowing might watch them play and conclude that at times they are angry, fierce, blood is about to fly. I’ve never seen that. They growl, fling themselves at one another yet it’s play. When Stella has had enough she snaps and briefly chases Achilles; he understands and stops.
Bald Eagle
After fruitlessly scanning the treetops on both sides of the St. Clair River I looked up at the right place at the right time to capture this eagle around 1/2 mile away. Am very pleasantly surprised I even got it in the frame at that distance, at very high digital zoom, with a handheld camera. The camera is a Fuji FinePix S1600.
Across the river
I went down to the St. Clair River in search of Bald Eagles recently sighted there. While searching I took this photo across the river to the US. I’m estimating the distance at 1.1 kilometers or 7/10 of a mile. Not bad resolution for a handheld camera.
Winter
February dwindles, drains, fades. March, with its promise of spring, rebirth, renewal, is only a short time ahead. Winter throws one more punch of Arctic cold to remind us that it is still here, the equinox has not yet come. We must wait a little longer, continue to be patient.
Spring will come.
Thanks for the walk.
Taken and posted with the PlayBook
Think I’ll take a nap.
Come on, let’s go
Taken and posted with the PlayBook.
Let’s get walking!
In your face
Whatcha doing?
Baking bread
Faye loves finding new and interesting books at our library. One she found was Artisan Bread in Five Minutes a Day which details a bread baking technique far different from anything she and most people are accustomed to. She liked it so much we have eaten little store bought bread for several months. Santa brought Faye The New Artisan Bread in Five Minutes a Day. This weekend I finally delved into the bread-making process.
On Friday I made a batch of dough following the Deli Rye dough recipe. The ingredients are few – water, yeast, salt, caraway seeds, rye and all-purpose flours. The process is quite simple – mix everything without kneading and let rise at room temperature. This took less than 15 minutes. Because our kitchen is cold at this time of year we let it rise for two hours. Here’s a look at the dough.
Then put the dough container in the fridge. It stays good for up to two weeks. Yesterday I made a loaf of bread. Again, the process is quite simple and again, you do ot knead the dough. Cut a 1 1/2 lb chunk of dough, work it into a ball, fold two sides under, fold the other two sides under, place on parchment paper, and let rise at room temperature for approximately two hours. This step took maybe five minutes. My dough was very wet and sticky, making it hard to work with. Next time I will probably add more dough than the recipe calls for. Here’s the dough ball.
There is a great web site with new recipes, baking tweaks, all kinds of great information. You can bake bread in a crock-pot and on the grill. We have not tried these techniques yet but look forward to doing so when the weather warms up to the point at which we don’t want to heat up the kitchen.
A cool technique Faye found is that you can bake the bread in a Dutch oven, which is the technique I used. Set your oven to 500F and put the Dutch oven in to preheat for 20-30 minutes. Once it’s preheated, remove it, put your dough with parchment paper inside, cover and return to oven to bake for 15 minutes.
Remove the Dutch oven, remove the lid, change the oven temperature to 450, and return the uncovered Dutch oven to bake for another 20 minutes. Check at that time to determine doneness and remove or return as you judge necessary. If ready, remove, remove from the Dutch oven, remove the parchment paper, and let cool on a rack for at least an hour. Mine was a tad over done.
Still quite edible, quite tasty, great texture, and far more satisfying than the bland ass shit that most store bought breads are. Plus, no additives, preservatives, or any other -tives.
If you like bread (even gluten-sensitives and -intolerants can find recipes in the book and online) I encourage you to check this out. I’m not a shill or a marketer for Artisan Bread in Five. This really is good stuff.
previouslytexan 