181/365 A Visitor in the Garden

I was at my parents' for a long weekend and on Monday went to do a little work in our veggie garden, to plant a few tomatoes and harvest gooseberries and currants.

When I came in, I startled a cat, who walked away a bit at first, but later, when I was digging in the tomatoes, I saw she had settled down a couple of meters away and was watching me. I took the opportunity to take a pic of her.

Later, when I was finished in that corner and went to the other side of the garden, I saw her head directly for the newly planted tomato and give it a sniff; then she went over to the box I had brought, with the other plants in it, sniffed that, too, and then obviously decided that tomatoes weren't particularly interesting, and she wandered off. :)

181/365 Comfort Food

Our daughter left for Japan yesterday, so over this past week I made some of her favorite foods. This photo is of 'Sunday Brunch'  which consisted of a Bacon-Spinach quiche, banana bread muffins & a fresh berry medley. 

The night before she left, I made something we had tried at a restaurant in Boston; a flour-less chocolate cake. And it is to die for. It's sort of like a truffle.. it's very rich & velvety, not as sweet or dense as fudge and it has a consistency more like cheesecake, but it's not cheesecake. I originally served it with raspberries, but the photo didn't turn out, so it's shown here with strawberries.                                   Bon Appetite!

                                          Dawn/RoseMorninStar

180/365.... Mmmm-Mmmm... Good!!




 
 Last Friday night, just before we started to game, my bff's, Lora and Debbie, and I made pizzas for everyone.
They are easy as anything to make and really good.
They didn't make it very long into the evening, either. 
I have the aftermath in the runner up section

Jealous?  ;)

Calma's kitchen table.
Port Orchard, WA



180/365: The closet door story!!

Exhibit A: closet door.

Note:  Closet door is not on the sliding hinge.  You might ask how long it has been like this?  3.5 years now.

Story.  Starlings, nasty little birds would make nests in my dryer ducting in the winter, then fall down the ducting to the back of the washer/dryer.  The maintenance would have to come in, remove the laundry door, pull out the washer/dryer, take off the ducting and then the bird/birds would fly about the flat until we could shoo them out the door or sliding glass door.

How many times did this happen?  Eight over three winters.  And you can't imagine the sounds they make when stuck in the ducting.  Maddening.  I asked repeatedly to cover the vent to the outside so this wouldn't  happen.

On the last time birds got stuck there, finally they did cover it, but when he got the washer/dryer back in place, the door literally fell off the hinges.  Maintenance said they would get the part and return to fix it.  I have asked and asked, written, complained - but no one comes.  The blue and pink notes?  They are from the maintenance person saying that he hasn't forgot me.  *roll eyes*

The paperwork on the door are notices to "inspect" my apartment that I get a few times a year.  Do they come to inspect?  Not one time.  When I want to do laundry I have to physically move the door and it isn't light.  

I suspect that some day they will actually do an inspection and see all the notices and maybe then I will get the door fixed.

/closet door story

By the way.  On the left of the laundry closet is my bathroom, on the right is a rack.  On the rack, second shelf down is a stein.  A TORC stein that was a gift to me. :D  If I had thought before taking the photo, I would have turned the TORC logo towards the camera.

Jules

179/365 Flowers again

I couldn’t resist.  Rudbeckia are in bloom along the path of one of my morning runs.

~Tooks in Southcentral PA

179/365 - I see faces...

Forgot to take a good picture this week, so here's something from one of my Colorado trips a while ago.  Not sure where this is from, exactly, but it's a neat rock formation.  Hopefully I'll have something from the upcoming holiday next week.

-Krawler

178/365: Gandy Dancer

The Gandy Dancer, a fancy restaurant in Ann Arbor right next to the railroad tracks. I'm told they have an amazing Sunday brunch, but as I'm rather cheap, I've never been there. My parents said they'd take me there after graduation, so I only have to wait about 4.5 more years! :P

Ann Arbor, MI

~Sil

177/365 - A Vibrant Sunset

We definitely get some great sunsets here. Sometimes the mountains north of us look pink before the sunset even really hits because of the way the sun hits it. I love seeing the sunset in bright pinks and fuchsia. This if off our front porch! I love the country!

Vana


Photo taken in Bow, WA.

177/365 - China's Visitor

This is the kitty that keeps coming to visit China at night. We have no idea if it is a male or female but when the kitty comes they yowl at the window till China comes to the window. I find it charming and cute though I know the kitty is too scared for me to be able to open the door and see. It almost runs when I come into view so I must stay back.

Vana

Photo taken in Bow WA.

176/365: In the Sewer

So...a high contrast to Heliona's Scottish Fairyland! The most interesting thing I did this past week was to go down into the Sewer Museum. One of those things you always mean to do, because they're just around the corner, but keep forgetting about...

The so-called 'Inner Tube' (Dętka) sewer runs in a circle under the Plac Wolności in Łódź, and was one of the first segments of the city's sewage system, built in 1926. It was designed by the british engineer William Heerlein Lindley (the younger Lindley) and the construction was supervised by local engineer Stefan Skrzywan. It's a large sewer, 187 cm tall and 1,5 m wide, and was used for water retention in the event that one of the connecting sewers needed purging.

They do that with machines nowadays, so the sewer was turned into a museum. It's super cool and echo-ey.

~Ro

176/365 - Fantasy land

So, I'm sure most of you know that I've been up visiting my parents in Scotland for the past week. I took lots of photographs and had a hard time deciding on one to post here. :D I will put the rest up properly and label them soon. :)



Here is the link to my Flickr Collection of photos from the trip to Scotland: Scotland collection

175/365 Plums!

Early in the Spring I posted some plum blossoms.  So here are the plums!  Not quite ripe yet, but they are getting there.

hee.

~Tooks in southcentral PA

175/365 Hot Air Jurassic Park

Don't know if you can see him in this pic, but there's a man in a Hawaiian shirt with a walrus mustache who's known to one and all (at least around here) as "Dizzy Doc". He's a balloon sculptor.
Every summer, he and a team of volunteers travel around and build giant balloon sculptures for special events. Each year he has a new theme. So far, we're on day two of the building at my mall and this year's theme is dinosaurs.

I'll try to continue posting as the construction develops.

Day one: Thursday PM

Day two: Friday AM


Day two: early afternoon

Doc's busy at work on the body for the T-Rex.


Meanwhile, two team members work on something else...

Day two: 4:00 ish

T-Rex taking shape.

Looks like a pterodactyl to me.



Day two: PM


The pterodactyl soars over Starbucks.

A triceratops being attacked by a raptor.


Day three: Showday!

The completed T-Rex roars and crashes through the fountain.

174/365 Corpus Christi Day

Today is a high religious holiday for Catholics. "Corpus Christi" is the feast day on which we celebrate the presence of Christ in the Eucharist. This is usually done with a procession, in which the consecrated host is carried through the streets, to make the presence of Christ visible to all. If the weather is fine, the preceding mass may also be held open-air. After the procession, the host is brought back into the church and the faithful receive a blessing with it - that last part of the ceremony is particularly filled with joyful solemnity.

I'm spending the holiday weekend at my parents, and as there's no procession in our village here, we went into town, where a service was held in the market place.

We were lucky with the weather - it's been raining off and on for the past few days, but this morning was dry and mostly sunny - lucky, because with rain, the open-air service and procession would have been cancelled (I do have to admit that Catholics in Germany tend to be a bit wimpy about the weather). As it was, everything could take place as planned. The service was lovely and it was nice to have a procession at all, though it was short and there was no decoration in the streets - quite a good turn-out of people attending, though, I thought.

I took a few pics, but most are blurry or just show the backs of people in front of me. :P

Here is the procession setting out: a priest and deacon with the ostensory (showcase for the consecrated host) getting under the canopy. :)

174/365 Butterhorns!

 Butterhorn Pastry

We do not have a good bakery where I live.. and after visiting Boston, 

with all it's delicious bakeries, I felt the desire to make some pastry.

I've made many kinds of filled rolls & bread, but never traditional pastry.

They turned out well, although next time I would make different filling.

Dawn /RoseMorninStar

173/365.... Tug Boat....

Little Red Tug....

Saw this little cutie while waiting for my husband's boat.
We don't see many of them around these parts.

Location... Port Orchard, WA

Calma

173/365: Herbage

I went to a herb festival, that ended up being very small due to rain, but I did snag some herbage.

SAGE

ITALIAN PARSLEY

GREEK OREGANO

Finally got the pictures in the post.  I have one other, but this is a good representation of the sorts of things I was able to find at the festival.

Jules

Battle Ground, WA - Sunday June 19, 2011

172/365 Chain-off in PA

June 20 was ‘Chain-off’ day at the State Capitol.  Every year activists (initiated by Dogs Deserve Better) designate a day to advocate for anti-tethering laws for dogs.  This year, besides having chain-offs in various cities, they got close to 40 people on the Capitol steps from 7am-5pm.  This means sitting chained to a doghouse for 10 hours.

Unfortunately, Pennsylvania still lags behind several states in this type of legislation. :P

Early in the afternoon I had the chance to drive downtown to take a few pictures and talk to a few folks.  I also delivered a wedding card to the organizer (Tami), who was getting married on the same Capitol steps later in the day. 

http://www.philly.com/philly/blogs/pets/Breaking-the-chains-in-love-and-protest.html

More photos - LOL

In case nobody noticed, I'm a big dog-lover.  -Tooks

171/365: Knit the Rock

I think the sign is pretty self-explanatory, but probably not the rest! This is The Rock, a giant rock near campus, sort of in the fraternity/sorority area, that has been decorated repeatedly for ... well, I don't know how long, but long enough to have grown several inches because of all the layers of paint! People come by and decorate it for birthdays, to advertise things, promote their clubs, etc.

So on Saturday the Ann Arbor knitters' group, myself included, went and covered the rock with our knitting projects for Worldwide Knit In Public Week. We have a giant "Rock cozy", the furthest project on the right, which is in progress and has been for several years; I don't know when it'll ever get done, but I had a good time standing there knitting it!

Weather was very warm, so we didn't last too long, but it was hilarious while it lasted and we got a lot of funny looks!

Ann Arbor, MI

~Sil

170/365 - View from the Mountain Top!

The rain was a drizzle and the clouds low and wispy but the view was so magical! This is the mountain top that we climbed to for the wedding of Ryan's sister "Elenath" of the messageboard. It was a very touching place to be to witness their marriage ceremony. It stopped raining before the wedding and the skies cleared some for the rest of the day. We are very happy for them and wish them a long and happy life together.

Vana

Photo taken from the Top of Goose Rock, near Deception Pass WA. The lake in the view is Cranberry Lake where the reception was held and Where Ryan and I were married almost 3 years ago.

170/365 - Red Moon

Second phase of the moon Thursday night is the one above.
As we drove home Thursday night from the island and visiting with Ryan's mom, we dropped over a rise and saw the moon that night! The full moon and a lunar eclipse had been the night before but we had missed it. Yet here we were looking at a blood red moon as if a lunar eclipse was taking place. We were shocked and very curious as to why this moon was so dark and so red. We never did find out but it remained deep red for the entire drive home and then slowly brightened up to a deep orange. Yet there was not a lunar eclipse that night so we still do not know if it was ash in the atmosphere from the eruptions of the volcano elsewhere in the world or if it was pollution of some other sort. But it was a sight to see!

Vana

Shot as we came over the twin bridges from Anacortes, WA to the plains near La Conner, WA.

169/365: Strawberries

I think this photo speaks for itself. 'Tis the season.

~Rodia

169/365 - First orchid bloom!

So, I was all set on posting the teapot photograph for Saturday and then yesterday I walked into the spare room to give my orchid a wee bit of water and I did a double-take! The reason for it was this:



Here's a couple of close-ups because I couldn't resist. :D

168 / 365 Lavender

The start of my lavender! I need to weed the pot, but I'm so tickled that it's even growing!
H. <><