The First Peonies

When I went to Trader Joe's this week I found these amazing peonies.

I love peonies. They were my mother's favorite flowers and I certainly carry this love for these beauties as well. Isn't this color dazzling? Some are coral pink and some are a slightly darker pink. They're simply incredible.

I played around in Lightroom a bit - same photo, but with Kim's preset "kk_oldendays".

My Friday Find for this week!

The Herons Are Back!

The Black-Crowned Night Herons are my true favorites among the herons. Usually they hang out at a little inlet at my lake. However, I hadn't seen them here since the late fall. I had no idea where they were gone until I discovered them at a smaller lake nearby sometime during the spring.

But when I walked at the lake a few days ago I saw these two guys - an adult one (upper picture) and an immature on. Both were just a few feet away from each other, perching on a floating piece of old tree trunk and waiting for food - fish or crayfish or whatever they like and can find here. You can see that the adult one has discovered something that clearly had his attention.

They can remain in the same position for a long time, not moving at all. They completely ignore people, but I've also found that some of them are more shy than others. These two weren't shy at all. They pretended not to see me and completely ignored me and my camera.

My contribution for Friday Finds - I'm so happy they're back!

What the Dickens!

When season 5 of "Downton Abbey" was airing on PBS here in the States, it was followed by the British series "Grantchester". We were quite intrigued by the preview and decided to watch the first episode, only to get hooked on the series. In case you don't know it - it's about a young, unmarried Anglican vicar named Sidney Chambers in the parish of Grantchester near Cambridge in the early 1950s. However, every now and then he gets involved in solving crimes, working together with Inspector Geordie Keating. The two of them make a great team - heart and head. As a rather important sideline, Sidney is torn between two women, his friend Amanda Kendall who is engaged to someone else, and Hildegard Staunton, a German widow (keep in mind that this is shortly after the war).

We enjoyed the series, the English humor, the pub scenes - and the housekeeper of the vicarage, Mrs Maguire, who always lets out the expression "What the Dickens!". When the first season ended we were sad to see it go and not knowing which of the two women Sidney will eventually marry (it has to be one of the two).

So when I went into our local bookstore I was delighted to find a copy of "Grantchester" on the shelves, written by James Runcie, the head of literature at the Southbank Centre in London. It is not a big surprise that the book is a bit - a big bit - different from the TV series.

It is even better.

The writing is extremely well and a pure joy. The characters are very well worked out, and while reading the stories - every case is a story - I could hear the voices of the actors and picture them which I liked. However, the cases themselves are different from the film, Hildegard only appears in the first story (but don't worry, she will turn up again in book 2 - yes, there are more books to come and I've heard that season 2 is already in the making) and the entire plots are deeper and more satisfying. The reader wrestles with Sidney in his question why God allows so much suffering, feels his desperation and exhaustion - in short, sympathizes and identifies with him. He is not a perfect man of God, he has his doubts, his mistakes, his questions, and exactly that makes him so human and well loved. Keating, the inspector, has his own battles to fight and does not believe in God, and Mrs Maguire (the housekeeper) is rather amusing - what the Dickens!

A wonderful read. My Friday Find for this week.

Dark Mood

This year I've signed up for Kim Klassen's Be Still 52 and of course, I'm already a few weeks behind. But no worries - I love how Kim always tells us to do this class on our own pace, that it is more important to quiet down the noise and get still than to hasten and get all the shots in we want. That's my style!

In one of the lessons she introduced a new preset for Lightroom called kk_darkmood. She had a short video how to tweak the photo while using this preset. I liked what I saw and tried it myself on a few of my images.

What can I say? I love it. I'm pretty sure this is going to be one of my favorite presets. When I work with textures, I have my go-to textures, and I guess this will be a go-to preset.

This is my Friday Find for this week - I know it will stay with me.

All the images are processed with kk_darkmood.

Blue Bird

You probably know that I love birds. Beside the real birds in my garden I also have little terracotta birds sitting in the birdbaths or on a stake among the flowers.

This little guy is not very new - I found it a few weeks ago in a crafts store. Immediately when I saw it I knew that I had to take it home. It has such a sweet face, I simply couldn't resist.

It usually sits on my dining table right next to the blue mason jar or a vase of flowers - it depends on my mood and what I have. Perhaps it will move outside in the summer, sit in one of the birdbaths waiting for the birds to stop by for a drink.

Just this week I realized again how much I like this little guy. And I took some photos of it just for the fun. The following photo I "grunged" up a little bit with Kim's preset "kk_grunged".

I'm sharing my little blue bird with Kim's Friday Finds. Would you love to see more Friday Finds, usually presented with some beautiful photography? Just hop over for a list!

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The newest handmade bird card in my Etsy store

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Navajo-Churro Sheep Wool

While on our way to Kayenta and Monument Valley in Arizona the day before Christmas Eve, we stayed the night in the Cameron Trading Post. This is a beautiful motel under Navajo management that we return to again and again. The rooms are big, tastefully furnished and absolutely quiet. The rates are very affordable especially when you take into consideration that the motel is rather close to the Grand Canyon. If you don't want to stay with the crowds, this is the place.

However, I don't want to write about the motel, but something that you can buy in the Trading Post: yarn. Not any kind of yarn, but wool from Navajo-Churro Sheep. The sheep are raised locally, the wool is harvested and dyed locally and some of it is sold in the Trading Post. It actually hangs in long strings from the ceiling and you just have to pick your colors.

It's very affordable as well, so nothing could stop me. I was in a knitter's heaven! The colors have beautiful names as well - rusty rose (on top), fuchsia (back right), jaded dreams (front left), peacock (front right) and sea foam (back left). Jaded dreams was the only color that was difficult to photograph.

Kaefer chose fuchsia, I'm going to knit some warm socks for her. Peacock will be for a friend and the other three are for me. All of them will probably be worked into warm socks since I constantly have cold feet. Our house is not particularly warm in the winter, especially not at ground level, and that's where my feet usually are!

This is the only picture that shows the jaded dream in a realistic way - and the peacock is closer to its real color as well.

My Friday Finds for this week - I just love yarn!

A White Mug And the Neapolitan Novels

I wanted to write this post two weeks ago... well, that didn't happen, but I hope you don't mind to read about this today, even though this is not exactly this week's find.

My friend Jo and I love to have breakfast together every now and then, and usually we have our favorite cafés that we frequent a lot. Two weeks ago, however, we wanted to try a new café that is actually in walking distance from my home. The café is wonderful and has become a new favorite. We had planned to go to the yarn store afterwards, but it was still too early. So we opted to visit the Goodwill store next to the café instead.

That's where I found this white mug. I immediately fell in love with it - I love it's clear lines, its simplicity. I already pictured the hot chocolate in there.... but I actually use it mostly for tea. Hibiscus tea, to be exact. The red tea in the white mug looks fabulous (which you can't really see in this picture).

We did make it to the yarn store as well. Those are always dangerous places for me. I love yarn and knitting, especially with double pointed needles. I don't exactly know why - I just love the feel of it. I found some wonderful alpaca yarn in a rusty orange color - I plan to make a hat and a matching infinity scarf. And drink lots of hibiscus tea!

Another find of this (!) week is this book by Elena Ferrante, "My Brilliant Friend". Ferrante is an Italian writer from Naples, and this book is the first in her Neapolitan novels. It takes place in the late 50's in a poor neighborhood in Naples and she just describes her childhood and teenage years in post-war Italy that was dominated by her friendship with the girl Lila, but also takes in all the other happenings in her neighborhood. It's a portrait of Italy that really draws you in. The two other Neapolitan novels are "The Story of a New Name" and "Those Who Leave and Those Who Stay". It was this third book that I saw first in the book store - the title intrigued me and was the reason why I picked up the book in the first place. I then decided to start with the first book in the series - and I haven't regretted it. I will certainly get books 2 and 3 as well.

I'm linking up with "Friday Finds" after I had missed it the last time!

The Soup Season Has Begun

Winter is soup season! Soup is such a great comfort food.

I make my soups in my big Dutch oven where it can simmer for hours and fill the house with delicious flavors that make everybody hungry. Is there anything better than gathering at the table for a big pot of soup and some rustic bread (preferable homemade)? My mom used to make a wonderful potato soup with some very hearty sausage in it. We loved that soup, but unfortunately the recipe is lost. This is something that still bugs me, that my mom's recipes disappeared after she had died.

However, only a few weeks ago my blogging friend Ginnie mentioned her son's potato sausage soup on her blog. She also included a photo of the soup which reminded me of my mom's soup. It looked so super delicious that I asked her whether I can have the recipe. She sent it to me a day later.

A couple days ago I tried it for the first time - and gosh, was it good! No, it wasn't exactly like my mom's potato soup, but it had pretty much the same ingredients - especially the sausage!!! Although it is a different kind of sausage (Germany is the sausage nation of the world, there are so many kinds that you can't expect to find anywhere else) it has the same heartiness. Just yummy, and wonderful on a winter's evening. If you like cornbread, go for it. We love to eat rustic country bread with it.

The soup is my find of this week and worth a post for Friday Finds! This is definitely a keeper. Ginnie has graciously given me permission to post the recipe here.

Potato Sausage Soup

Ingredients:

1 large onion

4-6 medium/large potatoes

4-6 stalks of celery

6-8 large carrots

1 pound of sausage (Polska Kielbasa)

2 bay leaves

1/2 cup of sour cream

salt

paprika (I used smoked paprika)

Instructions:

Cut sausage into 1/2" sections

Chop onion and saute in water (cover bottom of pot).  Add 1 tsp salt and 1 tsp paprika to onions as they cook on medium heat.

Add sausage to onions and simmer covered while you cut up the rest of the vegetables.

Cut celery and carrots into small pieces.  (optionally peel) potatoes and cut into cubes 1" or so.

Add veggies to sausage and onions.  Add 2 bay leaves.

Add just enough water to cover everything, 6-8 cups.

Add 2 tsp salt.

Bring to a boil and then simmer covered until veggies are done (easily pierced with a fork)

Once veggies are cooked, and before you are ready to serve, dip out one or two cups of the hot soup broth (just broth, no veggies or meat) and add 1/2 cup of sour cream to the hot broth.  Stir up thoroughly to mix sour cream with the broth.  Then pour that mixture back with the rest of the soup and mix well.

Soup is ready to serve.  Goes very well with cornbread muffins!

Keep refrigerated and before reheating skim off the solidified fat from the top of the soup (looks orange!)

There is only one thing to add: ENJOY!!!

Friday Finds and Paint Party Friday

It finally started to rain here - such bliss!! One storm after the other are chasing through the state and they are all dumping quite some rain on the dried out ground. It is such a relief, and I hope that over the winter months there will be more rain so our reservoirs will fill up again.

While looking out of the window, I was amazed how beautiful my small Japanese maple in the backyard looks. In this grey and wet weather - and against the dark fence - the color of the leaves really pops. A wonderful find for this week.

Apart from that the week has been busy - in less than 10 days I'll have my first holiday fair of the season and I'm still in full creative mode. There are two new paintings:

 Snowman Family on 6x6 wood panel

Mixed media on 8x8 canvas board

I've also made a few more ornaments from the leftover redwood of our picket fence.

Christmas Cat and Christmas Owl

For the holiday boutique in Ukiah we were asked to donate one item for the silent auction. This little owl mixed media painting on a 5x5 canvas is mine.

I'm linking to both Friday Finds and Paint Party Friday - perhaps you'd like to check them out.

(Not) Finding Halloween

This week I tried to find Halloween - as in Halloween decorations in the neighborhood. I went to our historic district that is famous for its over-the-top Halloween. However, this year I found almost nothing.

It struck me as odd since I, who usually loves to decorate for this funky holiday, haven't decorated much myself either. What is some kind of universal feeling?

So I just have a few Halloween decorations that I found and want to show here. Most of them are in my own neighborhood, just down the street. However, those that I did find are really cool - at least I think so.

These glowing ghosts are right across the street from our house and we can see them every night. And this lovely trio I already discovered in September in a nursery in Berkeley.

But - there are two mixed media paintings. After I hadn't painted for several months I finally started again at the end of summer and I enjoyed creating these two Halloween paintings, the cat and the little ladybug girl. They came to life after the wonderful mermaid painting class I joined in August.

I am linking up to Paint Party Friday for the first time in several months again, and to Friday Finds.

Still Life with Poppy Seed Pods

Using "hazyhazy" preset and "kk_teatime" texture in multiply at 65%

I am currently taking Kim Klassen's Start to Finish class - on the one hand I learn more about Lightroom which I am getting quite addicted to, and on the other hand this class is about still life. I hadn't done any still life photography before, not really, and I've found that I like it.

One of the assignments was to create and photograph a still life with a paper bag. Many thoughts wandered through my head - filling a paper bag with grapes or tomatoes or any kind of fruit. But that didn't cut it for me. One day I remembered all the poppy seed pods I saved from my garden - and with that I suddenly knew what I wanted to do.

The "moody" one; preset "gentle", texture "kk_wednesday" in soft light at 68%

To my surprise I thoroughly enjoyed creating this still life. I easily spent a couple of hours with setting up, changing and photographing it. I tried different moods by using not only white but also blue and black backgrounds. I also changed my angle, got close ups and some shots of the entire setting with the intention to crop it later. It was fun, and I felt very contend and excited after I was finished.

When I processed the photos in Lightroom, I used some of Kim's presets and transferred some of the photos to Photoshop to layer them with a texture and add some texts, both of which are not possible in LR. Seriously, I felt like a kid in a candy store with all these new possibilities.

The black one; texture "kk_monday" in soft light at 100%

There is a ton I still have to learn, but it is a lot of fun at the same time. I already see some progress in my work.

Here's a shot from above:

preset "touchofvintage"

I am linking up to Kim's Friday Finds - this has quickly become one of my favorites.

Hanging Pumpkin in a Fairy Garden

While Jo and I did our tour through some local nurseries we stopped in between at Wildflour Bakery in Freestone for some scones. Their scones are legendary good - I had a Gravenstein apple, raspberry and marzipan one whereas Jo enjoyed a Meyer lemon and raspberry one. I think she also had almonds in hers. They are sinfully good!

Kim's texture pumpkingrunge in soft light at 30%

The bakery has a little garden in the back where we retreated to eat our scones at some place in the shade (it was a very hot day). At the end of this natural tunnel we saw this huge pumpkin hanging, further secured with some garden twine. I expected some fairies turning up and dancing on this pumpkin!

Kim's texture dustyrose in soft light at 65% (texture brushed from pumpkin), 

copy and multiply at 65%

I'm linking up with Kim's Friday Finds - a new favorite of mine!

Two Boxes Full of Flour

Back in Tübingen, Germany, where I had lived for 20 years before moving to California, we had a special kind of bread stick called "Seele". Now, Seele is the soul - but also this super delicious breadstick that is popular all over Southwest Germany. If you have ever been to Stuttgart or the Black Forest you might have seen and even eaten them.

So far I haven't found a single German bakery here that bakes Seelen ("Seelen" is the plural of "Seele"). I decided to bake my own - I found several recipes on German websites, I tried them all, I combined them, made my own recipe... but the result so far has never been like the ones in Germany. I finally became aware that the flour is different (duh - that took me a long time).

After a lot of research, reading blogs by German bakers who live in the States and joining an artisan bakers group on Facebook I learned of the "00" type of Italian flour that is mainly used for making pizza dough. But it's also excellent for making German rolls and - I thought - Seelen.

Amazon had this flour in stock, and a box full of Italian flour arrived at my doorstep. So I went to work, mixing and kneading and baking. Despite the fact that I used a bit too much of fresh yeast - my Seelen looked like they were heavily pregnant - the result was the best I had so far. Still not perfect - next time I will try a mix of 00 flour and regular bread flour. I know that one day I will have the Seele that reminds me the most of the real German version.

The crumb looks good here with quite some air in the dough which I like.

It was still slightly harder than a real Seele. Quite important is the amount of salt crystals and caraway seeds on top of the breadstick.

I also came across the King Arthur Flour website where I bought some specialty flours that I don't necessarily find in our stores here. Pumpernickel flour is one of them, and the European style flour the other - perfect for baking Ciabatta which is next on the list. I might also try it for the Seelen.

These are my Friday Finds for this week!

Beach Finds

I love to go to our beaches, and recently we spent some time at a beach we had never been before. It's a good beach to go to with small children since the edge is not very deep as at many other beaches here and the waves are not quite as high. It also means that you can walk at the edge of the water without always looking for higher ground when the big waves crash onshore.

Walking along the beach I usually look for treasures - shells, driftwood, small rocks. There are many things to find.

Broken sanddollars,

empty crabs and feathers - the seagulls probably had a feast here!

There are sanddollars buried in the sand

and also tiny, perfect sanddollars.

The seagulls leave their little footprints everywhere.

And sometimes you can also find huge seastars made out of sand.

These are my Friday Finds for this week.