A COLD WALK ~~ UPDATE ON THE FERMENTATION ~~ WHAT'S NOT THERE ~~ RESPITE ~~ PARTING SHOT

A COLD WALK

The wintertime seems to be a time for just hanging around the house, especially when you are retired. The weather here in Yakima is not conducive to being outside at any point in time, so we tend to hole up inside, huddled under blankets. But we do try to get out and take a walk in Nature about once a week. This past week we ventured out to Randall Park again, just because the pond is there and it makes for good photo opportunities. We both had our cameras in hopes that there would be some willing subjects to photograph. We pulled up in the back parking lot, got out of the truck, and were immediately spotted by the welcoming committee. Sound up on these videos below or you are missing out!

We proceeded on around the walking path to the pond viewing deck. There were a lot of ducks out on the pond at that time, and we both remarked on this one little duck swimming around that didn't look like all the others. He was also letting out the cutest little peep, so I had to video him. He's an American Wigeon. We also saw another duck who didn't look like the rest, a Manky Mallard, so I grabbed a video of him. This Manky Mallard is swimming alongside a group of domesticated Mallards (click here for info on the interesting Mallard duck), and it is easy to see the difference in their coloring. The Manky Mallard is a crossbred species of the domesticated wild Mallard, and appears in a variety of colorings. As we looked on around the pond, we saw a pair of very vocal geese serenely floating along (you can hear them in the background of the other videos, it is the African Geese).

The American Wigeon in the video above is a male in his non-breeding, winter colors. During the breeding season he has a very colorful bright green head. Below is a picture of both the male (bottom) and female (top) of this species.

American Wigeons

I belong to several nature groups on Facebook, and I am constantly amazed at all the wonderful close-up pictures that are posted there. I always envy these photographers their extreme close-ups where you can see the individual feathers of a bird or the individual scales of a butterfly. I am constantly trying to take close-up pictures to achieve this goal. Usually my focus is way off and the individual feathers are not discernible. However, I did manage to take this picture below of a male Mallard duck, and you can actually see some of the feathers (if your screen is large enough). It's not perfect, but it's a start.

Love those feathers!

Another photography goal is to take some good pictures of birds in flight. I have tried to do this numerous times, but I am usually too slow and I either get a blurry picture, or I wind up getting a picture of just air, as I missed the birds completely! However, I did manage to get a pretty good picture of two Canada Geese in flight.

Coming in for a landing

Never one to miss an opportunity to take an "arty photo," I snapped this shot below of a cattail that was growing at the edge of the pond. At this point, my fingers were just about numb so we decided to walk on around the park and then head back home.

This week's "Arty Photo"

UPDATE ON THE FERMENTATION

I started fermenting my two jars of sauerkraut on January 3rd, so the other day I figured that two and a half weeks was probably long enough. I took off the tops and tasted each batch and they were both good. It didn't seem like they were as fermented as previous batches, but I do believe that I used the wrong salt this time. Anyway, it was good enough so I treated myself for lunch that day to a sausage wrap with my homemade sauerkraut. Next up in the fermentation experiment is kimchi. I will post pictures of that when I get it going.

Umm, homemade sauerkraut

WHAT'S NOT THERE

In the photos and video above, I am focusing on what's there...what is present in the picture that I find interesting enough for me to photograph it. You can also look at things another way, though. You can focus on what's not there. This means your focus is on something that is usually in the picture, but isn't there in the photograph you are taking. When you see these types of pictures, you automatically expect to see certain things, but then you notice that something is missing. These types of pictures are usually highly personal, as the general public may not know what is missing. Linda is really good at looking at things this way, as evidenced by these two photos below. Can you guess what is missing from each picture?

RESPITE

In the midst of a dreary winter it is always nice to take a look back at previous days, when the scenery and weather were more inviting. In the process of learning how to move video over from the old PC computer to the new iMac computer, I came across this video I shot last March when we were in Carpinteria for Dad's memorial.

PARTING SHOT

Summer Girl has enjoyed sitting in the window this winter and watching the birds from the relative comfort of being inside the house instead of outside in the cold. She is thankful every day that she became our "part-time indoor" kitty.

Birdwatching

That's all for this week, my friends. Join me again next week for more!