UPDATE ON THE POND ~~ MONOCHROME ~~ PARTING SHOT

UPDATE ON THE POND

Since Fall has been here with us for a bit, I had been wondering how the leaves looked at Randall Park. Saturday was a nice sunny day, so we took the short drive over there to check it out. We had a huge wind blow through on Friday, so a lot of the leaves were off of the trees. Even though some of them were on the ground, they were still pretty.

Photo credit to Linda, great shot!

On the other side of the bridge, the path that runs along the little creek is always a good place to walk. The small dirt path winds around amongst the trees and bushes and affords many photo opportunities. There usually isn't anyone else walking there, so the noise factor is dialed way down, which makes for good videoing.

Although we didn't see any Monarch butterflies this past summer, the milkweed at Randall is still there and is doing well. The pods have burst open and are releasing their seed to the wind. I understand from what I've read that lots of Monarchs used to be in Yakima during the summer, but I have only seen the random butterfly come to my yard one or two summers since we have been here. If they ever do come back to Yakima in great numbers, Randall Park will have milkweed ready for them.


While we were walking along the path, Linda stopped me and pointed out how the wind was making the leaves on some of the trees shimmer. It was so nice watching this in the calm of our walk.

Fall is so fleeting here in Yakima, the leaves turn color and usually not too long after that, the winds pick up and blow them off. So we have to enjoy the pretty leaves while we can.

Same plant, different colors

Cattails

A moment of reflection

A trip to Randall Park would be wasted if we didn't visit the pond. That is usually the big drawing point for this park. When we got to the pond, it was completely calm without a bird in sight, which is very unusual. Linda looked around and spied all of the Canada Geese out on the middle part of the park, basking in the sun. A few minutes after we had been there I guess they saw us, because all of a sudden this huge flock of geese came thundering in. Of course I wasn't expecting this so I wasn't ready to capture them all landing on the pond. But I did catch the tail end of their arrival. They all landed in the middle of the pond and then drifted over en masse across from the viewing deck.

The landing

It seems like there is always one couple that stands out from the crowd. Often times it looks like they are posing for me, so I happily oblige them with a photo.

MONOCHROME

We don't subscribe to very many magazines, but one I do enjoy very much is Outdoor Photographer. This month's issue features black and white photography. I usually do not adhere to this concept very much because I just love all the colors out there in nature. But the cover picture for this issue was absolutely stunning. Credit for this picture goes to photographer David Yarrow, who took this amazing image of a Gelada Baboon in the Simien Mountains of Northern Ethiopia.

Reading about monochromatic photography got me wondering how some of my shots would look in black and white. Back in the days of film photography, I did venture into B&W on occasion. Some of my attempts came out pretty good, but weren't very memorable. I usually was happier with taking color pictures. Enter the age of digital photography. These days it is easy to see how a photo will look in black and white just by applying a filter in the edit process. I picked out a couple of my earlier pictures for this experiment.

With thanks to David Yarrow for the inspiration in picking this photo, I decided to go with a picture I took at Woodland Park Zoo this summer. Here is the original in color:

It looks like there isn't much color in this picture, but you can see subtle hints in the gorilla's fur and in the background. Now, let's see what it looks like in black and white.

All of a sudden it is easy to see just how much color was in the original picture. I believe the draw of B&W in this picture, and probably in most B&W pictures, is to more quickly bring your attention to a specific area of the photo. In this one, your attention is immediately on the gorilla's face, as your eyes are drawn to it. The B&W, without the distraction of color, seems to accentuate his expression more so than the color picture.

My second picture for this experiment is one I took on our trip back East as we were traveling through the northern part of Nevada.

This picture has more color in it as apposed to the gorilla photo, although the color is still a bit muted. Here the beauty of the photo is in the contrast between the trees at the bottom of the frame and the immense mountain at the top. So what's it going to look like in black and white?

Looking at this picture, the observer's breath is taken away by the mountain, which seems to be even more immense than in the color photo. The scenery below the mountain almost disappears beside the overwhelming size of the mountains. The focus is the magnificent mountain.

I chose these two images above just because I think they are two of the best pictures that I have ever taken. I love both images in color, but looking at them in black and white does give an added dimension to the picture. I believe, for me, it is a trade-off. You lose some of the beauty when taking the color away, but you gain something in your appreciation of the photo, a different perspective.


PARTING SHOT

Summer Girl thought it might be fun to get in on the act with the black and white photography, so I played along with her just to be nice. Little does she know, in all photographs of her she is already half way there!

That's all for this week, my friends. Join us again next week for more from the Southerner in the Northwest!

LOVE YOUR CITY ~~ AUTUMN IN YAKIMA ~~ AN OLD FRIEND ~~ PARTING SHOT

LOVE YOUR CITY

A few blocks from our house, up on 24th Avenue, there is a long wall along the back side of houses facing the next street over. Since 24th Avenue is a busy through-street, it serves a good purpose to help block some of the traffic noise from these homes. When Linda and I first moved to Yakima twelve years ago, this wall was adorned with paintings depicting various scenes from around the area. Sad to say, over the years the sun had faded the paint and the wall was tagged time and time again. The tagging made it necessary to paint over the scenes to hide the tags. For the past I don't know how many years, the wall has just been a mishmash of various beige and gray colors of paint.

Recently a retired gentleman who lives on the other side of the wall organized his neighbors and spearheaded an effort to transform it into a thing of beauty. They enlisted the help of local artists to paint new scenes on the wall. It is still a work in progress, and has created a lot of buzz on social media. Since it was only a few blocks away from our house, I took a walk last Friday morning to check it out.

Nice sentiment

The picture above is the panel located in about the middle of the wall. A lot of the wall has yet to be painted, as it is still an ongoing project. I'm hoping they can get it done before the weather turns really cold. Whenever it is finished, I plan to revisit it to see what has been added. As of last Friday morning, these pictures below show some of the main panels that have been painted. Below the pictures is a short video showing the entire wall, in sections (I had to stop filming quite often because of traffic going by). I hope you enjoy it!

The wall has several inspirational quotes along it, but I think my favorite is this one below. I don't believe it is finished yet, so I am anxious to see what it looks like when done. It kind of sums up the whole feeling behind the project.

This project just shows you what can be done when neighbors get together and decide to do something to improve their neighborhood. Everyone who rides or walks down 24th Avenue will now benefit from their efforts, and some local artists got a much-needed chance to showcase their work.

AUTUMN IN YAKIMA

With the cooler weather we have had lately, all of the trees are starting to lose their leaves. However, the leaves still clinging to the trees are treating us to a beautiful show of fall color. We had some rain the other day (!), and afterwards Linda ventured out into the front yard and took some pictures. The collage below shows two shots of leaves on the same bush, a huge Barberry. The range of color on this one bush is spectacular.

Yesterday was an absolutely gorgeous day, so Linda and I took a walk around Kissel Park, the little park near our house. I took my phone along and I was so glad I did. The trees around the park were just bursting with colors. It was a bright, crisp, beautiful sunny day, one of those days that make you realize how lucky you are to be alive.

Park view from the walking path

AN OLD FRIEND

On our way back from our walk we passed by the open field where I took the pictures of the sprinkler icicles last week. Standing out in the field was an old friend. I'm not sure if he was here when we first moved to Yakima, but we have been seeing him for years. Almost every time we pass by this house, we see him grazing out in the field. It was nice to see an old friend enjoying a beautiful day.

PARTING SHOT

Lately I have gotten back into puzzling, since it's too cold outside to drag out my lounge chair and sit under the tree. I would most likely have leaves falling all over me if I did that...not to mention the fact that I'd probably need a blanket or two. So now I wander back to the computer room and help Linda with the puzzle on those afternoons when I'm not doing a lot of cooking. This time we are re-doing one of my favorites, Colin Thompson's Curious Cupboard #3. We often are joined by a little furry friend who thinks she is "helping." You can't get mad at her, though, she's so adorable!

That's all for this week, join us again next week for more from the Southerner in the Northwest!

PIONEER GRAVEYARD ~~ THE COLD HAS ARRIVED ~~ PARTING SHOT

PIONEER GRAVEYARD

It's a well-known fact, if you read this blog often, that Linda and I like to walk around cemeteries. We even did this when we lived back in Lumberton. At least there, I had known some of the people whose graves we visited. But here in Yakima, everyone is a stranger to us both. Still, it's a bit of a history lesson when you happen to visit final resting places. Last week we decided to visit the Pioneer Graveyard in Union Gap, a small town adjacent to Yakima. Union Gap was actually where the city of Yakima began. However, the city of Yakima was moved four miles north at one point, and how all this came about is a very interesting story. If you'd like to read about it, click on the link here (<--link).

We set out last Thursday on our quest to find the cemetery. It wasn't hard as Union Gap is very small. It was quite chilly that morning with temperatures the previous night being in the mid-20's. Upon arriving at the cemetery, we were greeted by the sign above. There was an information sign at the entrance, so we stopped to read it. We learned that this cemetery was started by Dr. Lewis Goodwin. In 1865, he and his pregnant wife, Priscilla, and 300 others set out traveling west by wagon train from Illinois. It took them five months to get as far as Yakima, where they stopped in September due to heavy snows. The Goodwins decided to begin raising cattle and set up a homestead beside the Yakima River. Sadly, on December 18th, 43-year old Priscilla and her child both died while she was giving birth. Her husband set aside an acre of his land on which to bury his wife, and it became a cemetery for the local community.

The Pioneer Graveyard has fewer than 150 graves in it, some of them unmarked and some marked only by a headstone engraved "Unknown." I know whenever we visit a cemetery, there is always a hushed silence in the air, even though this one was located near a busy freeway. I suppose it's because the residents are not saying much, out loud at least. But if you read the headstones, they will tell you plenty. We were both surprised at the number of children buried here. I suppose back then it was a very hard life living in this area. Here's a short video I took of the cemetery.

Below are some photos I took of the information sign, that tell more of the story of the Pioneer Graveyard. In 2015, on the 150th anniversary of the founding of the graveyard, it was placed on the National Register of Historic Places.

THE COLD HAS ARRIVED

When we came back home from our walk at the cemetery, Linda noticed something about a block from our house, so we walked over to check it out. Since the night before had been around 25 degrees for a low temperature, it was still chilly outside. Someone had left their sprinklers on all night and this picture below shows the result.

Icicles!

While we were standing around looking at the sprinkler, which was still running, I spied a couple of pretty little flowers on the roadside.

Walking back to our yard, we checked out the few flowers that we still have blooming. The rudbeckias (Black-Eyed Susans) are about the only ones left with blooms, and they are somewhat puny. But we'll take it.

PARTING SHOT ~~ CRITTER FIND!!

One of the nature groups that I belong to on Facebook quite often has members post "critter find" pictures. This would be a photo in which the animal is camouflaged and your job is to find it. Some of them are very hard to find, as in this photo below. Can you find the critter?

That's all for this week, join us again next week for more from the Southerner in the Northwest!

BUSY TIMES ~~ IT'S COOKING TIME! ~~ GUEST PHOTOGRAPHER SHOT ~~ FAMILY PICTURES ~~ PARTING SHOT

BUSY TIMES

For the past several weeks, Linda and I have been having a lot of work done around our house. We figure we might as well have all this done while we are still alive and able! When we got back from our trip back East, we arranged to have the exterior of our house painted. Over the past 12 years since we moved here, the extreme weather conditions in Yakima in the Summer and Winter have taken their toll on the paint. So, for a couple of weeks we had strangers coming and going. Needless to say, little Summer Girl was a bit upset with all the activity happening around her house (no one asked her permission!). We managed to match the color of the paint perfectly, and it now looks so bright and new!  It was definitely worth all the hassle. Below is our front porch, where we like to have our drinkiepoo when the weather is nice. We will have to wait for Spring now, since the weather here has turned too cold to sit outside.

When we made our trip to St. Augustine back in June, we visited a pottery and ceramics shop that Linda and I had gone to way back in the early 2000's. Back then, we had bought a ceramic number sign for our house in Lumberton. When we went in June, we found that same shop and got a number sign for this house. After the painting was done, we finally were able to put it up and it looks great!

During this time, I decided to call our electrician and have a few things done that have been on our list for years. One of them was to install new lights on each side of the garage. We never turned the old ones on because the bulbs kept burning out due to water leaking in the fixture. Above is a picture of the new lights we had installed and we just love them! The design mirrors the grid on our front porch window.

I also had a new ceiling fan installed in the master bedroom. I think I must have burned out the old fan because it only had one speed, and that was slow. It barely moved the air around, and in the summertime that just wasn't cutting it. Here's the new fan below...another thing we will have to wait until better weather to use!

I also got another electrical outlet installed on the back porch. Now I can use my smoker or my dehydrator and not have to unplug Summer Girl's heated pad. And another good thing is I can position my smoker closer to the outside of the porch and hopefully the smoke will flow out that way. This is something I can use now, and I will probably be smoking something soon.


IT'S COOKING TIME!

I realize I have been remiss in posting any recipes or cooking adventures lately. Now that things have calmed down around here, I have gotten back into my favorite pastime, cooking. One of my new obsessions in the cooking arena is to make yogurt. I have made homemade yogurt before, but it was the old-fashioned boiled method and it was a pain in the butt. This time I am making yogurt with my Instant Pot Duo using the Cold-Start Method, and it is so easy! All you do is dump in your milk, your starter, and any additional flavorings you might want to add (like creamer or sweetened condensed milk), stir it around and push a few buttons, and then sit back and wait for it to make yogurt. I incubate mine for 10 hours, and then strain it in the refrigerator overnight. I wind up with the best-tasting yogurt ever! I like to make zero-fat Greek style yogurt, and then I can add in fruit or jam or whatever I like when I serve it. If any of you have an Instant Pot with the Yogurt button, I encourage you to try making homemade yogurt. Here's a link to the instructions on how to do this on the website Freida Loves Bread (<---link).

Another thing that this wondrous invention does is to proof bread dough. You can only do this if you, once again, have the Yogurt button on your Instant Pot. I am so glad I broke down and got a 6-quart Duo Instant Pot, because my 3-quart Lux model does not have the Yogurt button. Here is a picture of a loaf of delicious bread that I proofed in my Instant Pot. The link to the recipe that I used from the Tidbits website is here (<---link).

One of the best bread recipes I have ever made

We had our friend Linda H. (you know, Summer Girl's BFF) over for dinner last week to celebrate her birthday, which was the previous week. Since her absolute favorite thing is chocolate, I decided to bake her a cake. This was only the second "made-from-scratch" layer cake that I had ever made. The other one was way back when we lived in Lumberton and I made a Hummingbird Cake for Linda's birthday. Anyway, this one was going to be two layers of chocolate cake with a chocolate buttercream icing. It took me all morning and I dirtied just about everything in the kitchen, but I got it done and the result was amazing! I won't be going on the Great British Baking Show by any means, but I still think I did a pretty good job. Here's a link to the recipe for the cake on the website Food 52 (<--link), and for the buttercream icing on the website Just a Taste (<---link).

Ummmm!

It was yummy!

GUEST PHOTOGRAPHER SHOT

The sky here is Yakima is pretty beautiful in the mornings. We don't live where we can get really good pictures of it because of there being so many houses and trees around us. However, Linda was able to get some excellent pictures the other morning, so I decided to feature one of them in the blog. Good job, honey!

Is that a UFO?

FAMILY PICTURES

From time to time we get pictures sent to us from different family members, both two-legged and four-legged. Here's a gallery of photos that we recently received.

Adorable little Mimi, our "niece"

Mr. T, (aka Tangelo), our "nephew"

Mimi in one of her Halloween outfits

Two beauties...Emily and our
grand-kitty Tabby (Tabitha)

PARTING SHOT

I got several pictures of Summer Girl sitting outside in the sun, and Google Photos was kind enough to put it into a little movie for me. I believe this was the most she moved all day!

That's all for this week, join us again next week for more from the Southerner in the Northwest!