flower power

Pretty, pretty flowers. The greenhouse is full of them. They are good for the soul.


I am making a determined effort to appreciate the fact that I have these gorgeous beauties at my beck and call.


(Even gorgeous beauties that are covered in aphids. It would seem this batch of lady bugs are pooping out on us. Perhaps it's time to call in some reinforcements.)


I'm making a determined effort not to succumb to the late winter (even though it's technically spring) dreary and depressed doldrums.

Easier said than done, right?


Today is our first sunny day in weeks and weeks and boy, does it do a winterized heart good to finally see some blue skies.


On a totally different, non-flowery note, we recently re-discovered a jello recipe we haven't had since the 80's. It's quite scary to think that the last time I had this I was probably wearing acid wash jeans and sporting very big Aussie Sprunch sprayed bangs.

Dear 80's,
Why?
Love,
Teresa

It's a recipe for raspberry jello with a pretzel crust. It is one of the wackiest combinations out there, but there is something truly delightful about the saltiness of the pretzels, the tartness of the raspberries and the creamy sweetness of the cream cheese layer. I promise, strange as it is, it's worth a try.


This is also one of the messier food photos I've ever taken. It would be much more appetizing if I'd taken the time to primp the subject even a little bit, but alas, it was not to be.

Raspberry Pretzel Jello. It may not be pretty, but it sure is good.

feed a fever chocolate pudding

I never get sick.

Never say never.

Today is day eight of what shall forever be known as Sickfest 2011.

Good times.

So for today, I'm going to give you a choice. You can either hear all about my sickness, or I can talk about chocolate pudding.

You pick chocolate pudding? Good choice!

Sometime on Sunday evening, I got a hankering for chocolate pudding. After a week of nothing sounds good, nothing tastes good, I all of a sudden needed chocolate pudding and I needed it bad. It was too late to go the homemade route, and I've never found a recipe I really liked anyway, and I came up empty handed in my pantry search for a box of instant to hold me over, so in a phenylephrine/dextromethorphan/chlorpheniraminemaleate induced fog, I went to bed puddingless.

The next morning, I was gazing in wonder and amazement at these adorable Lego cake pops, and they made me realize I had not visited Bakerella and her cake pop wonderland in ages.

Are you a Bakerella fan? My boys were pretty much past the cake pop stage when cake pops came into fashion, but I still think they are about the coolest treat on a stick imaginable.

As I was catching up on Bakerella's latest happenings, I came across this pudding cup post, complete with a delicious homemade pudding recipe, and knew I had to get up off the couch right that minute and give it a try.

So glad I did.


It is smooth and delicious, rich and creamy. Pudding perfection.

You can find the recipe here. I wasn't in a peanut butter mood, so I left it out this time, and substituted a few tablespoons of butter instead. Butter seems like such a strange pudding ingredient, but every pudding recipe I've ever seen calls for it, so who am I to argue.

I started feeling better from the very first spoonful, so I think chocolate pudding will forever be my very favorite sick food.

Chocolate pudding....it cures what ails ya.

tales from the cow keeper

Okay, so I totally stole that title from my good bud, Jayme.

But she doesn't mind. She's cool that way.

Plus, she consulted her lawyers and they said she couldn't stop me without extensive litigation.

It's true though, I am a cow keeper. For the moment anyway.

More on that in a minute, because I found a surprise in the greenhouse yesterday. A fully blooming, lush and gorgeous bleeding heart. It was in my old potting soil bucket under the bench. Apparently this bleeding heart was going incognito last fall when I was dumping out pots of dead, shriveled up flowers. I'm pretty sure I didn't purposely try to kill one of my very favorite plants of all time.

I love, love bleeding heart.


Bleeding heart is also one of my favorite plants to photograph, what with row after row of adorable little hearts all lined up and waiting for a photo shoot.


See? Adorable.

But, back to the keeping of the cows.

The Meadowbrook Farmer has been gone since Saturday, which leaves me in charge of the farm. Sounds like a big job, right? Are you envisioning lots of chores and tractor driving? If you are, you would be mistaken.

Basically, my job consists of taking a walking tour of the back field to make sure everyone is present and accounted for, and also keeping an eye out for any mama who might be entertaining the crazy notion of having her calf a bit early.

At least that's the official job description. My version adds the task of keeping an eye on the bull at all times, (without making eye contact), while dodging cow pies and keeping my daisy boots mud free.

Here are my daisy boots a year ago. They do not look like this anymore.


So sad.

So, even though I failed miserably on the mud front, the upside is that the bull didn't even look my way today. Yesterday, he looked my way and that always makes me nervous.

I don't like the bull. I don't like the look in his eye.

I'm pretty sure he's up to no good.

But I do like my bleeding heart, and it doesn't make me nervous even one little bit.


In other farm news, my refrigerator is dying. It's freezing things that aren't in the freezer, and in case you were wondering, frozen lettuce is not happy lettuce. Apparently, this is a sign that its days are numbered, so I'm in the market for a new one.

Any thoughts on the french door top, freezer drawer in the bottom style? It seems like a pretty good design, but I'd love to hear from someone who actually has one.


With my hubby gone, it's just been me and Junior Number Three. Which pretty much means it's just been me. Junior has quite the social life lately and if he's not with his friends, he's at five hour play practices (opening night is next week).


He was sweet enough to turn down a Saturday night invitation to spend the night with a friend because he didn't think I'd want to spend the night all alone in the house. I guess he didn't know I'd made my peace with the Boogie Man years ago. At this point, I'm all, "Bring it on, Boogie Man! Give me all you've got, because I'm tired and I'm going to bed."

It did, however, make me think back to my babysitting days when I'd get myself so freaked out that I'd sit in a corner with a fireplace poker in my hands. That level of paranoia may directly correlate to the fact that after the kids were in bed, I'd watch all the scary movies that my parents were smart enough not to let me watch at home.

Word of advice to any highly imaginative teenagers out there....don't watch baby sitter themed horror movies whilst baby sitting.

You will pay a very high price.

You will also pay a high price if, as a newlywed, you choose to watch The Shining with your new husband. Because you know what? Those new husbands? They go to work the next day, and it's hard to get Jack Nicholson and his axe out of your mind even in broad daylight.


For the most part, I stay away from the scary movies these days. However, a couple years ago, my bff and I did go to see the new version of "When a Stranger Calls" just for kicks and ended up watching the whole movie through our fingers.

Did you know it's scientifically proven that if you watch something scary through your fingers it makes it less scary?

Okay, maybe it's not scientifically proven, but it sure sounds like a study that Congress would spend our tax dollars on, doesn't it?


Well, I have no earthly idea how a post that started out with flowers and cows ended up with boogie men and scary movies.


But now you've got me curious.

Are you a scary movie watcher?

Do you let your imagination get the best of you when you're home alone and hear a noise?

Or, are you brave and strong and down to earth and no nonsense about such things?

This will be fun!

spring dreams and carrot cake

It's March!

Even though Spring usually doesn't even consider making a real appearance here in March, the calendar makes its arrival official and that's all I need to start thinking springy thoughts.

I have snow on the ground and more on its way, but still I dream of green grass, pink blossoms and temperatures that don't take your breath away.

My seed catalogs get a second glance....and then a third and fourth. I can safely let my mind wander down the garden path and those wandering thoughts have the hopeful feel of possibilities. (As opposed to the somewhat dramatic and desperate January and February garden thoughts wherein I am absolutely convinced that I may very well die from an overdose of gray and brown long before sunshine salvation arrives.)

The plants we overwintered are coming out of hunker down mode.


We'll be starting the petunia cuttings later this week and then it's game on in the greenhouse.

I made the best springy carrot cake this weekend when my company was here, and if you're needing your own dose of cream cheese laden springtime goodness, you might want to give this cake a try.



Carrot Cake

2 cups flour
2 cups sugar
1 1/2 cups oil - I substituted 1 cup applesauce for 1 cup of the oil
4 eggs
1/2 cup chopped pecans
2 tsp baking soda
1 tsp salt
2 tsp cinnamon
3 cups grated carrots

Combine sugar, oil, (and applesauce if you choose to substitute), and eggs. Sift together flour, soda, cinnamon and salt. Add to
sugar/egg mixture. Mix well and fold in carrots and pecans.

Pour into a greased and floured 9x13 pan. Bake at 300* for one hour.

Cool completely.

Cream Cheese Frosting

1 - 8 oz package softened cream cheese
1/4 cup softened butter
4 cups powdered sugar
2 tsp vanilla

Cream the cream cheese and butter, then mix in the vanilla and powdered sugar. Spread on the cooled cake and lick the beaters and the bowl clean.

This, my friends, is a bit of heaven in a 9x13.

So, how about you. Are there any signs of spring in your corner of the world? Are you still in the depressed doldrums of winter, or are your thoughts turning toward the equinox?

I need to know.

working together

Did you all have a wonderful President's Day? I wish I could show you photos of the delicious cherry pie I baked in honor of George Washington, but the closest I got to cooking all weekend long was the pizza box I opened on Saturday night. It's difficult to take pictures of something that doesn't exist.

I have not been feeling the cooking love lately...at all, but I have a house full of company coming later this week, so my kitchen and I will be getting reacquainted very soon.

But enough about me, let's talk about you. Have you had your camera out?

Have you been shooting in manual mode?

Yes? Good.

Many, many different factors come into play when taking pictures in manual mode, and today we're going to talk about two of the biggies. At least they're biggies in my book.

Aperture and shutter speed.

Instead of fumbling my way through an explanation of the two, I am going to pass the buck in a very big way. The Pioneer Woman does an amazing job explaining both aperture and shutter speed in the photography section of her world famous blog, and I could not possibly say it any better than she already has. She's titled the four part series, "What the Heck is an Aperture", and it is well worth your time to pop on over and read all four parts.

Go ahead, I'll wait right here.

Waiting.

Okay, you're back? Good.

Did you also read "What the Heck is an Aperture, Part Two?" Because you really should. And Part Three? How about Part Four?

Just making sure.

Do you totally understand aperture and shutter speed now? Yes? Awesome!

If not, you're in very good company. Bookmark those posts and read them again. Then play with your camera and come back and read them again.

I took these pictures with my 50mm f1.4 lens, and hopefully they will demonstrate how aperture and shutter speed work together.

I started with my aperture wide open....f1.4. That gives us a very shallow depth of field - you can see that only the flower and a narrow stripe on the table are in focus, and it's hard to tell just what the rest of the objects in the photo even are. That wide aperture also lets in a lot of light, so we need to have a very fast shutter speed or we'll end up with an overexposed photo.

(aperture 1.4 ~ shutter speed 1/640)

Now I'm going to start closing down my aperture, (remember that the bigger the number gets, the smaller the opening - 2.2 is a smaller opening than 1.4. I know, it seems backward), which will let in less light than before, so to make up for the smaller aperture opening, I'm going to slow down my shutter speed, which will let in more light.

At an aperture of 2.2, everything but the flower is still pretty blurry.

(aperture 2.2 ~ shutter speed 1/250)

At 4.5 things are starting to come into focus.

(aperture 4.5 ~ shutter speed 1/60)

The aperture keeps getting smaller, and at this point my shutter speed is getting very slow in order to let in enough light. I used my tripod for all of these shots, but if I was hand holding my camera, things would be getting pretty blurry by now.

(aperture 9.0 ~ shutter speed 1/15)

Now my aperture is as small as it can go.

(aperture 22.0 ~ shutter speed 0.4)

Side by side, the range is pretty impressive.

(f1.4).................................................... (f22.0)


Now, if that doesn't leave you with more questions than answers, I don't know what will!

I encourage you to do this exercise yourself. I am a hands on learner. I can read something over and over, but it doesn't usually click until I put it into practice for myself. This will help you see how aperture and shutter speed work together. Start with the widest aperture your lens is capable of (different lenses have different aperture ranges), and take it from there. Keep in mind that your shutter speeds will vary from mine depending on your lighting conditions.

I'll leave you with a couple quick tips.

Experiment to find the slowest shutter speed you are comfortable using while hand holding your camera.....and don't go below it. Many, many times in my early days I would get caught up in shooting and forget to keep an eye on my shutter speed. You may not see the blur on your camera screen, but you will see it when you load your photos on your computer. It doesn't matter if you've got the best composition or you've captured the most precious moment, if your picture is blurry, you will be sad.

Moving subjects need a faster shutter speed than stationary subjects. ( I know that seems like a given....but it wasn't for me.)

Many of you have asked how to achieve a dreamy, blurry look to your photos. As these pictures show, it's the wider apertures that give you the pretty background (and foreground) blur. (Also known as bokeh.) Experiment with your f-stops (aperture) to see just how much blur you like for your own shots.

Remember.....practice and read.

Get out your fake spring flowers and make them model for you.

Google and read and practice.

Borrow your neighbor's children and make them model for you.

Read, practice, read, practice.

Rinse and repeat - and have yourself a little bit of fun while you're at it!

tgif

My usual blogging computer died in a blaze of glory earlier this week. Fortunately, they were able to salvage the hard drive, so hopefully I'll have my weekly photography q and a post up early next week.

Until then, I thought I'd share a few very fun shots.

A friend of mine has a clothing store in town. She has recently started offering formal wear in her store, so we thought it would be fun to do some photos as a way to spread the word with the high school set. Prom is just around the corner, so we brought out some gorgeous spring dresses and had Kayla play dress up in my front room.




Now that was a fun way to spend a Sunday afternoon.

Have a wonderful three day weekend!

tie a yellow ribbon

Dear Department of Defense,

So, it has finally come down to this.

Back in September when I first got wind that Junior Number Two was going to be deployed, I really wasn't too terribly concerned.

For one thing, my way of dealing with worrisome subjects is to swiftly scoot them to the back of my mind. That makes plenty of room for the fluffy bunny, sweet baby chick, rainbow and butterfly thoughts to live up front. Oh, I know those pesky thoughts are back there....they pop to the front every once in a while, and niggle and nag a little from the back row, but generally speaking the rainbows and bunnies have the dominant spot. Now you may be tempted to go all Dr. Phil and want to chat about the psychological ramifications of that way of thinking, but that's not what I want to talk to you about today.

The second reason I didn't immediately start to dither was the assurance I'd been given that deployment orders are known to change with the same frequency as Lindsay Lohan's hair color and incarceration status. Why get my knickers in a twist about something that very well may not come to pass.

Thirdly, the deployment wasn't scheduled to happen until Spring, and back in September, Spring was still a very loooong way away. A lot could change before then. Perhaps the bunnies, rainbows and butterflies would all head on over to the Middle East and work their magic there. Problem solved.

It could happen.

Last? In my mind, Junior Number Two still looks like this.


And everybody knows you can't send a cute little baby overseas.

But.

Last week I became the proud owner of my very own yellow ribbon pin. It's just a little pin. A subtle, little yellow pin. But when my husband placed it in my hand, that's when I finally acknowledged that this is going to happen.

For real.

Oh boy.

Now, don't get me wrong. I wholeheartedly approved of Junior's decision to join the National Guard, knowing full well he would be deployed at some point. And I have the utmost respect for all our men and women in uniform, and I was proud to the point of sinful pride when I attended his graduation from boot camp. They told us we were joining the biggest family in America. I am proud to be a part of that family. I get a lump in my throat whenever I ponder all the wonderful men and women serving our country and the huge, huge sacrifices they make on my behalf every single day.

The fact that Junior volunteered for this particular deployment just fits in with a slightly alarming pattern I've noticed around here for the last couple years.

You see, my mama princess bubble was burst years ago when it became clear that these boys of mine were actually going to have the nerve to lead their own independent and somewhat dangerous lives. My dreams of my oldest becoming a quiet country veterinarian, or my middle son becoming a mechanical engineer quickly went poof in a cloud of testosterone fueled smoke.

My hope now firmly lies in my youngest, whose aspirations to become a waiter in Hawaii sound better and better with every passing day.

But back to the subject at hand.

It has finally sunk in, Department of Defense. This is happening, isn't it. I reluctantly acknowledge that the sweet little baby pictured above has grown into the man you see here.


A man who will serve you well.

He always has been and always will be in God's hands, but for now, you're going to be playing a major role in his life.

Please take good care of him.

And make sure he drinks plenty of water. I've heard it's hot over there.

Sincerely,
Meadowbrook Mama

Oh, and p.s. I don't know if you read my blog or not? Anyway, if you do, then you know we're having a family wedding here this summer. If by some slight chance you get a bee in your bonnet and want to just pop Junior home for a quick visit around the end of July, that would be awesome! I don't want to put you out or anything, but just in case you don't have anything else going on right then, I thought I'd mention it.