Agave/bees

An agave that has been outside of my place ever since I moved in is finally flowering and attracting some bees. Still trying to figure out how to shoot it, these are the most interesting so far. I think I like the sharp flower and moving bees look. I also like the shallow depth of field one. The quicker shutter is interesting, but I like the blur sometimes too. So many choices. D600, 85mm macro tilt shift, tripod.

Millet Fried "Rice"

I've finally started being social again after Sara moved to Santa Cruz for her postdoc. Had Steph and Erik over for vietnamese crepes last weekend, and Erin over for this this week. I was looking through recent cookbook acquisitions for an interesting vegetarian dish, Fried Millet, hmmm. I have alot of millet as it goes on sale pretty cheap. I throw it into soupy/stewy things in small amounts. But millet is weird, it always seems really dry. Anyway, Erin was game to try it. This is what I did

Inspired by Super Natural Cooking by Heidi Swanson
Millet Fried "Rice"

1 c millet
3 c water
salt

a couple of good sized shallots (or 1 medium onion)
2 gloves garlic, sliced
3/4" piece of ginger, minced
1 carrot
couple stalks celery
couple peppers

couple handfulls of greens - collard, chard, arugula
2 small sweet potatoes
lb tofu

2T butter
2T toasted sesame oil
1T soy sauce

Bring water to boil with a little salt, add millet, cook covered 25 min.
Cut up sweet potatoes into half moon slices, put in a pot with a little water and cook 10 min covered so they steam.
1T butter, oil in a non stick, add diced tofu, cook 5 min or so. When done add to sweet potatoes, add some soy sauce, toss.
Put greens in same skillet, dry, cook covered 5 min or so, stir into sweet potatoes.
1T butter, oil in same skillet, onion/garlic/ginger, then carrot, then celery/peppers, cook 10 min or so. Stir in millet, add some soy sauce.

 The pic is of a leftovers dinner, with everything mixed together. When we ate it fresh we had a bed of millet with the tofu/sweet potatoes/ greens on top. Either way is good.

Nice radio story about kids gardening

this brightened my day

Garden, 9 Jan 2016

 asian pear

the power of a garden hose

podcast with my dad

My dad did a really great podcast about the pacific off of Newport, Or, and how this summer they saw all sorts of unusual things. That said the pic of the copepod below was taken a couple of years ago. It's beautiful, and they aren't sure what species it is.

rain

1.5" yesterday, different storm today 1" of rain from around 5 to 9, then this came through, .5" in 15 min:

this is incoming, as of 1:23 pm