Macro view of the garden

Tomato flower

Late in 2012, Aaron wanted to up-grade our camera equipment to the fancier  professional versions of the entry level DSLRs that we had. With the camera change, a change in the lenses also was in order. One lens that I have been eying for a while was a macro lens - which if you are a Nikon shooter, it's brand of macro lenes are labelled "micro." My wonderful husband spoiled me with getting one of these lenes. However, due to teaching, taking graduate school-level classes, races, and gardening, I haven't really had a chance to play with the new toy camera, much less with the fun our new lenses. That is until last night. With no grading or any other pressing paper work hanging over my head, I thought it was just as good as any to take a few shots. Since I've been blogging about the garden, I figured the plants would be the perfect test subjects. 

Young tomato

The tomato plants were among the first subjects. Not only did I get some shots of the flowers, it allowed me to be able to carefully inspect the plants for signs of fruits. The past few days weeks had me annoyed with the lack of tomato fruits. There had been plenty of flowers but not fruits. I thought that there could be a lack of pollinators, though I'm not outside very much to verify. I thought this was equally annoying since I had assumed that tomatoes were not picky when it comes to fruiting (I think I need to do more research about this). While shooting a flower on one of my store bought plants, I noticed a tiny little fruit!! I'm hoping that there will be a few more fruits that will begin to show up, and that I do not have to "replace" the pollinators in my yard.

Zucchini bud

This past weekend, I saw bright yellow flowers from my squash plants. I hope that I'll see it a bit more opened up to take some cool shots of it as well.

The corn, which were started from seed, have been growing nicely. One fun thing about the corn plants is the swirl pattern in the middle of their stocks where the new corn growth emerges. It looks like a green vortex.

Looking into the corn stalk

The couple of pictures below are from one of the hostas across the drive way from the vegetable garden. I thought it would be fun to play with Lightroom and see what effects I can apply to the photo, although I had not installed the program on to my computer until last night. Quick note, most of the pictures in this post were cropped and had the exposure adjusted on them to make sure they were not too dark. After playing with the tone, saturation, and vibrance of the photo (and cropping too) the shot on the right is what came out. Not too shabby (imho).

With school out and my main objectives being working on the garden, finishing my course work towards my teaching license, and working out a lot, I'm hoping that I'll have more time to pay around with the camera.  

(Lack of) technology challenge... pt 3 wrap up

I know it's been a little while since I posted about my technology challenge, which wrapped up a week ago. I would have to say all in all, it was difficult. I missed being able to have hot foods when I wanted, partly because it is winter time and I am not very good about making tasty cold food. Had I completed this project in the summer, I think this would have been easier. But, I missed having the ability to cook in the manner that I wanted. It just made cooking more of a chore than I normally see it as.

(Lack of) technology challenge (pt 2): reheating food

Heating a soup should not be too difficult: microwave the soup for about 2 minutes on high, stir, and reheat if needed. If my technology challenge was no microwave or electricity based cooking technology, then I could just use the stove. The reheat time changes from about 2 minutes to about 10 minutes after the soup starts boiling. The result is evenly heated soup that just took longer. But, I didn't decide to take the "easy" route. My technology challenge eliminates both gas and electric powered cooking appliances.

Good thing I have a charcoal grill, but heating soup this way takes a long time. First, you have to set up the grill, which includes setting up the charcoal brickettes, lighting them, and letting them sit until the coals are smoldering and giving a even and consistent amount of heat. Well, admittedly, I am impatient. I started heating the soup before the coals were smoldering. It took roughly 45 minutes from set up until food was ready. Luckily, I had a few crackers on hand to munch on while I waited.t

(Lack of) Technology Challenge Week (pt1)

For my Culture, Technology & Organization class, my first assignment is to choose a technology that I have to live without for a week. Call it a "technology lent". Most people are not using smart phones, going without Google, or going without using debit or credit cards (one guy said people looked at him funny when he used his checkbook at the grocery store).  I've decided to go without any cooking technology that requires electricity or gas. That means no microwave, stove, toaster oven, oven, crock pot, or Keurig. When I mentioned my plan in class, the prof was actually surprised that I would go to the extreme of excluding the stove and oven. Most people would just give up the microwave and rely on the stove to heat food. If I were to only exclude the microwave, I really wouldn't be bothered by it. Having to live without the stove and oven adds a new level of complexity to this challenge.

For the past two days, I took a survey of all the cooking technologies I use and what I use them for. Here's how they break down for each meal.

• Breakfast: Keurig (coffee) and toaster oven (bagel) or microwave (instant oatmeal).
• Lunch: Microwave (reheat left overs from the night before)
• Snack: Microwave - for the few times I heat up edamame for my snacks
• Dinner: Microwave (thaw meats or heat up canned veggies), stove or oven (main cooking).

I haven't fully thought out how I'm going to complete this challenge, especially since I like LOVE to cook. I think this will be a week of salads, sandwiches, and other cold foods.