A Lovely Iris
One area of the beautiful Portland Japanese Garden had beautiful and enormous irises. Please enjoy a few photographs of these lovely flowers. Gallery: IrisRead more
A Few Photos from Portland
Here are a few photographs from Downtown Portland, Oregon from my recent trip there. Gallery: Portland, Oregon street scenesRead more
M. C. Escher in Portland
Today we went to the Portland Art Museum and enjoyed walking through the galleries. The highlight was an exhibition of prints and related materials by the Dutch artist M. C. Escher. It was a treat. I’ve long been fascinated by his art, especially his highly geometric work, including his tessellations, and the way he plays with impossible structures and changes in perspectives. His ability to work out the geometry to get make all those different plains or structures make local sense but become impossible when looked at more globally. And his transformations and tessellations are whimsical and wondrous. It was a great pleasure to see some of his actual prints,…Read more
Gertrude Stein Was Wrong
Gertrude Stein was wrong. “A rose is a rose is a rose,” she said. Well, I can verify that she was simply incorrect. A rose is not a rose. They come in so many varied colors and shapes, but still all roses. One has this abundantly verified when one visits Portland’s International Rose Test Garden. So many beautiful roses. So many different shades and combinations. So many different styles. And the lovely rose perfume filled the air. I’ve got lots of photos to go through when I get home, too. The question becomes, how many ways can you take a picture of a rose? (Especially in a garden when one…Read more
Visited Powell’s Books Tonight
Wow. Powell’s Books is an amazing place. It’s huge. One could go in and never emerge (except I’m sure the staff would certainly shoo you out and show you the way to the door at closing time). Nearly every section known to bookstoredom is represented. Spent a couple of hours there, but I felt like I really only scratched the surface of this massive pile of books and bookshelves otherwise known as Powell’s Books. And, of course, I walked away with a couple of books, too. Some facts about the store from their website: 68,000 square feet packed with books approximately 3,000 people walk in and buy something every day…Read more
Whole-grain Blueberry Muffins
Yes, whole-grain blueberry muffins. They are delicious! And they really isn’t any significantly difference from a regular muffin. No nutty or tannic bite or strong wheat flavor. Just a lovely, homemade blueberry muffin. Click the photo above to see another photograph of the muffins. The recipe is below.Read more
Sunset Photos Revisited
New sunset image Gallery: Sunset This new sunset image was processed using the high dynamic range techniques I wrote about a couple of weeks ago. A scene like this sunset contains a broad range of brightnesses, from the brightest part of the sky to the darkest shadows by the trees and on the field. A digital camera’s sensor cannot accommodate that wide a range in light, and so either the dark or the bright side will be “clipped” to completely white or completely dark. When I took most of the photos on Friday evening, I choose to let the shadows go completely black on many of the photos. But through…Read more
Glorious Fresh Ricotta
Need some ricotta for lasagna, another pasta dish, a dessert, or what have you? Why not make your own? The ricotta you get at the supermarket is a decent product, but it usually contains food additives like xanthan gum, guar gum, and/or carrageenan. It’s also been mass produced and transported to your supermarket, where it’s waited for you to pluck it off the shelf of your grocer’s dairy case. It doesn’t take much time, and the flavor is fresh and refreshing, a step above the store bought stuff. Since the recipe uses lemon juice as the coagulant for the milk, it also has a ever-so-slight and oh-so-nice hint of lemon.…Read more
Sunset Photos
There was a nice sunset this evening and I grabbed my camera. Gallery: SunsetRead more
A Bit of the Louvre Coming to Minneapolis
Sometime between mid-October and mid-January, I simply have to get to the Minneapolis Institute of Arts. They will be hosting a traveling exhibit titled The Louvre and the Masterpiece. And amongst the masterpieces from the Louvre in Paris that will be there is “The Astronomer” by Johannes Vermeer. I love Vermeer’s paintings. I saw one in person for the first time last summer when I visited the National Gallery of Art in Washington, D.C. They have three on display. I was enthralled. They are such amazing works. As wonderful as reproductions and photographs of these works of art are, the paintings themselves are stunningly amazing. They have amazing detail, but…Read more
A Nice Thing to Do to a Head of Cauliflower
Over the weekend we found some nice cauliflower at a really good price at the supermarket. Not wanting to pass up a nice vegetable at half the usual price, we picked up a head. Then we had to figure out what to do with it, having had no cauliflower plans. Having recently obtained Mark Bittman’s How to Cook Everything Vegetarian (no, I haven’t given up my omnivore ways) we turned there to see what we could find. We settled on “Creamy Cauliflower (or Broccoli) Soup,” and it was a very good choice. It is simple but not uninteresting. And it was a nice dish for a chilly (for June, anyway)…Read more
Rocking Robin
Tweet. Tweet. I think I’ve got it now. Notices of new posts on this blog should now be automatically tweeted @restenergy_blog. A link to that stream is to the right, below the logo. Please feel free to follow.Read more