use real butter

Recipe: buddha’s hand citron vodka

Our “wake up earlier” project works quite well. I’m sitting down and working before 7am each morning, although with everything I have on my plate it’s never early enough. Damn you, Sleep!! I was able to catch Andrew on Monday before he slipped off to Austin for SXSW. We went to Nick and Willy’s in Boulder for some slow-roasted chicken. That is some gooooood chicken. If you haven’t tried it, you really ought to. After that, we set to work on some items for the photography workshop. Whenever it feels like the organization and planning is bogging me down, I talk to Andrew and he gets me jazzed up again. Fan-freaking-tastic!

andrew advises

I finally culled my 2000+ photos from the Sandhill crane shoot (two words: marathon session) and have a few more to share before we move on to other fun and exciting things. I’m not posting all of them, that would be insanity… and boring.

despite what it looks like, it was quite windy and cold

Sarah had asked in the comments how I go about choosing the keepers when I have culled out the technically inferior photographs (unfocused, bad compo, etc.). That’s an excellent question. I think part of what makes a good photographer is knowing what not to show and that requires having artistic standards. I remove my personal emotional attachment to captures and try to be as objective as possible. And I am a pretty hard critic of my own work (and of other people’s work, but I keep those thoughts to myself).

gotta look nice for the ladies

I threw pottery for ten years. When I was first learning to throw, my instructor (an incredibly talented artist) pulled one of his beautiful bowls from the kiln. Stu scrunched his nose at it and threw it in the trash. “What are you doing?!” I exclaimed as I ran to retrieve it from the trash bin. He told me it wasn’t good enough, not up to his standards. “Well, it’s up to mine, I’ll take it – don’t throw it out, Stuuuuuu,” I pleaded. He shook his head, gently took the bowl from my hands, and smashed it on the ground. “If it has my name on it,” he smiled “then it has to be up to snuff.” I thought he was crazy then. I get it now.

To answer Sarah’s question: I don’t delete good or great photos. I keep them in archive. The ones that I show – sometimes less than 1% or up to 10% – are the best ones of the bunch. If I have 5 photos of the exact same thing, then I’m doing something wrong, because that is not how I shoot. Usually I will have a series that varies the depth-of-field, exposure time, focal length, composition, or action. If all is technically solid, then choosing the best one boils down to my artistic judgment. I think a lot of photography enthusiasts overlook the importance of being selective. Loving your photograph is not going to make it any better or any more appealing to an objective viewer.

lots of shenanigans (the top one is tossing dead plant material in the air)

About a month ago, I was breezing through the Boulder Whole Foods store when I stopped at the produce section where they harbor exotic things like prickly pears, passion fruits, and spiky round orange things. What caught my attention was a Buddha’s hand citron. I knew about these because I had seen Todd and Diane post about it on their blog. What I didn’t know was how the fragrance would mesmerize me into purchasing two of them without having the slightest clue what I would do with them.

the hand of flavor

they are reminiscent of some sea critters

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Recipe: lychee grapefruit martini

I hope everyone is having a great holiday, whatever it is that you do or don’t do! Today is the last day to bid on some really amazing Menu for Hope items. Pim has a very nifty and easy donation form set up on her site and I encourage you to have a look and bid! If you want to see what I and a couple of great Boulder businesses are offering, check out the bid item descriptions.

Jeremy and I have been keeping things low key because I had the flu and shared it with him. Thursday was the first time we both felt well enough to get out and enjoy some of the recent snow.

a little windy, a little chilly, but definitely some fun

While single digit temperatures are tolerable, negative wind chills and ground blizzards can be a bit much on the mountain. In the afternoon we took Kaweah for a walk in the woods where we could seek a little refuge from the winds.

a shower of snow rains down from the trees

We went to Boulder for a few errands and then walked around Pearl Street to enjoy the lights. Because it was Christmas Eve, the streets were pretty empty as Pearl Street goes.

i love little lights

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Recipe: mojitos

I thought we had escaped this year. We didn’t have a single hummingbird crash and burn on our deck (that we knew of) this spring. The frequency of accidents goes way up in May/June, but this year was accident-free… Then this week, we had 2 hummingbirds brain themselves on our windows within a 24 hour span. I hate to say this, but I am now rather practiced at reviving little birds – especially the hummingbirds. Yesterday’s hummingbird was the tiniest and worst off to date. I honestly didn’t think he’d make it.

not feeling so good

This little guy didn’t show many of the signs the other hummingbirds exhibit as they begin to recover. Usually they open their eyes after a little bit, start to open their beaks and taste the air with their tongues, sort their wings, look around. This guy just breathed rapidly with eyes shut and feathers in disarray for an hour. I mixed some sugar water (ratio: 1 part sugar to 4 parts water – and for the love of all that is good and sensible, DON’T feed them Splenda or any other fake sugar – hummingbirds need the real deal!) and held it up so his beak would dip into it. Ten minutes went by and nothing. Then I saw the feathers on his throat vibrate and noticed he was drinking! A few minutes after that he opened his eyes and watched me as he drank. Without any warning, he slowly levitated above the deck and zipped off to a nearby tree where he flitted from one branch to another until he flew away. Kinda made my heart fly too.

Now it is full steam ahead! Phases 2 and 3 of the upgrade will be complete this week. If I weren’t so busy, I’d be giddy.

i named them butter and sugar

huge ass L-plate

When last I hosted a stitch-n-bitch, Kitt offered to bring up mojito fixins. I had my first mojito just a few months ago and I’m not much of a boozer, but it sounds like the perfect summer cocktail to enjoy with friends, doesn’t it? Sure! Kitt’s mojitos were a total hit. I was so distracted hostessing that I completely forgot to actually try one. So when we had friends over this week, I hit Kitt up for her awesome recipe, which she ever so sweetly emailed to me.

basic greens: mint and lime

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