use real butter

The local ski hill reported 3 inches of snow. I set off this morning to see what I could capture of the overlap of seasons. It is one of the highlights of living in the mountains when the first snowfall manages to sneak in before all of the aspens have turned bare. I was surprised to see as much color as I did… but the stripped aspen trunks are quite beautiful in their own right.

Anyway, I don’t have the time for a recipe tonight since I am swamped this week. So hopefully the pictures from this morning will tide you over until tomorrow. You can see a few more shots on the photo blog. NaBloWriMo is still going strong!

**Jump for more butter**

Remember how I was testing out some flash solutions while in San Jose? I was too lazy to lug my tripod or external flash(es) and diffuser(s) with me because I was instructed by Dr. McHottie to take it easy on how much weight I lifted until 6 weeks after my surgery (which is tomorrow - and you can just bet I’m hopping on the rowing machine first thing). While I was hanging out in Grandma’s little apartment, I toyed with a few ideas. I wound up taking most of the indoor photos with my pop-up flash on the D200. Because I really don’t like the hard shadows from the little flash, I used a tupperware I had on hand to help diffuse the flash. After messing around with all manner of tupperware, yogurt cups, etc. that Grandma had, I decided to drop $20 on Gary Fong’s Puffer.

Thanks to everyone who made recommendations for good authentic Chinese restaurants in the bay area! We’ll definitely check a few out and if you haven’t written in, but have some suggestions, I’m more than happy to hear them :) You guys ROCK.

I’m listening to the veep debate and I think I just threw up a little in my mouth…

Okay, it’s still NaBloWriMo! I’ve got a few last autumn shots to post because I’m sick of processing and seeing little yellow leaves on my screen (not out my front door though).

**Jump for more butter**