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Recipe: homemade limoncello and limon sunrise cocktail

despite the rainy day, the flowers still say it’s summer

As I went around the house flipping all of our calendars (yes, I’m the type who requires calendars and clocks everywhere) my eyes settled on August 1st. It’s my sister’s birthday today (Sunday). How old would she have been? I had to first remember how old I am and add five and… It has been over six years since Kris passed away, but I still think of her every day. People who have lost siblings have told me that you never stop thinking of them. I don’t think that’s a bad thing.

Jeremy came home Saturday evening after a week in Oxford and it feels like life has returned to normal. Whatever normal is, I like it. Today was overcast, cool, and rainy. A nice respite from the heat.

my chinese chives are starting to flower (these buds are delicious in a stir-fry)

But I’m still prepared for the hot weather because I know it’s coming back soon enough. Oh yes. Back in May (which seems so far away now), I purchased two bags of Meyer lemons from Whole Foods as their season was quickly coming to an end. After depleting our supply of Buddha’s hand citron vodka rather quickly, I figured it was high time I tried my buddy Figs’ recipe for homemade limoncello.

scrubby dubby the lemons

harvest the peel

These are the types of projects that require patience, planning, and the ability to forget. You can’t make it and consume it the same day. While the Buddha’s hand citron vodka took 40 days, this took 80 days. I hid it away in my office closet where it could stay in the cool and dark. There were plenty of things to distract me from the limoncello, but when I remembered it, I’d get excited about the day it would be ready.

all of the peel

into the jar

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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

**Jump for more butter**