Cows, Cows, Cows

I feel as though this blog has been deficient in pictures of cows recently. Enjoy.

 

The Miracle of Birth

Last week, I was taking an early evening stroll when I happened upon a cow giving birth. Since I had my trusty Nikon with me, I got some very aww-worthy pictures of the mama cow welcoming her little calf into the world.

Post Number 100! And a crazy idea...

First of all, happy 100th post to me! Huzzah.

Although I've been more or less absent on here of late (busy taking care of my grandfather, for one thing...), I have been cooking quite a lot.

So here's my thought... I will try to post, more or less regularly, pictures of what tasty tidbits I've concocted in the kitchen. Ideally this will be a weekly occurrence, but frankly I'm not going to tie myself down to that just now.

The idea here is threefold: 1) It will get me to actually post something, even though I'm not currently working on a farm and unfortunately too busy to delve into researching sustainable agriculture-related issues; 2) It will help me practice taking attractive pictures of food; and 3) It will hopefully get me to care more about food presentation. Which, most of the time...... I don't.

So without further ado, here are the pictures for the week of January 30! (And maybe a couple from before that.)

Roast Beef in Red Wine (Julia Child recipe)

White Bean, Potato, Carrot and Kale Soup

German Pancakes with Apples

Roasted Broccolini

Belgian-Braised Beef Stew (Julia Child recipe) (And yes, I know the picture is hideous. But it tasted great!)

Pear and Apple Tart with Walnut Crust (picture taken pre-cooking)

Clockwise from upper left: Roasted Cauliflower, Panzanella Salad (courtesy of my friend Steve), and Orcchiette Pasta with Sundried Tomato Pesto

If anyone every has suggestions for how to make the pictures and/or the food look nicer, do share! I'm always striving to improve.

Me Take Pictures

Since my blog was out of commission for the month previous, I thought I'd post a selection of pictures that I've taken in that time for everyone's viewing pleasure. It's sort of but not really in chronological order, and pleasingly arranged by subject.



Stuff around the farm: Every day, it seems like I see something I've seen a hundred times before in a new way, whether that's because of the afternoon light or the morning dew not burning off yet. Sadly, I don't usually have my camera with me at those times, but occasionally I do manage to bring it along.

Hikes: I've gotten over my lethargy, and have been hiking again on occasional weekends. I'm planning a longer entry soon about my latest foray to Shenandoah National Park, so stay tuned, dear readers.

Washington D.C. Botanical Gardens: Went there on my birthday weekend with the boy. I enjoy using my macro function more than a sane person probably should.

Other farms: We went on tours to Maple Hill Farm (which is owned and funded by Dave Matthews, incidentally) and Babes in the Woods, which has free range piggy goodness. I also joined Autumn and Brian one afternoon when they visited an 18 acre farm for sale.

P.S. I saw a recent Facebook post where someone said, "Everyone's a photographer." I guess I resemble that remark somewhat. But I refuse to pretend to be ashamed about it. I like taking pictures, darn it, even if they aren't professional quality or dripping with artistic brilliance. And I can't help but be happy with the improvement that is the result of using nice equipment. SO THERE. Harrumph.

On With The New: Introducing The Nikon D3100

As some of you may recall, my trusty Canon Powershot went bust back in June. I've been saving up for a new camera ever since... and this week, it all finally came to fruition.

Yesterday as I was rolling out dough for chapatis, the UPS truck showed up to deliver my brand-spanking-new camera. Sadly, since I was in the middle of making dinner (and covered in flour), I had to wait until after work today to play with my new Nikon D3100. Yet what serendipity - the light was perfect.

So far, I haven't done much other than shoot a little bit in Auto mode. But even though these pictures were all taken in Auto, their quality is infinitely superior to my last camera. (And my Droid, whose quality snapshots you have all been enjoying for the last three and a half months.) Soon, I'll start experimenting with shooting manually (especially with my other lenses!), but for now... all I can say is that I am pleased.

I messed around with the blog design a bit so it could accommodate larger pictures, and I'm liking the result. So without further ado, here are the first of what I hope will be many, many pictures to come. Enjoy!