Sunday, March 25, 2012 at 8:29AM I've apparently fallen into a Very Large Land Art hole and cannot get out!
What better way to spend a rainy day?
Headshakingly magnificent.
Be sure to see the second in the series.
Phenomenal.
artist, creativity, nature Friday, March 23, 2012 at 10:15AM 
Have you hit a plateau that you just can't get past?
Simon Beck takes exercise to a remarkable new level! He walks the frozen lakes of Savoie, France, on snowshoes to create crop-circle inspired snow art. Be sure to follow the link to see more of his remarkable art.
Working for 5-9 hours a day, each final piece is typically the size of three soccer fields. The geometric forms range in mathematical patterns and shapes that create stunning, sometimes 3D, designs when viewed from higher levels.
How long these magnificent geometric forms survive is completely dependent on the weather. Beck designs and redesigns the patterns as new snow falls, sometimes unable to finish a piece due to significant overnight accumulations. Interestingly enough, he said, "The main reason for making them was because I can no longer run properly due to problems with my feet, so plodding about on level snow is the least painful way of getting exercise. Gradually, the reason has become photographing them, and I am considering buying a better camera.”
Spectacular art for the sake of exercise!
Monday, October 4, 2010 at 1:37AM
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Even more below. Thanks so much, Barb! I can't wait to play with this concept myself!
full moon, nature, photography Friday, October 1, 2010 at 10:41AM Take time to explore and enjoy our world. Have a wonderful weekend, everyone!!!
nature Tuesday, September 21, 2010 at 4:27PM 
We had a ton of tomatillos to harvest. This super simple/straightforward recipe filled my need to get these cute little lanterns out of our garden and onto the table and/or into the freezer.
My Texas houseguest remarked that what follows was the best Salsa Verde she's ever tasted. YESSSS!!! TWO THUMBS UP!
NOTE: For those who live locally, bypass Draegers and go directly to a local Spanish Food Market for tomatillos. Draegers: 1 pound almost $4. WHAT!!!? Versus what used to be Key Market on Fifth and El Camino: 2 pounds $88 cents!!! Crazy. Totally Insane. Also, this same Spanish Market/will find name/has a fantastic fast food bar with terrific tostadas, quesadillas, burritos etc.
Here's the recipe that was such a hit with family and friends. It's from the most recent New York Times Magazine article entitled, "Cooking with Dexter."
SALSA VERDE
When grill is hot, cook the tomatillos, jalapeño and onion slices, taking them off the heat when they are soft and charred.
Remove skin and seeds from the jalapeño and roughly puree it with the tomatillos in a blender or food processor. Transfer to a serving bowl. Chop onion slices and stir them into the salsa verde with the cilantro. Season well with salt.
His salsa verde was was served with grilled fish. Mine was used it as a spread. An odd mix of what I happened to have on hand: Rye Crisp crackers topped with this salsa and marinated shrimp from Costco. A DIY appetizer.
Obviously, it would be excellent used in the traditional corn chip sort of way. And as Dexter recommended, over fish.
nature, recipes, tomatillos, vegetable gardens Sunday, September 19, 2010 at 1:04PM What fun to be alerted by Google Calendar that I had No Events Scheduled Today. Nothing. How great is that?
Empty calendars, it seems, create space for terrific things to happen. Like an early morning walk in the hills with Susan and our three dogs. A Super Civilized Walk with a Starbucks stop half way through. The best.
And then a spontaneous visit from my Favorite City Family to collect eggs, apples and garden vegetables. And, of course, flowers.
Yesterday? A similarly superb sequence of surprises. Nothing Scheduled. But a day full of fun, friends and family. I was/and still am/loving this sort of spontaneous entertaining. Which feels nothing like Real Entertaining.
We began in the garden, food evolved, the party grew and moved inside. Life unfolded.
Let's toast that! And do much more of this refreshing/revitalizing kind of entertaining with a small "e."
Thursday, September 16, 2010 at 12:19PM Back of the box says it all!
"Recycling trash isn't just the right thing to do/it's the only thing we can do. We like to think we've mastered the art of waste reduction by transforming used coffee grounds into the substrate for this mushroom kit. After the mushrooms have been harvested, the leftover roots enrich the coffee grounds, turning them into premium compost for your plants and thus closing the loop on your BTTR Gourmet Garden."
Oyster mushrooms have been revered for thousands of years in mid-European and Asian cultures and now you can grow them right in your own kitchen!
Just place box in an indoor area that has access to fresh air and avoids direct sunlight. Spray with BTTR mister 2-3 prays of tap water twice a day. In 7-10 days, you will see small, grayish-blue "pinheads" appear. These are baby mushrooms beginning to grow. Harvest in 3-5 days by twisting off the caps when they are 1-2 inches in diameter.
Repeat process for 2nd crop using the back of the box!!!
So incredibly interesting! Great fun to photograph. Thanks, Don and Nacole! What a terrific gift!
Is there anything that Amazon doesn't carry?
Friday, September 3, 2010 at 12:34AM 
Whoa, a bear just broke into our cabin at Tahoe. Pretty exciting. And very scary if you happened to be home.
Our Furry Friends apparently enjoy, as our neighbor recently experienced, taking food from fridge/freezer and then dining on the deck. Being outdoor creatures, they apparently prefer a venue with a view.
The same neighbor has a motion-sensing speaker equipped with Very Vicious Sounding Dog Sounds which seems to work quite well since The Bear came to our house this time instead of hers.
And while Dave was on the phone with the police, another bear was making its way into an adjacent cabin. Crazy culprits.
Sorry, no pictures. We're not there. Happy about THAT, actually.
But I did find some pretty great music by Lyle Lovett. Which I would not have otherwise found. This is good.
Life. Loving it. Even, perhaps especially, the crazy parts.
Lois
I'm getting myself one of these dogs!
Friday, August 6, 2010 at 5:59PM 
Thanks to breeding a captive colony of birds and banning DDT, the Bald Eagle has made a comeback from fewer than 450 nesting couples to more than 4,000 adult pairs. It's still pretty remarkable to spot one in the wilderness.
We had that opportunity this past week in Colorado.
Wow.
Hey, here's to your weekend.
Michael Crawford sings. I never really listened carefully to the words. Whoa.
Wait, I think I sang this song in the choir. Different context. Equally poignant. And powerful.
Fly free, friends.
bald eagle, nature, vacations Saturday, July 10, 2010 at 2:31PM "This is actually a pretty amazing story about a baby hummingbird found on a sidewalk. He couldn't fly, so I took him under my wing. At night, he would come home to our house for safety. During the day, he was in the backyard of the house near where I found him. About 4 days after I found him, I was holding him in my cupped hands when his mama came by to feed him. She had seen me around, I guess, because she just flew over, perched on my hand and then fed him. This happened a number of times, so I called a friend who is good with a video camera, and he came over to film some of the amazing goings on that I told him about."
birds, nature, youtube video Saturday, February 20, 2010 at 11:12AM ...than nature, herself? These two pictures are part of a much larger series dedicated to taking a closer look at all that is around us. IF we take the time to notice.
The first is one of my favorites. Cashews! Can you imagine? UNBELIEVABLE. What could be more creative/more colorful/more amazing? OK, perhaps the beginnings of what will eventually become a banana just below the cashew.
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cashews, nature, photography 
