330 - Flying Monkeys (aka rosehips)

329 - Window Dressing

328 - Pink Delight

327 - Leaf and stone

326 - orange bokeh

325 - Uncaged

Cranberry Salad - Now with Picture

When I was a younger and living at home and not dairy-intolerant, this recipe for cranberry salad was my very most favorite thing on the holiday menu. This salad and yams. I love yams!

Cranberry Salad

1 cup each:

• ground cranberries
• apples
• sugar
• mini-marshmallows
• whipped cream

Mix them together well and chill overnight. It turns a lovely pink shade. Drooling now.

My mom would get out the 800 year old steel food grinder that she attached to an old wooden chair and that is how we would grind the cranberries and apples. I haven't made this as an adult - dairy issues don't you know, but would think some pulsing in a food processor or just you a sharp knife and some agression could also do the trick.

Also, my mom (love her) would use Dream Whip. It comes in packets in a box in powder form and somehow you mix it up into 'whipped cream'. As a kid, I didn't know the difference. With that in mind, I often think I should try this with Cool Whip (not my favorite food in any way shape or form) but Cool Whip is non-dairy and it just might (might) be similar - in texture if nothing else.

Have a wonderful Thanksgiving.

I should probably have a list here of things I'm thankful for, alas, I don't. There are many things that would be on that list. What about you?

Edit: Yes, I made it tonight with Cool Whip. It needs to sit overnight - allows the sugar to dissolve completely and sweeten the cranberries. I did lick the spoon and it was delicious. I am very happy I did this. Why was I so scared of Cool Whip?!?! And did I tell you, it is such a lovely shade of pink.

Monday before Thanksgiving

So, here's the deal and the plan and my big dreams.

• I have a cranberry salad recipe that is to die for - I'm hoping to post it before Thanksgiving actually gets here and moves on. Its also a great Christmas recipe, so, not all is lost if I'm late.
• Mister and I spent some quality time watching movies recently. Hoping to post about those.
• Chocolate covered bourbon cherries - another holiday recipe I tried recently.
• Huevos Rancheros - also known as food of the gods.

Hmmm. That's about it. But, at least you know I've been thinking about you.

324 - Unrealized Potential

Also known as "too little, too late". I went around to the garden plot looking for something to photograph. I hoped I might find some tomatillo husks. I didn't expect to find the husks with the tinsy little fruit still inside. We didn't get loads of tomatillos from our plant this year even though it was loaded with blossoms and papery lantern shaped husks. Very, very bummed. Still, amazed at the beauty that is nature.

323 - Seasonal Eats

Walnuts and apples and cranberries abound in our home right now. Mmm, mmm, deliciousness.

319 - Finally

The birdbath reflection of an Autumnal tree branch, power lines and well, not sure I remember what those light colored splotches are.

322 - ominous morning

This cloud bank was seriously ominous this morning. Large and in charge. I'm working, nay struggling, to get ahold of my currently spinning world. I need to grasp myself by the bootstraps and take charge again. I have so many things I am interested in right now and I'm having trouble with my focus and time management. I know that I need to pick on or two things and give them my attention then when I'm burned out or just plain satisfied with those, choose another couple things. Its just that I'm #1 a procrastinator and #2 very much like Veruca Salt - I want it all NOW!

One of the things I really want to do is get back in touch with this blog. I write it for myself. I'm selfish that way. I find it helps me sort and ponder and understand an yes, now that I'm writing this, focus on what is important to me. So, you may see more from me in the near future. Then again, you may not.

I gotta be me.

321 - contrast

You know this about me, but I'll reiterate. I like that the natural and the manmade worlds can coexist. We, as humans, as a general rule, and in my opinion, don't necessarily do it well, all that often. (critique that sentence structure, if you dare...). I just know it can happen and if it does in small ways, then eventually it just might it large ways. A girl can dream.

320 - Finding It

I know! #319 is missing. Its stuck in post production. Sometimes that happens. The above is titled "finding it". I'm looking for some peace right now. Trying to let go of some residual icky. Realizing that this tiny little drop of water exists, without care, helps for some reason. If this droplet can do it, then I can aspire to that too.

317 & 318

Very much did not want to come home. Alas, need the paycheck. Life isn't free. At least not the way I live it.

314 - 316

A vaquero in Sayulita.

I'm a morning person. Up by 7:30 each morning on vacation. The sky was amazing each and every day.

El Sutil Comepiedras (The Subtle Rock Eater) Sculpture by Jonas Gutierrez Puerto Vallarta, Mexico I am quite enamored with this sculpture. Not sure exactly why, just am.

311 - 313

Mister and I went on a trip to Puerto Vallarta last week. We went with friends with the intention of doing a whole lot of nothing. We succeeded, in spades. I had intended to keep up with the LUCY blog, as you well know, I didn't. The place we stayed was gifted to us. It was breathtaking and we had very little reason to leave the villa. We didn't mind at all. Casa Amanecer

dos paraguas

super delicious margarita

310 - the hidden

I took several, nah many, photos in this same spot. Each time I ended up with some version of what you see above. I'm not even certain what I was trying to photograph, I only know it wasn't this leaf. (I have a tendency to just thrust the camera into positions I think should capture what I am looking at, but without actually being physically able to look through the view finder and snapping away. Its just how I roll.) But, the more I looked at it on the digital screen, the more it spoke to me as if it needed to be heard.

309

Leaves on the gravel. Its Fall and cold and wet and dark outside. I can feel my creativity slipping.

Just Read: Bitter is the New Black

Author: Jen Lancaster

This is actually the first in the Jen series of humorous memoirs. The other one I read, was Bright Lights, Big Ass. Ok, so I just went back to find the hyperlink for that review and it seems I didn't really do one. I made casual mention in a post, but that was really about it. Here goes. Bitter is Jen's first book. It is a memoir of the time between having a profitable corporate career earning more money than she knew what to do with through her layoff after 9/11 and ending with the publishing of Bitter. I laughed and felt bad and laughed a bit more through this book. Jen is sarcastic and wry and witty and took an unfortunate time in her life and turned it into something good. I admire that in a person.

When I read Bright Lights, I wasn't all that enamored with it. It is the second in the series of Jen's books. It didn't resonate with me. I didn't really care about they story. And now that I've read Bitter, that all totally makes sense. I have a new appreciation for Bright Lights now.

Jen has a couple more books, which I will most likely also read. So, take that as my review.

No, they won't solve world peace or hunger. But, they are entertaining and provide a view into someone else's life and issues and helps me, personally, to realize I'm not the only one to have life difficulties and that it is possible, if I try hard enough - maybe, to get through them and be okay.

308 - it is what it is

Nov Cal - Figuring Things Out

Ok, so, I'm figuring (I think) things out. Try this link for a larger sized, more easily downloaded, hopefully, November calendar. Feedback would be most appreciated.

307 - Mossy Wall

It seemed like a castle wall to me as I walked by. The texture and the moss. Green and glowing.

All is fine in my world right now. Despite only having one income in our family for the last 15 months. Despite my irritation and lack of understanding of the state of our nation. I don't want to get political here. I've made this a safe haven, not necessarily for you, but for me. But this week's elections and all the 'ads' and negativity have weighed on me heavily. I want to be able to let down my walls, but alas, they remain, and grow moss.

306 - More Fall Color

As I stood, in the street, taking a photo of the amazing yellows, oranges and reds that are Fall color, this rider came by. He commented on the beauty of the leaves and that he'd try to quickly duck under my photo taking and thus not 'ruin' my shot. I immediately took several shots of him riding away. Yes, it started out all about the leaves, but, having a person in the shot was a total bonus for me. A human on a bicycle with an orange and yellow safety vest that just happened to make him blend into the scenery. He didn't ruin the shot, for me, he made the shot.

305 - Blue Water Bowl

Harley's outside water bowl. Its a camping pot which Mister drilled a hole through and attached, via complicated nuts and bolts and other metal flanges, a water hose which is on a lever handle as a side adjunct on the main water hose spigot. You switch the lever to the adjunct setting then turn on the spigot and the water bowl is filled without you having to lean over and pick up the bowl.

Its complicated and too well thought out and its ingenius.

Its Mister.

304

This was such a random shot. As I went through my shots for the day, it just struck me as interesting. I really like it now. Not bad for an accident.

November Calendar

So, here's the November calendar. It wasn't easy to come up with something "Novemberish". I don't have any cornucopia laying around to photograph. I hope you enjoy. And, if you actually do want this in a resolution that is half decent, let me know and I'll email it to you.

One day I'll figure out how to upload a high resolution version, but, until then, there's only three of you reading this anyway, so, there you go.

303 - Spooky Light

Well, the orange glowing light was spookier in person, sort of. Mister and I were walking looking for photo opportunities and he spied this house with the spooky light. Maybe its the house that's spooky. Actually, yes, the house is spooky, but not in a ghosty way. More in a it was getting spiffed up a few years ago then one day no more spiffing and construction materials were left laying around and then a couple years later construction materials were moved and placed and moving trucks were outside and people were milling around and then several (almost all, actually) of the windows are either completely or partially broken out and there is a moving truck still parked outside and there is a moped in the yard and blankets covering the inside of the windows where there isn't boards covering the outside and doors from the inside leaning on posts on the porch (see my photo of the "laundry" door - its from the porch of this house) and very young guys there occassionally and a basketball hoop and the whole things seems like a crack house or something, but not enough in/out traffic to support the 'drug house' theory. More like squatters, or something. Weird I tell you. Maybe you have to live one block from it to 'get' it. Never mind me, I'm just rambling.

302

When I go out in search of my daily photo for Project 365, I try to have a focus, a topic to search for. As its Fall, my focus has been on Fall color lately. This entire tree was half yellow, half green. Half way between Summer and Fall. Half way through its transformation. Could not help but think about the "glass being half empty or half full". Its a choice, you know. I didn't say it was an easy choice. I didn't say it was one that I always make. I am trying to lean this direction though. Perception and perspective make all the difference. I think so at least.

301 - Beyond Reach or Within Reach - you choose

300 The Birds

This is a photo I took that I wanted to be great. In my mind, it was great. In reality, not so very much. So, after playing with it over and over in Photoshop, I finally added some texture and combined it with another bird photo and I'm pleased with the outcome.