An Auspicious Number?

Not that I am one to count but today is POST NUMBER 45 DAY.....cool. I shall celebrate by sharing some of my favourite wilderness images from a place that has given me much inspiration in the last year or so. Never underestimate the power of inspiration because it is not as if I can wave a magic wand and have gobs of entertaining words spill onto the screen. Wished that were so on occasion especially when ensconced in editing tasks. Arrggh.

When I am not writing I am out shooting, photos that is.....and in doing so I am able to kick-start my brain (as we get older that needs to occur more often than not). I could go on in some pretentious manner here about the creative processes and what brings them about but for now I would rather just remember that day when the light was perfect, the company stellar and the water existing as a canvas by which to riff on.

I saw something that day and when I was able to upload the images onto the craptop I knew I had to play with the contrasts and tints. It is always wonderful to have a "Eureka!" moment. That day I had several. In my world that indeed is a gift because I can be quite picky as to what I feel is worth recording and keeping.

I used to tell my students....take your time and look for the little things and you will be pleasantly surprised at what you can discover by not looking straight ahead. Meandering slowly be it in the woods or across the keyboard.....taking one's time.....no constraints....what luxury.

We should all endeavour to be this way as often as we can.

It's a Bread kind of Day.....

Firstly, I must apologize for having gone AWOL for the month of August but sometimes that is just the way I roll, so to speak. Either that or it's that pesky old procrasturbation thing creeping up on me again.....it does happen you know, even to those of us who have lots to do and say.

I am not going to do a line by line bread lesson here....I am not Nancy Silverton, a woman whose bread expertise I respect. Rather I am a person who grew up on a farm and long before the so-called food revolution took place, the one by which we want to be locavores, know what we are eating etc...that was my life - still is for that matter regardless of climactic limitations or geographic location. The experience of the weekly Saturday bake-a-thon down on the farm is one I have carried through to these middle years of my existence and no matter how much the modern world may grind me down at times it is in the process of making breads and other "slow" items where I get my groove back.

The making of breads is not as time-consuming as one would be led to believe. With a bit of that modern notion of time-management applied even the most reticent of home cooks can duplicate to a certain degree an artisanal product - it's just a matter of what they happen to have in their larder. My kitchen is stocked to the hilt with damned near everything I would need excepting some cool toys (don't all cooks get rather obsessed with those accoutrements?) but if all you have is olive oil, salt, two or three kinds of flour, honey and yeast you are good to go. A mixer with a dough hook is nice but if you have a good-sized mixing bowl or two and wooden spoons then what is holding you back?

Small steps right? With a bit of imagination and practice this is what you could be serving at your table.....something tasty, healthy and made by you!

More to come as the day, a baking day, progresses.