125: Olives

(Olive plate.)

It’s that time of the year again.  Time for the semi-annual trek to the dentist for a cleaning and check-up.  This is not something normal people celebrate.  But M and I do.  Because it means we also make our semi-annual visit to DeVitis Italian Market where I almost drool over the olives, the pastas, the cheeses, the wines, the pesto, the rapini!  (Well, maybe I do drool but I am very discrete about it.  You’d never know if I hadn’t just told you.)  It is worth enduring the torture of the oral hygienist to spend some time in DeVitis loading up on scrumptious foods.

(Olive plate #2)

Once we got home and unpacked all of our goodies, of course I had to plate the olives and see what I could do with them.  The deadline for Scott’s Assignment 11:  Food Photography is midnight tonight.  Most of what I’ve been cooking lately didn’t translate well into photographs.  I had high hopes for the olives.

(Fruit, cheese, and olives.)

I played around with bowls of fruit, cheeses, and the olives.  The three shots above were the best of the lot.  I think the last one has too much going on, but that could be because I wanted the olives to have a starring role (which is why I prefer the second shot over the other two).

All three photographs have been processed in Photoshop.  To me, there is something romantic about olives so I wanted the photos to have a softness to them.

The assignment is over but I’m hoping to get a chance to play (photographically speaking) with the olives again over the next day or two.  Maybe do something a little more creative with them.  Take some toothpicks and make olive people and march them around the kitchen.  Or something.

Today’s Outdoor Adventures:  Warm up!

After the Blue Wall experience this past weekend (you can catch up on the adventure here and here, if you missed it), life here at Breezy Acres and around the pond seems almost dull in comparison.

(The Blue Wall.)

(Today’s view of the creek.)

See what I mean?  How about another comparison?

(The Blue Wall.)

(Today’s view of the pond.)

I know.  It’s not fair at all to compare the two.  First of all, the Blue Wall is one of those things that you don’t see every day.  And if you did see it every day, you might take it for granted or find the beauty starts to fade with daily visits.

Second of all, the weather makes it a doubly unfair comparison.  It was cold as the dickens on Saturday, but it was sunny and beautiful.  There was much more color to the day.  Not just at the Blue Wall.  The forest and ravine were dotted with hemlocks which leant their greenery to the scene.

So, one more look at the Blue Wall and then it’s back to Breezy Acres and the Bogs.

The temperature here is above freezing today, melting things slightly.  It is, as you can see from the above photos taken today, cloudy and gray.  The January Doldrums, when even the weather can’t get excited about the day.

My walk was fairly uneventful.  I took a tumble or two going down hills due to some slipperiness under the snowpack.  I was also overdressed.  I ended up taking off a few layers on my way back to the house.  I have to admit it was nice not to be freezing for a change.  (Don’t worry.  Those tumbles were not at all serious.  All those layers make me bounce right back up.)

And that, folks, is it from the Bogs for today.  See you tomorrow with more from the great outdoors.

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