Foodie Wednesday

This week my day off from work was Wednesday, and I spent a lot of the day playing around with food photography. It has been my project this year to learn as much as I can about food photography and it has taken over my days off work. I don't know where it is taking me but I am certainly enjoying the journey, meeting up on the net with other foodies and learning a lot as I go, especially about lighting and styling.

There are lots of resources and inspiring photographers on the web and you can hook up with a lot of them through Flickr and Digital Photography School. Go to my links and check them out.

Here are my efforts from Wednesday.

First is Chai Latte - taken back lit by morning light, this is my first attempt at capturing the steam coming off a hot drink. You need to have a darkish background to capture the steam. You need to have everything ready and pour in the boiling water at the last minute. In the foreground are some chocolate stick biscuits and a piece of cinnamon stick.  Originally I was going to have the cinnamon stick in the glass, but the drink is not thick enough to support it.

 Next is coffee beans - just poured onto a white plate. Again back lit by morning light.  Some friends on Flickr say they can almost smell the coffee beans in this shot.

 Coffee beans again - this time tumbling out of a cloth bag with an old metal scoop that I found at my mother-in-laws house.  This was taken in shade on the patio, so I used a gold reflector to try and throw in some warm light.

Chillis - I would have liked the background to be whiter in this image. I have played with it in pp but this was as white as I could get.

Playing with food photography doesn't always require really expensive dishes - this is two minute noodles.

and a different angle -

And then I read on Dario's food blog about using light from a south facing window - I have always been using a north facing window - but of course it depends on which hemisphere you live in..........so out with the coffee cups for a simple experiment.....the lighting looked pretty good, but I didn't have any time to play around with something more elaborate. That will have to wait until another day.

 Time to cook tea - I had been so involved in my foodie photography that the whole day had gone.  But just one last photo - this is lemon meringue pie - it is my speciality - but you wouldn't be able to see that from this photo - it was probably because I was in so much of a hurry that the meringue wasn't as good as it was supposed to be. It still tasted delicious! And shot again here in my south facing window!

So there you have it. A day of food photography. Thanks for stopping by. I look forward to hearing from you!

A ducks watery world

We have a small swamp area a few streets from us. It is a lovely place to wander and sit quietly on the benches in the shade of the trees. 

When I saw this duck on Monday I rather envied him swimming in his beautiful watery/reedy home amongst the paperbark trees.

Have a wonderful weekend.

Spring is the time for tulips

Every year at Araluen Botanic Park - a beautiful garden set in 50 acres of shaded valley at Roleystone, south of Perth -  they have massed plantings of tulips. We visited today and the gardens were ablaze with beautiful blooms in orange, red, white, yellow, pink........a glorious pallet of colour.

Araluen was first established as a youth camp in 1929 by JJ Simons, who brought back plants from his overseas and interstate trips,  Creeks running through the valley create a cool moist climate, making it an ideal site for Simon's dream garden. Simons called this valley "Araluen", an Eastern States aboriginal word meaning "singing waters", "running waters" or "place of lilies".

Araluen is today a delightful garden where you will find streams and waterfalls, trees, gardens and pathways, places to sit, and places to picnic. 

This year for the first time, I planted some tulip bulbs in my garden. I was advised to store the bulbs in the fridge to get them really cold before I planted them. (It is probably a "you live in a warm climate thing) They were really beautiful, and I will have to plant more next year!

 

And a little Haiku poetry I wrote in the middle of the night...........

dew drops on petals

glisten in the morning light

and tulips open 

This beautiful bloom was snapped in the wind, so I used it to take some reflection shots.

A few years ago we visited Tasmania in October. Wynyard is the tulip growing area of Tasmania, and in October they have the Tulip Festival. I have never before seen colour as amazing as this.

Thankyou for looking everyone. I hope you have enjoyed this wander through the tulips. I treasure your comments, so I look forward to hearing from you. 

This is my contribution to Mosaic Monday. To see the beautiful images created by Mary and other wonderful contributors, please go to the link - Mosaic Monday at Little Red House

I would also love you to join me over on Flickr - Life Images by Jill on Flickr 

You might also enjoy - The Joy of Spring - and - Last Blooms of Autumn

New apricot blossoms

1st September is the start of spring in Australia - and last week the first blossoms appeared on our apricot tree - with the promise of new and continuing life.

Today 30th August would have been the 60th birthday of my daughter-in-law's mother, Dora. Sadly she died in 2008 and never met two of her four beautiful grandchildren. It still saddens me that Dora is not a part of their lives.

I am posting this photo of the first new apricot blossoms in Dora's memory. You are forever in our hearts Dora.

Jen has again this year formed a team for "Light the Night" which raises money for the Leukaemia Foundation. This memorable and uplifting event to give hope for a brighter future for people with blood cancer.
If you would like to find out more or donate please click here - Light the Night

Lemon tarts for Mosaic Monday

This year I have been exploring food photography, and along the way I have been inspired by many wonderful food photographers on the web that I have found through Mosaic Monday and Flickr. I have learnt so much from these photographers.  Thank you also to Dario in Sydney for his food photography blog and critiques at - Food Pixels.com

So, with thanks to one of my favourite "foodies" - "Tartelette" for the recipe (and her amazing book on food photography - From Plate to Pixels - here is her link - Tartelette) here are lemon tarts I made last Thursday for my Dad for his birthday dinner.  First I had to go to the shop to by the little tart tins.

The pastry is a sweet short crust pasty (the most fiddly bit), with a simple lemon filling, with lemons straight from my lemon tree. I have never made this lemon tart before - they were delicious. 

and some beautiful yellow daisies from my garden. They are guaranteed to flower just about all year round.  In a cute little jug I brought recently from a garden shop.

I hope you have enjoyed my exploration of the lemon tart. I am linking up to Mosaic Monday - to see the work of Mary of other wonderful contributors - please click on the link here - Mosaic Monday at Little Red House

Camp amongst the wildflowers

During spring wildflower lovers and bird watchers travel to Western Australia’s mid west to enjoy the enormous variety of wildflowers and birds. Two easily accessible free overnight camp sites at Camel Soak and John Forrest Lookout located in station country on the north eastern edge of Western Australia’s wheatbelt east of Perenjori allow visitors to enjoy the natural beauty and tranquil scenery any time of year. 

Pink Velleia at Camel Soak

Access is initially on bitumen from Perenjori via the Perenjori-Rothsay Road and then good gravel roads to the campsites. However, be aware that flooding and boggy conditions along the road can be encountered after rain, as we discovered on our visit in April, so a 4 wheel drive is recommended.  

Camel Soak campsite is nestled under shady trees at the base of a granite outcrop on the Rabbit Proof Fence Road, approximately 39 kilometres east of Perenjori.  There is plenty of camping space and the picnic area has a drop toilet, wood BBQs and picnic tables. In spring the surrounding bushland is covered in wildflowers, particularly fields of everlastings and velleia. Orchids can also be found around the base of the rock.

After rain the gnamma holes on the rock fill with water and the small granite catchment on the rock, also known as The Rock Hole, was sunk as a watering point for men and their camel teams who camped here while constructing the Number 2 Rabbit Proof Fence between 1903 and 1906.  The 1166 km long Number 2 Fence, and the 1837 km Number One Fence, stretching from Cape Keraudren on the North West coast to Starvation Harbour on the South coast, were built to stop rabbits invading Western Australia’s agricultural regions, but did not however stop the invasion. 

Further east, 61 kms east of Perenjori along the Perenjori-Warrieddar Copper Mine Road is John Forrest Lookout. The Lookout is located in the Damperwah Hills which Sir John Forrest (explorer and later WA’s first Premier) discovered and named during his failed search in 1869 for the missing German explorer Ludwig Leichhardt. In 1897 Forrest used the hill-top as a survey point during his expedition to Cue and Day Dawn. 

 It is easy to understand why granite outcrops and hills were used as survey points and lookouts by our early explorers, and as camping places to rest and water their horses. As well as the expansive viewpoint which would have assisted them in mapping their progress, the shelter of the outcrops would have given relief from days of forging their way through the thick scrubland.

The walk up to the Lookout is 750 metres uphill, but is not difficult. During spring, the dry scrubland is covered in many varieties of wildflowers and your climb will be rewarded with a spectacular 360 degree panoramic view of the surrounding station country spreading out to the horizon in an undulating sea of scrubland splashed with the colours of spring.

To see this complete article, see On The Road magazine, August 2011.

The wildflowers are starting to bloom

Only about 500 metres from my house is a stretch of bush between the houses and the main road. Every year when spring comes I go there to look for wild orchids to photograph. Sadly foreign weeds and grasses are choking out the natural vegetation and every year I see more and more weeds (you can see them in the top RH photo trying to choke out the beautiful mauve wildflower - the wild violet). 

And now some of the beautiful banksia trees are starting to die. The last couple of years have been very dry and the water table has dropped - and some believe it is because of climate change and global warming. 

Today when I went walking in our patch of bush some of the new spring wildflowers were starting to bloom. In this photo you can see wild violet, hovea and fire bush. Soon I will go again to look for the wild orchids. 

It is lovely to have a small stretch of bush to walk in so near my home.

If you are Australian you would have heard of the book "Snugglepot and Cuddlepie" by May Gibbs - a much loved Australian children's book about gum nut and wattle babies and their adventures. (a bit like Australian fairies I suppose)

In the book the bad men were the "banksia men". If you look in the first picture - this is a picture of the banksia nut after the flower has died off. The "eyes" pop open and the seeds fall out. This will especially happen after a fire. You can see why May Gibbs may have used the "banksia men" as the bad guys - they look pretty fearsome.

The banksias flower in our patch of bush around Christmas and the flowers look like giant Christmas candles. The one in this picture would be about 1 foot - 30cms - long. 
















In the picture below you can see a close up of the parts of the flower, just before they open. 

We haven't had a lot of opportunity this year to go bush walking (with other goings on in our lives) but now that spring is just around the corner I hope we will be able to get out and do some bush walking, and I will again be able to indulge in my passion for wild flower photography.

Have a wonderful weekend, and hug the ones you love. 

Went down to the beach to play one day.................

I recently found this peom in an old poetry book I found while packing up my mother-in-laws house. The book is called "The Charge of the Light Brigade and other story poems" (Scholastic Book Services, 1969)

I really liked the image it created of the little girls playing on the beach and the treasures they found...........and the innocence of childhood and carefree days on the beach.

ps - there are no capital letters because this is how it was printed in the book....

maggie and milly and molly and may

maggie and milly and molly and may

went down to the beach (to play one day)

and maggie discovered a shell that sang

so sweetly she couldn’t remember her troubles, and

milly befriended a stranded star

whose rays five languid fingers were;

and molly was chased by a horrible thing

which raced sideways while blowing bubbles; and

may came home with a smooth round stone

as small as a world and as large as alone.

For whatever we lose (like a you or a me)

It’s always ourselves we find in the sea

                                                             By EE Cummings

It is winter here in Australia, but the beach is so much a part of the culture of Australia it can be enjoyed any time of year in different ways.  Here is my mosaic I created from the poem - some photos are new from our recent weekend in Yallingup, and some are from my archives -  unfortunately I don't have a star fish...

 I hope you enjoyed the poem and pictures. I look forward to hearing from you. I am linking up with Mosaic Monday at Little Red House. To see the work of Mary and other wonderful contributors, please click on the link here -  Mosaic Monday

Take care, have a wonderful week, and hug the ones you love.

Oranges and lemons.......

It is the time of year for oranges and lemons in my garden. The fruits of winter.

Today was a mixed winter day - white clouds scudding across a beautiful blue sky one minute and then grey sky and driving rain the next, but always constant was a a howling wind that blew all day, wrapping my washing around the line, and tearing at my hair as I worked in my garden doing some winter pruning that was well overdue.

The orange and lemon trees are bearing their bounty and so I picked this basket of beautiful oranges, and made a jug of lemon juice - pretending to be a summer day.

 

 The last few grape vine leaves are clinging onto the vine, and will soon wither and drop - making way for the new shoots of spring to come.

I hope you have enjoyed these pics. I look forward to hearing from you. Have a wonderful week.

This is my contribution to Mosaic Monday. To see the work of Mary and other wonderful contributors, please click on the link - Mosaic Monday at Little Red House

Congratulations Cadel - winner of the 2011 Le Tour de France

Congratulations Cadel Evans from Australia in winning the 2011 Le Tour de France.

As an Aussie I am very proud of his achievement, and so I have created a little mosaic with some pictures I took in 2005 when we were in France at the time of the Tour. (thankyou to www for the pic of Cadel in this mosaic)

Cadel, born Katherine in the Northern Territory of Australia, announced in 1991 when he was 14 that he wanted to win the Tour de France and today he realised his dream.

Cadel said - "I think that's the ultimate dream of a Tour rider, to stand on the Champs-Elysees with an Australian singing the national anthem ... it's not a dream that comes true for many Australians.

"This win is for everyone in our country. It's amazing."

I have been glued to the TV every night watching the Tour - maybe now I can get a proper night's sleep!

Read more about Cadel here - Cadel Evans - Dream Comes True

I am linking up with Mary at Mosaic Monday at Little Red House. Please click on the link to see the wonderful work of Mary and other amazing photographers - Mosaic Monday at Little Red House