Camera Rebirth

Years ago I got a Canon Powershot A75, and I LOVED it. It took most of the pictures I wanted it to take, even doing a halfway decent job at close-ups. But toward August of 2008, the display started to intermittently become problematic, showing lines across the digital display, eventually making things look like they were melting, and then not displaying anything (or taking pictures).

I called our local camera shop and found out that it would be more than $100 to fix. Since a new basic digital camera is hardly more than that price, I felt the best thing would be to buy a new camera, which we finally did last August. We purchased a Nikon CoolPix L20 to take on our honeymoon. It was great for that purpose and took lovely pictures of the scenery and of us. However, I've never been happy with it in my day to day life because I like to take pictures of animals, flora, fauna... With the Nikon I get a ton of blurry shots before I get a clear one.

I was bemoaning my situation the other day, and thought I would take another shot at figuring out whether the Canon was salvageable. While on the Canon website today, I found that there was a special notice with respect to the CCD image sensors in the Canon model I bought. Canon is replacing these sensors regardless of the warranty status of the camera, and is paying for shipping. This type of customer service is unheard of now-a-days. (Sometime let me tell you about my unsuccessful dialogue regarding a Sharp Microwave that quit working after one year. It runs, but won't heat anything probably because of a faulty magnetron , and I got no help from the folks at Sharp.) I will be giving Canon more of my business based on their courteous and responsible manner when faulty parts are involved. And, the ONE contact I had to make (not 5-6) to get resolution.

Grape Leaves

We haven't had an opportunity to go grocery shopping on a big trip in quite some time, so I've been eking out meals from the random sundries in the pantry. I have beans, rice, flour, but I've run out of pasta and bread so you see, the cupboard is not entirely bare, but it's on the way. When thinking about what I might still be able to make, I realized we also have grapevines growing along our back fence, and some type of wild mint mingling with our bushes. (AKA ingredients for vegetarian grape leaves!) So, armed with this knowledge I went in search of recipes. I didn't find one that sounded right so I just added what I thought would make sense. First I harvested the goods from outside.

 Can you see the mint hiding in the middle there?

Next I brought them in and cleaned the leaves off.

After washing the leaves and mint, I boiled some water, removed the pot from the heat and soaked the grape leaves in the hot water to soften. While the leaves soaked, I made some rice (about 2 c. cooked), and selected the healthy (unmolested by bugs or beasties) leaves from the stem and chopped them.

I pressed three cloves of garlic, added some olive oil, parsley, dill, vinegar, lemon juice, a small onion, some sea salt, fresh ground pepper and a dash of paprika to the rice.

And, I wound up with this:

I removed the grape leaves from the now fairly cool water using the stem, clipped each stem off and placed the leaf vein side up. I put a bit of the mixture onto each leaf and rolled it tight. I placed the finished grape leaves in a pan oiled with olive oil.

I added a little water, a little more olive oil, and squeezed a little more lemon over them. I cooked for about 1/2 hour at 300 degrees. I've packaged them away after drizzling them with a bit more olive oil for use within the next week.

 I had enough of the rice mixture left over to eat for dinner. It was surprised by how delicious it was. It tasted buttery, but there was not a stitch of butter in it, and hardly any oil either since most of it was added to the pan and finished grape leaves. The mint, onion, garlic, dill, parsley sure did their jobs. And then, halfway through my meal, and even though I've used the mint in my lemonade before, and checked before,  I freaked myself out and needed to make sure there was no poisonous mint that grows in Michigan. I couldn't find any reference to any mint being poisonous to humans, and I learned something. Did you know that mint stems are square?

Rednesday in Rimini

For our honeymoon, my beloved and I visited Italy, the land of lovers. We chose to bide our time slowly, to relax, to appreciate, rather than to rush, rush, rush (which is our normal modus operandi). Thus we ventured to a resort town named Rimini which is off the traditional beaten path for a non-Italian tourist. It was a fun city, that's for sure. This town is but 20 or so kilometers from San Marino, on the coast of the Adriatic Sea, and is the birthplace of Fellini. We had a wonderful time at the beach, at the pubs, the clubs, at the sidewalk diners, and walking through the park that bisects the city. While in the park, not only did we see an arch from 27 a.d., built in honor of Agustus, but also a war memorial for Canada. Yep, Canada-we were surprised too. I'm posting this as a part of the It's a Very Cherry World's red themed event Rednesday.

How we wish we could return soon.

Outdoor Wednesday in the Boonies

My youngest sister moved to a country town in southern Michigan several years ago. The place she lives is much like the village we grew up in; however, the village we grew up in has gotten much more suburban since those days. Her town still rotates around the high school football team, farming, and raising children. It can sometimes be a little close minded, but I wouldn't mind living there none-the-less. Here's a couple photos of the lovely view she can see from her home after a storm.

 

Quite a lot of green, wouldn't you say? Also, in addition to the "meadow" across the street from her home, there is a marshy area behind it. That leads to quite a few visitors including sandhill cranes, blue herons, and tons of red-winged blackbirds, among others. The same day as the post-storm photos above were taken, I caught this guy trying to cross the street to return to the marsh.

This post was inspired by A Southern Daydreamer's Outdoor Wednesday theme. Visit her page to see other inspiring outdoor photos.

Thunderstorms and trees

We've all known the comfort that shade brings on a hot summer day. Personally I appreciate the large pines surrounding our property. They provide shade in the summer and protect from winter drafts during the coldest months. But, I'm always scared one of these will fall on our home during a storm. They are probably almost 40' tall of varying diameters. A tree from my property is shown below (middle right).

See other mosaics at The Little Red House.

Today there was quite a lightening storm and one strike seemed fairly close, although the blinds were drawn, I saw the flick of lightening, the cable went out momentarily and the thunder started immediately. About an hour later, when the storm was over, I let my pup out. I was quite suprised when I saw one of our neighbors trees had gone down. For all that it looks like, it seems that there was minimal damage.

Thank goodness nobody was hurt.

Of Red Yesterdays

I grew up on property with a barn, and many of my neighbors had barns on their property as well. There is nothing quite so iconic to rural American life than a barn and a silo. I miss the days of fields and farms for miles on end. The town I grew up in is much different these days, as is much of the surrounding area. I am sharing this red barn in memory of days past as a part of Rednesday over at It's A Very Cherry World.

This week, as part of my Mosaic Monday post, I chose to highlight the textural quality of the summertime. When the sun shines bright, the bark and leaves of trees are shown in their full glory. A pebbled path and a decrepit window frame are visually interesting as well. See beautiful mosaics over at the Little Red House blog.