Gone Feral In Idaho

I got a new camera. Well O.K. I got a new DSLR and then quickly learned that my money wasn't that well spent and I was lucky enough to upgrade with only the loss of the cost for the backup battery for the first one that won't work with the new one. I'll take that loss any day. What I ended up doing was getting a camera that I could grow and learn with. It has some dummy settings for the times I get flustered, but I'm already comfy with shooting in Aperture priority mode, so I consider that a sign of moving forward. Unfortunately, I fall into the category of consumer that completely over analyzes everything. I am a professional Internet investigator. Like a present day Colin Laney I scrub the Internet for any last detail on anything to find any shred if information I can. Unlike work stuff, I can sometimes run into dubious territory like I did with my latest research on my new D7000. I found this wonderful site. I thought to myself, "what a goldmine". Ugh. ...

The day started great. Emily and I did our own private garden tours today and saw each other's gardens for the first time since we met last year. These are the photos of Emily and Jason's feudal garden near my house. It is such a pretty and inviting space. I could have spent hours there. If only the day could have ended up here. It was so pretty. We did more garden sneaks including Emily's and I am embarrassed to say I was too shy to photograph and then got so caught up in the tour that I forgot. Andy the dog was also a show stealer. He is so cute. Emily has so many different tomatoes, herbs, eggplants, all tucked in every nook of her yard. When you walk into the yard, at first, you'd never know there was a huge vegetable production at first glance. I had a great afternoon. Who knew what disaster would strike later in the night... Moving on to evening, Sadie had her first date in ages. I think I was more nervous than she was. Tonight Kyle and I took Sadie over to...

Emily  and I met up one day earlier this year at the Shangrila Tea House where I had my first Kale chips. Included in a super amazing present she gave me was a packet of red Russian kale seeds. I spread them in the big raised bed earlier this spring and harvested most of it today to make kale chips. I need to tweak the recipe, but this is what I put in it this time: 1 clove garlic 1 C Cashews, soaked 1/2 C Nutritional Yeast 1/2 C water 5 T Olive Oil 1/2 tsp Smoked Paprika 1/4 tsp Chipotle (spice) 1 pinch sea salt        I based the recipe on this website's   Rawmazing.com Basically all that stuff goes in the food processor. I had way too much gloop. I'd use 3/4 cup cashews, 1 tsp smoked paprika, and 1/2 tsp chipotle. I'd also put in 1/2 tsp salt as well. I took the kale stalks and pulled the leaves from the main stalk because that is too woody. I also pulled the leaves into chip-sized pieces. I love the strange leaf...

I was lucky enough to attend The Red Light Variety Show's latest creation, Time Machine, with Emily of Your Apples are My Oranges .  She has put up some great photos on her blog of these talented ladies.  Don't miss it, I think it was the first time in history that potato pasties have been used.  If you live near Boise, they have another show this Friday.  It was a hoot. Click the photo for the post, the link for the main blog page.

I had a great time and feel privileged to be Emily's +1 for the newest engagement of the Red Light Variety Show: Time Machine.  The RLVS gang did an amazing job and really had me on the edge of my seat during parts of the show. Other times I laughed due to the wonderfully funny bits.  I think my favorite parts were when the artists couldn't help but beam a wonderful smile when things went "just right", either due to a perfect hit on a move or gag, or when something went wrong, but they still nailed it.  Emily shot her way through the show with her camera while I sat by wondering what wonderful images she must have captured.  I'll link to her post when it's ready, she must have hours worth of images to pour over.   Thanks a ton Emily, I had a wonderful time.  Check out her blog- Your Apples are my Oranges This is one of her photos from a different show they did in October 2010, and is a good representation of how I felt as I left.  ...

This is simply the neatest gift of the season.  I finally met Emily from Your Apples are My Oranges who has been a blogger friend since this past spring when we met via the net and watched each other's gardens grow through our posts.  Let me tell you, she is one neat person.  I hope to have lots of time to become friends.  It felt like I'd known her for ages.  To top it all off, she brought me a Christmas present.  Check this out: She actually made this! I love the tag: And there's more: I found this bag inside.  Day of the dead skulls! I love the lining of the tote.  This was in the DOTD bag: These are seeds, check out that pumpkin. Yum!  I must say, this is in the top three presents I ever got.  Its up there with the nice watering can and bike "trunk" bag Kyle got me for a birthday, and a very old skirt from Indonesia with quite a story behind it I got years ago.  Wow, thanks so much Emily!