a tribute to one of the greats

And by greats, I mean one of the greatest cats. This past Tuesday, our beloved 18 year old Angel crossed the Rainbow Bridge into her next life. She lived an amazing life on this Earth right up until the very end. There are no words to describe how fortunate that I am to have lived with this sweet kitty for the last eight years of her life. I'm glad that anyone who reads this blog regularly got to know her as well. Over the years, I've recorded quite a few little memories of Angel here and am so grateful to have them in writing.

I skipped Caturday this past weekend so I could round up all of my final Angel pictures and put together this little tribute with just a tiny handful of the many amazing pictures that we have of her. I'll have a regularly scheduled dose of my orange boys again this Saturday.

 

 

 

S is for Solvay Coke

Are you ready for another round of Alphabe Thursday? Let's go!

I'm repeating an Alphabe Thursday theme today to bring you another round up of photos from the abandoned Solvay Coke & Gas site in Milwaukee. You can read more about Solvay Coke in the first post that I ever wrote about the site back in July 2013. Today I'm sharing photos from my last excursion to the site, which was back in April. Enjoy.

Check out what the other Alphabe Thursday participants posted for the letter S this week right here!

photography aspirations

I just shared a round of photography aspirations a couple months ago...but I keep looking at loads of stunning photos and getting even more inspiration. This isn't even a bad thing. I think that it's important to note that these aspiration posts are all about techniques, not gear. Yes, we all have gear lists, but aspiration should be about so much more than new gear.

You'll notice a distinct night photography theme here. Click on the photos for the resources.

Steel wool spinning

Night fountain

 

Star trails

Also, this is not the best star trails photo, but I love the effect of the hint of star trails over the car light trails.

Milky Way

Colored smoke

 And another favorite colored smoke photo because seriously...so amazing.

Dewey spiderweb

What are your photography aspirations?

From simple to ambitious, feel free to share them in the comments!

the start of fall baking

I haven't shared any pictures of food that I've been making in quite a while because I just haven't been documenting food making lately. When it's 70 and sunny, I don't always feel like spending a lot of time in the kitchen with the camera. Of course as we get further into fall, the natural indoor lighting gets trickier, but I do what I can. Anyway, I got motivated to document some of my first fall baking this month.

Believe it or not, this is the first time that I've ever made zucchini bread. My in-laws grow it and gave us one of several baseball bat sized zucchinis that they had left at the end of the season. I only used a third of it in this bread. I shredded and froze the rest for future loaves this fall.

I saw this recipe on Instagram within days of picking a wealth of apples at Apple Holler, immediately clicked over to the blog post, couldn't believe that it was such an easy recipe (six ingredients and you don't mess up a bowl!), and made it within a week.

 As we have this wealth of apples, I also made apple pie. I refuse to use store bought pie crust and always forget that pie crust from scratch is so much work but so good. I'm hoping that I stay motivated to make a few more pies this fall.

I used the zucchini bread and apple pie recipes in How to Cook Everything. The apple tart recipe is from Jenny at Picky Palate and available online right here.

What have you been baking lately? Has anyone else been slacking on the food pictures in recent months?

Saturday is Caturday

Are you ready to start your weekend with an amazing round up of kitty photos?

Killing me with the front foot crossed over the back foot.

What have your cats been up to lately?