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Dabbling

I’ve taken on a side project lately that I hope may one day become more than a side project. I may or may not tell y’all about it one day. Don’t worry, it’s nothing Earth-shattering, super-exciting, or anything most of you would care about anyway. That side project, however, requires images. And if there’s anything I have lots of, it’s images. Right? You know, pictures.

Hubby makes fun of me because I have this horrible habit of NOT deleting the shots I don’t want. Because I might want and/or need them one day.

I am a digital image HOARDER. Gasp!

Anyway…

There’s this one image I edited recently that I just love. I don’t know why. You may not even like it. In fact, you might hate it. But I like it.

I took this ordinary picture of Hubby’s grandfather’s outhouse…

Pop Hallock's Outhouse (straight out of camera (SOOC), i.e., unedited)

And I turned it into a photo with a vintage look. Except I left the outhouse red…

Pop Hallock's Outhouse with a Vintage Look

Which of these images do you prefer? The SOOC shot or the one with the vintage look? Here they are side-by-side to make it easier on you.

SOOC or Vintage? You be the judge.

Really, I’d love to know what you think.

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Never a Dull Moment

Recently, a self-proclaimed left-brained photographer left a comment right here on this very blog. Which is awesome. I love getting comments from new readers. Anyway…

Me being me (I am afflicted with CRS syndrome), I couldn’t remember if left-brained is more analytical or more creative. I was headed to the kitchen for some pretzel nuggets, i.e., lunch, so I popped in to ask Hubby.

“Do you remember…” I began, “which side of the brain is analytical and which is creative? You know, like what kind of person is right-brained or left-brained?”

He sort of rolled his eyes, sighed theatrically (after 17 years he is completely used to me asking weird questions) and said, “I don’t know which one is left-brained and which one is right-brained. All I know is that no brained is called a Terry.”

It’s a good thing I wasn’t already eating a pretzel nugget, I may have choked at that one. Yeah, it was a little mean. But it was also pretty funny (and appropriate).

In all honesty, I wasn’t going to share that little gem of a story here on the Blog. But it slipped. (Here’s a link in case I got you wondering about the left brain/right brain thing.)

Every now and then, Hubby comes up with some pretty good stuff.

Like one year after Thanksgiving. It’s typically my job to decorate for Christmas and his job to box everything up post-holiday. He’s very careful and neat, too. After I’d taken my snowman cookie jar out of its box and carefully removed it from its plastic bag, I found a hand-written note that said something like, “Help me! I can’t breathe!”

Okay, that wasn’t hilarious, but it struck me pretty funny at the time.

This next story is funnier…

If you read my blog a few posts ago where I mentioned our upcoming motorcycle tour, you know I had to buy a pair of leather chaps. I’ve been wanting some for a while. They help keep you warm AND are safer for motorcycle riding. But I just hadn’t taken the plunge.

There’s a joke in our family about these things. At Christmas a few years back, Hubby was pretty excited when he received a pair as a gift. Shannon’s ex, Daniel, found it hysterical that Hubby had gotten ass-less leather chaps for Christmas and was happy about it. That’s because Daniel was picturing this sort of man in ass-less chaps.

Ever since then, we never just call them chaps. How boring! We always call them “ass-less leather chaps.” And yes, once I’d placed the order for a pair of my own, I was pretty excited.

Every day this week, I’ve been asking, “Did Fed-Ex come yet?” The answer was always no.

Finally, today, while I was on a phone call, they arrived. Hubby was kind enough to collect the box from the Fed-Ex dude. He even delivered it to me in my office and put it face down on my lap.

The Long-awaited Package

“Oh, look. The box says stuff like ‘leather’ and ‘hawk’ and ‘outlaw’,” I said. I have a biker image to uphold you know.

Then I turned the box over.

Check Out the Hand-written Message

Now THAT was funny.

I was going to share a picture of me wearing them (I HAD to try them on), but they looked really dorky over my baby-blue flannel PJs…

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A LOVEly Day

Yesterday was awesome.

The skies were clear, the air was cool. Spring trees are still in bloom.

Beautiful Weather
Redbuds Still in Bloom (notice the heart-shaped leaf?)
Blooming Redbud and Dogwood with Blue Sky Backdrop
New Growth
More New Growth

Flowering trees. New Growth everywhere. Peace. Quiet.

I just love living in the middle of the woods.

A Glimpse of Our Woods

Temps were a little cool for a motorcycle ride. We could’ve maybe done a bicycle ride, but we had to unclog a culvert instead. Fun, right?

“Fun” is not always about what you’re doing, or where you are doing it, but about who you are doing it with.

Hubby Clearing the Culvert
A Lot of Dirt and Gravel was Clogging the Pipe

Of course there are no pictures of me working, though I did help. Really. It was my job moving  the muck Hubby dragged out of the pipe.

“Fun” might not be the right word to describe the endeavor, but it was still a good day. Because we were together. And togetherness is especially important when it’s your 17th wedding anniversary.

Old Couple, Odd Couple or Happy Couple? You be the judge...

The only thing that might’ve made it better would have been to have some kids or grandkids around. At least we have our furkids.

Mama Posing with the Girls

We capped the day off with a drive to our favorite Hampshire County restaurant, El Puente in Capon Bridge.

Driving into Downtown Capon Bridge

It really was a LOVEly day.

Our 17th anniversary.

Wow.

Time really does fly.

We’re both thankful for all the good times we’ve shared over the past 17 years and look forward to more togetherness in the future.

Happy Anniversay to us!

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Biking the C&O Canal

As Spring days go, yesterday was about as good as it gets. It was cool, but not too cool, with sunny skies and low humidity, which meant the air was clear and the sky was blue. A great day for a bicycle ride.

For the first time since we built the WV place, Hubby and I put our bikes in the truck and headed for Oldtown, Maryland, one of the access points for the C & O Canal.

Hubby Biking from the Parking Area to the Towpath

As luck would have it, Oldtown is just 15 miles from the WV place. Unless it’s been raining. Then we’d have to drive MUCH further. There’s a privately owned toll bridge that crosses the Potomac River between Oldtown, Maryland and Greenspring, West Virginia, but it’s a low water bridge. That means, if the water is running high because of recent heavy rains and/or snow melt, the bridge will be under water. (I wrote about the bridge in a previous post.)

Seriously, the weather could not have been any nicer. And every single turtle that lives in the canal was out enjoying it.

More Turtles Than You Could Ever Imagine

There were turtles everywhere. Pretty much every log or large rock that stuck out of the water had a turtle on it. Click on the image above, look closely and see how many turtles you can count. I see at least 20.

Both Hubby and I agreed that we’d never seen so many turtles before  in our entire lives. There were turtles of all shapes and sizes. If there’s a picture here that shows an empty log in the water, chances are good I got too close and the turtle or turtles that were on the log dove into the water to escape.

Hubby Riding Toward the Town Creek Aqueduct

I don’t know how many times we have driven or ridden our motorcycles past signs for the Town Creek Aqueduct. Just last week I told Hubby that one of these days I wanted to stop to see what it was. Now I know. The Town Creek Aqueduct is basically a water bridge that carried the canal across Town Creek. That section of the canal is empty now, which is why Hubby is biking through it, but the structure itself is still standing.

The Town Creek Aqueduct

It was extremely quiet and peaceful along the canal. Check out this next picture of the towpath as it continues beyond Town Creek.

C & O Canal Towpath Looking East From Town Creek

If we hadn’t gotten such a late start AND if our tender tushes were more-accustomed to riding, we would have continued for another 5 miles to Paw Paw. But we’d already ridden just under 5 miles and we still had to ride back to Oldtown, which is where we’d parked the truck. We’ll go farther one day…

Virginia Bluebonnets Blooming Alongside the Towpath
Recent Sign of Beavers Sharpening Their Teeth

We didn’t see any Beavers. They tend to be pretty bashful and are usually seen early or late in the day, not at midday, which is when we were there. I did see a Muskrat, though. He was floating in the water only a couple of feet away. I could tell he thought I didn’t see him, because he just laid there staring at me. Until I reached for my camera, that is. I don’t have any pictures of the little guy, so you’ll just have to trust me.

C & O Canal Towpath, Somewhere Between Oldtown and Town Creek

It really was a gorgeous ride. We are most definitely going to go back. If not before then, definitely in May or June when the Mountain Laurel are in bloom. This hill is covered…

Cliff Face Covered in Mountain Laurel

Despite only having my point-and-shoot camera along, I got some decent pictures. There are too many to post here on the blog, so I hope you’ll take a few minutes to check out my C& O Canal set at Flickr, which is where the rest of the shots are posted.

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A Change of Pace (Sorta)

For the last 10 days, I’ve focused on snow, dogs, more snow, dogs, more snow, the food we eat in the snow, dogs,  snow, critters the dogs chase in the snow, etc. It’s gotten a bit, um, repetitive.

But not today. Today I actually get to focus on people. People that came to visit Hubby and I today. Wanna know who?

Amy and the Grandkids

Amy and her kids. I didn’t have a lot of time to spend with them, since I don’t get snow days, but I did manage to get a few good pictures.

Joey

Um, most of the pics are of the kids playing in the SNOW. Sorry. That’s why this is only sort of a change of pace.

Walking the Doggie Trails

There’s quite a network of dog trails in our backyard. The bigger kids didn’t have too much trouble navigating.

Joey Trying to Walk the Doggie Trails

Remember, we’ve had 45 inches of snow. I don’t know how tall Joey is, but he’s nowhere near that tall. The little guy was struggling.

Brianna and Gaige

I was leading the kids through the network of doggie trails. We were at the other end of the yard when Joey said, “G. My go inside.” He was tired of struggling through the white stuff. So tired, that he decided to go off trail for a short-cut. Big mistake. The trails are compacted and relatively easy to walk on. Joey isn’t very heavy, so he didn’t sink too much. Until he laid on his belly and slid off the wall into virgin snow.

As you will see in the following image, he got stuck.

Joey Stuck in the Snow

I had to doctor the image a bit. Joey was not too happy about being stuck in the snow and he was panicking, so I didn’t have time for adjustments and my image was severely overexposed. After a couple of tugs on his arm, I did manage to pull him out. Unfortunately, one of his boots was left behind so Amy had to come to the rescue.

Brianna

Joey was perfectly happy to go back into the house with Pop.

Hubby (aka "Pop") and Joey

To see the rest of the shots, you’ll have to visit my Flickr page. Sorry, but it would take an eternity to post all of them here.

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Homemade Goodness

I have an awesome Hubby. It’s been awhile since I told you that, so I think it’s about time.

Wanna know what inspired this particular gush of Hubby-gloat? If you are still reading, you must. Since a picture is worth a thousand words, I’ll show you…

I jumped to this photo on purpose. I think it’s a cool shot AND I wanted to keep the suspense going, at least for some of you. Others, I know, probably know where this post is heading. (Like Shannon, who I should just apologize to now, because there’s a pretty good chance this post might make her a teeny bit homesick. Or hungry. Or both.)

Let me back up a bit…

Does this shot help? I doubt it. I mean, I took the picture. I know what this is, but you can’t really tell just by looking at this shot, which I think sort of resembles a mud pit.

How about now? Is this better?

That amazing Hubby of mine made CINNAMON ROLLS yesterday. From scratch.

His cinnamon rolls are quite tasty. Very. Heck, they’re downright delectable.

As I was taking these pictures, I was thinking to myself, “My blog is going to end up looking all Pioneer Woman-ish.” Which is cool, ’cause I love the Pioneer Woman. That wasn’t my goal, though. I just love the way food pictures turn out when shot with my 50mm prime lens (if you are at all into photography, there’s a good discussion on the lens thing here).

Hubby didn’t even complain that I was all in his way as he carefully rolled the buttery-cinnamon-sugar-laden dough. He’s nice like that. Or he knows that after almost 17 years of marriage it’s best to just shut up sometimes (i.e., often) and humor your wife. Maybe it’s a little of both.

Look at that focus!

Yes, this image is a repeat. But I like it. Not only do I think it is sort of artsy, it’s a great example of where the “roll” in cinnamon rolls comes from. If you’ve never seen them made, you may not have known that.

Let’s say you knew that the dough is rolled as part of the cinnamon-roll-making process. Did you know how the soft, squishy dough is cut without being all smushed? A knife would totally smush the things so you’d end up with oddly misshapen ovals instead of circles.

The cutting tool of choice for this particular baker (aka Hubby) is dental floss. Not the minty kind either. Just plain, ole dental floss.

See how neatly it slices the dough?

Here’s another artsy shot. Click on the image so you can see the big version if you really want to appreciate the artiness of the shot.

See how nice and round they are?

The next step is baking. You may need to let the rolls sit for a while first. I’m not sure. The baker is not downstairs yet, so I can’t ask. But it doesn’t really matter because this isn’t a how-to post, it’s one of my I-bet-I-can-make-you-hungry posts.

Because I had to leave, I was not able to get a shot of the steamy, fresh-from-the-oven rolls. I missed the whole making of the cream cheese icing, too. In all honesty, I even forgot to take a picture of the finished product until after I’d consumed one (okay, two) and was going through these pictures.

However, knowing at least some of my faithful fans would want to see the end product, I did what any good blogger would do and made sure I got at least one good shot so I could include a shot of the ready-to-eat cinnamon rolls in today’s post…

Now, if you will excuse me, I need to go grab myself a cinnamon roll. Or two.