Weekly Top Shot #67 - Bald Eagle

This is a good time of the year for spotting eagles.  While driving around on Lummi Island we spotted this eagle high atop a tree.

One of the nice things about eagles is that they will sit for a long time so you can get that perfect shot.

Linking to Week Top Shot #67

Photo Art Friday - Hardware

Theme for this week for Photo Art  is Hardware.  Lots of ideas for that - my final choice was this old hardware on a barn.  I like the make-do of using a piece of what looks like bicycle chain for part of the hinge.  This piece of Hardware has had some Hard Wear.

While this photo already looked old, I used the "pinch" function to give it that wavy effect.  I think it aged the photo even more.

Original image - love the chain for a hinge.

Linking to Photo Art Friday

A Very Good Eagle Day

Whenever we leave the house I have all three cameras with me - they fit in one camera bag - along with extra flash cards, lots of freshly charged batteries and my tripod.  My eyes scan the trees and roadsides for birds, I let my eyes wander a bit looking for fences, or mailboxes, or rock walls - then back to the trees and sky.  On our latest trip to Lynden to find Clydesdales, I spotted a lot of eagles - some were not in a place where I could get a good shot - but others were.

 .

A young eagle sitting in a tree .  .  .

Another sitting on the tip top of a tree.  We backed into a parking lot so I could get a good view of this eagle.  People slowed their cars as they went past - looking to see just what I was taking pictures of.

 I've done that before, have you? I see someone stopped along the road - with a telescope or a camera and I always want to know what they are looking at.  Sometimes I find something good - sometimes I find nothing and sometimes I stop and ask what they see. One certainly doesn't want to miss an opportunity.

Farther along, almost in to town, we find this beauty.  Just sitting up in  a tree, waiting for lunch I suppose.

Closer to town, there is a tree with an eagle's nest, right over the river, but I've never seen eagles there before. And what luck - both eagles were in the tree this day.

This is a close up of the nest - taken a couple years ago -  no eagles at that time, but I had a chance to stop on the bridge and get the photo, from a slightly different angle than today's photos.

The wind is blowing the feathers of the eagle out to the left .  .  .

Closer view of the windblown eagle .  .  .  I'm talking WIND

This is the second eagle - the one sitting nearer the nest - I couldn't get as clear a shot of this one.  This is nesting season so I am assuming that the eggs have hatched and the parents are taking a little break, and perhaps fishing for lunch for the eaglets.

It was a very good eagle day.

National Pie Day

What a grand day - National Pie Day (and some say March 14 should be National Pie Day - but why not have two?  One can never have too many pies.  There are so many pies.

An apple pie - oh so delicious - I think that is the pie I am going to bake today (since Don is bringing home some Granny Smith apples after work)

Chicken Pot Pie by Ina Garten - now how bad could that be?

And Frito Pie - oh my.  I love this portable idea - not sure hot tidy it would be - but looks good.

Grasshopper pie - which, by the way is not made with grasshoppers.  Although in the early 1900s you could get a REAL grasshopper pie in the Phillipines, full of real, honest to goodness crunchy grasshoppers.  I'll take my grasshopper pie with a cookie crust and mint flavoring, thankyewverymuch.

And Boston Cream Pie - neither from Boston - nor a pie - but delicious.  .  .

And on pinterest you can find funny pies .  .  .

Don't forget Shepherd's Pie - a good way to use up that leftover stew and leftover mashed potatoes.

In Bellingham there is a company named Man Pies - and Man, do they have good pies. They sell them at the Farmers' Market as well as at their store.  Fillings are dessert or meal pies - Don likes the vegetable and beef Man Pies.

MAN PIES  

Man Pies - ohhh good!!!

And I'll give you one recipe - the others you have to hunt up on your own.  This one looks like so much fun - hollow out apples - mix up the apple pie filling - put it back in the apple shells - add some lattice pie crust and bake - oh I think I'm in heaven.

Apple Pie baked in the Apple

Serves: 4

Ingredients
½ recipe  pie crust ( single layer)
6 medium Granny Smith Apples
1 teaspoon flour
½ teaspoon cloves (optional)
½ teaspoon cinnamon
½ cup sugar
1 tablespoon sugar
½ teaspoon cinnamon

Instructions
Preheat oven to 375 degrees
Prepare and roll out your pie crust.
Wash apples and cut the tops of of four of them (do not peel). Hollow out the core and some of the apple to make an apple bowl.
Place in an 8×8 glass baking dish - spray first to avoid sticking
Peel, core and dice the other 2 apples and place in a small bowl.  Use some of the apple from the apple bowls if there is any.

Add next four ingredients to apple pieces and stir to mix
Spoon apple mixture into your apple bowls. Pack slightly and fill to the top.

Cut pastry strips about 4 inches by ½ inch.

Place 4 strips (or more if you like) of the pie crust onto each apple in a lattice pattern 

Combine 1 tablespoon sugar and ½ teaspoon cinnamon in a small bowl and sprinkle on top of the pie crust lattice pattern on each apple.

Sprinkle any remaining cinnamon sugar onto left over pie crust strips and place on a parchment covered cookie sheet.

Bake 30-40 minutes until crust is golden and apple is soft
.
Bake cinnamon sugar pie crust strips for 15 minutes or until golden.
Remove from oven and allow to cool 5-10 minutes before moving out of the dish ( they are soft and can break if you are not careful).
Serve warm with a scoop of vanilla ice cream.

Happy National Apple Day  -  what is your favorite pie?

Scavener Hunt Sunday

This is something new and fun - we get clues for the week and then have to hunt for photos to match the clues.  I loved scavenger hunts when I was a kid - so this should be great.

Our list for this week is

Basket

Park

Auto

Recycle

People Watching

Basket

These crab pots lined up on a dock give me the idea of tiny, organized baskets.  .  .

A basket of suet for the Flicker.  .  .

Park

Tiny little seaside park on Lummi Island - it would be great to be in these little cabins on great stormy night.

Silver Lake County Park - this is the view from the deck of our cabin - breathtaking.

OR - Park it here and relax. .  .

Auto

Pedal Car from the 50s - every kid's dream.  .  .

Thunderbird - no longer thundering.  .  .

Re"tired" - parked for good.

Recycle

Also on Lummi Island - people decorate their little beach cabins with recycled items - here they used crab pot floats.

And some of the beach cabins are purely for decoration - with recycled people peeking out.  .  .


Bird feeder made with recycled wood.  .  .

People Watching

Waiting to furl the sail - all in a row.  .  . 

Watch the view - watch people go by.  .  .

Weekly Top Shot #66 - Fog

We had plans to go out today and take pictures in the promised afternoon sunshine.  We started out around noon - and the sun never really did appear for anything more than a brief second - but oh the fog shots I got today - amazing.  I like fog - it gives a special look to everything that it covers - this is the big cemetery outside Bellingham - we found a break in the hedge of tall cedars - just the spot for some fog pictures.

 The softness - the sweet spirits wandering about - the quiet - it was a good day.

Weekly Top Shot

Writing - and tomatoes

Here's a new challenge for me - Saturday Centus - we have a prompt and then write something - any style, but it must be 100 words.  Now that will be a challenge for me, as I tend to be wordy (you noticed?)  This photo is our prompt - and we may add more photos if we like - so here goes.  The cast is my two Grandsons,  Donnie and Ben, last summer.

A boy loves his tomatoes.

Yumm!.

Lots work to getting a tomato - gardening on the deck.

Gotta water!

Hey - anybody in there want to give a guy a hand?

Have a tomato.

Never mind, someone's calling on this paper plate - I  have to take this one.

 A boy needs to take a rest with his daddy after all this hard work.

 

Lawn mowing - more work for a boy.

 Awww come on - don't you want a tomato?  There are lots of them, Auntie Lori grows good tomatoes.

Eat them on the steps.  .  . 

Eat them in the grass .  .  . 

Eat two at once .  .  .

Delicious.