Our hazelnut tree is ready for harvesting. I noticed this a couple days ago when I found several nuts on the ground. I collected the good ones and tried to pick a few loose ones from the tree. Now I just need to figure out what to do with them 🙂
If you haven’t already noticed, hazelnut trees are pretty unique looking. Their branches twist and curl into beautiful formations. Winter shows these formations at their best, without leaves to hide the tangled twigs.
I have a few more pictures to share that I took for class. These were taken of a sweet Golden Retriever that Todd & I spent a weekend with. We were at a house with our Christ Group friends for a couples retreat. The doggie ended up being a perfect subject for shutter speed experimentation.
I played with a slow shutter speed for my photography class (which is now over) and these are a few examples of what I got. The blue pictures are from a small LED keychain and the white is from a flashlight. Todd drew most of them which is hard to do. He is very talented, don’t you think? 😀
 
I have a few decorations up for fall. The wheat is from our yard that had fallen over a few months ago…hopefully you can can’t see the dirt 🙂 The bottom leaf pictures are of my burning bush, it is almost completely red.
Sad news indeed, our favorite animal cookies will soon be extinct! Mother’s Cookies recently went bankrupt and will be no more 😦 Not that I have ever bought them before, but I do remember eating them every now and then (mostly at church). Todd bought a couple bags for fun since this may be the last time…boohoo…sniff…sniff 🙂
This is what Jessica & I did with the 130 pounds of apples we picked last Saturday. We canned applesauce, lots and lots of applesauce. It only took 8 1/2 hours, a second degree burn, some nicks & cuts, and a little bit of sweat (from all the steam) to make! It really was a fun experience, despite the long process! The applesauce is really good too 🙂
 
 
It’s that time of year again when I desire to drink something hot just to stay warm! Since I don’t know how to make coffee at home (I’m pretty sure Woods Coffee & Starbucks do) I make tea. I am a little bit (but only a little bit) embarrassed to say I use tea bags. I know I know, tea bags from the grocery store, what am I thinking. Someday when I have used them all up I will buy loose leaf. Until then, I will enjoy my leaf powder that comes in such neat little bags … and … some even have strings 😉
Here is a panorama (full 360 if you were actually standing there) of our hike last week. Todd took the photos which turned out really well!
*You have to click the photo to see a larger view 🙂
Last Tuesday Todd took the day off work and we went on a hike. We headed up Mt Baker highway towards Twin Lakes. It was gorgeous! The colors of fall draped the mountain side with reds, oranges and yellows. The wild blueberries were still yummy, though a few tasted like apples which was … strange. And we didn’t run into a bear, just a friendly chipmunk 🙂
I think I needed a polarizer because the skies in several cool shots were overexposed. I don’t know if I could have fixed that with playing with the settings (like my AE lock, anybody?). The pictures not directly facing the sun turned out, oh well, I’m still learning 🙂
 
 
  
La Casa Blanca 