Merry Christmas!

Hope everyone had a nice holiday. On to New Year's Day.

Begonias and grass, PVIC

This is the opposite of my theory of dig and plant, plan later.

Graceful graffiti, Nocatee

A nice hand.

Pipe, Nocatee

The area around the huge, mostly empty new Publix supermarket has suddenly sprung to life. Signs of an easing in the housing market. There are a lot of houses going up and a lot of people employed, good things.

Dangerous hydrant, Nocatee

Within a year this will be in the middle of a small development. It's been waiting for years due to the recession.

Red and yellow, Winn Dixie

Dumpster, Winn Dixie

Electric service, behind Winn Dixie

Ducks for Daniel 2

these are in a pond behind the Winn Dixie here in town.

Spell check!!

They had room for at least the 'e'.

Choppers and dolphins, Dock, Roscoe

The Navy trains their copter pilots up and down the Intracoastal a lot.

Chair and lace, Roscoe

Pine needles, Nocatee

The light is low and from the south now and there are wonderful shadows. I saw all kinds of things in the shadows.

Small pond, Nocatee

Fence and pole, Nocatee

This was taken at the start of a new walk in Nocatee. I park at the huge new Publix (a supermarket) there and have a good two or three mile walk around the area. It is so planned and so evenly laid out. A big difference from my normal surroundings.

Water service, Nocatee

Nice to see a little different color on these.

Palm totem, Nocatee

Game hens for Thanksgiving.

For the last two or three years our daughter and granddaughter, both vegans, have been here for Thanksgiving. Instead of a turkey we have had a Celebration Roast, sold at Whole Foods, and a very good substitute. Made of soy protein and shaped like a meatloaf, it has cranberry and stuffing and is very filling. They weren't here this year and our other two children were, one of whom is vegetarian. We all decided that turkey wasn't the tastiest bird and we were out of practice cooking one. So I downgraded to three game hens. Much tastier and easy to grill. They were great and I got to use my timing technique...see below.

Timing the birds, Thanksgiving, Roscoe

This is my grill watching apparatus. Put birds on, set timer, pour wine, sit, sip, watch.

The defender, MSD

He didn't bark until I took his picture.

Leaf, driveway, Roscoe

I started shooting leaves in France this year, as it was Autumn and there were numerous beautiful leaves on the ground. I have continued looking down now that I'm home.

Lonely hydrant, Nocatee

This poor guy sits at the edge of a large marsh. No houses nearby. Sort of a French locale.

My first loaf.

This is a book recommended by Mark Bittman of the N.Y. Times. It claims to be a dead easy, no kneading method for making a heavy crusted yet soft centered loaf of bread. This is the result of my first try. I mixed the four ingredients(flour, salt, yeast and water) in a big bowl,  and covered the bowl, no kneading, for 18 hours. Then moved the dough to a large dish towel for a second rise of 90 minutes. Then the dough goes into a cast iron Dutch oven that's been preheated in a 475f oven. The pot goes in, covered, for 30-45 minutes, then back in, uncovered, for another 25 minutes and voila, this is what I got. True to the book, it was very crusty with an incredibly moist crumb (which is what we professional bakers call the interior of a loaf:-)) We had it with broccoli cheese soup last night and I had a sandwich on it today. Still moist and very tasty. I recommend the book heartily.