Weekly Photo 20/52 for 2013: Little Bird

Weekly Photo 20/52 for 2013: Little Bird by Kristen Koster on FlickrToday’s weekly photo post continues the urban wildlife theme. We have a variety of birds that visit our back yard. Humming birds, some little yellow songbirds, a pair of hawks and we can hear an owl nearby at night.

I’m not sure exactly what type this little guy is, but I think he may be a junco? The ones we have love sitting on things that poke up. Like the chairs, the sprinkler heads, the head for the half-barrel fountain. Sometimes they sit in nearby trees or on the roof lines. But this little guy was happily sitting on one of the patio chairs when the dog decided he was invading HER space and told him off in no uncertain terms.

Settings: Sony A33-SLT • 1/500 • ƒ/5.6 • ISO 1000 • 300 mm

Weekly Photo 18 & 19 / 52 for 2013: Happy Dog & Rose

Weekly Photo 18/52 for 2013: Happy Dog by Kristen Koster on FlickrI got behind on posting my weekly photo last week, so you get a double dose again today. The kids are amazed that Olivia is quite comfortable laying this way. Of course, this dog lays in all sorts of ways I wouldn’t think were comfortable either. One of her favorites is upside down on her back on the hard tile. It’s cooler I guess.

Weekly Photo 19/52 for 2013: Rose for Mother's Day by Kristen Koster on FlickrWe have a line of roses that runs across the hill behind our pool. I don’t think two of the varieties are the same and there are probably a dozen bushes along the row. Some are very dark, but I always seem to miss their peak blooms. Most of the others have variegated blooms and the colors range there from pale pink to almost a cantaloupe color to dark pink. Again, I’ve missed the peak of the blooms, but found this one interesting in how the edges of the petals contrasted with the rest of the bloom.

Weekly Photo 17/52 for 2013: Clover Among The Rocks

Weekly Photo 17/52 for 2013: Clover Among The Rocks by Kristen Koster on FlickrToday’s weekly photo post is not a flower and it’s not purple! We still have plenty of those in the yard. One of the things that fascinates me about the vegetation here is how persistent it is. When and where there’s enough water, it will grow. Several of the streets have cracks in the pavement, and sure enough, grass grows because of the aggressive irrigation. These clovers have decided to grow despite

We’ve been inundated by urban wildlife this week. We have a pair of turkeys who have moved along the ditch between our drive and the neighbors’. I finally caught a picture of them on my iPhone the other day. Today, we had a young Southern Pacific Rattlesnake on the patio today, but while that photo was good enough to use for identification, it wasn’t a great shot and I didn’t think my mom really wanted to see it. She’s going to freak as it is. There are also the various hummingbirds and songbirds who visit the yard, but after the spectacle of the snake, I saw a new bird with really long tailfeathers that I didn’t recognize, but I think was a roadrunner. By the time I grabbed my camera and switched lenses, he was gone.

Settings: Sony A33-SLT • 1/500 • ƒ/5.6 • ISO 1600 • 300 mm

Weekly Photo 14/52 for 2013: Birthday Bouquet

Weekly Photo 14/52 for 2013: Birthday Bouquet by Kristen Koster on FlickrToday’s weekly photo post prolongs my birthday celebration from Wednesday. These are the Peruvian lillies my mom sent and DH’s family also sent flowers too so even inside our house looks like Spring now! Hopefully everyone is starting to enjoy a little Spring in their corner of the world, well except for those of you in Australia or New Zealand and other areas south of the equator… time to snuggle up for some Autumn coziness!

If you’re curious about some trivia from my birthday, check out this post from 5 years ago where I did a Thursday Thirteen round-up of things that happened on April 3, 1968. And yeah… now you know exactly how old I am. And some days I feel it, plus a couple decades. =)

Thanks to everyone who sent me Happy Birthday wishes from all over the internet, they were greatly appreciated!

Weekly Photo 13/52 for 2013

Weekly Photo 13/52 for 2013: Easter 2013 by Kristen Koster on FlickrI missed posting Sunday’s weekly photo, but I did take pictures last week! I didn’t like the way most of the ones of the white flowers came out, too over-exposed. I’ll have to find a better time of day for those. I’m still not happy with my candid shots of people.

Anyway, I hope everyone that celebrates had a great Easter Weekend. If you don’t celebrate, then I hope your weekend was fantastic too!

I couldn’t decide which Easter bunny I liked better, so you get both! The dog definitely found the “SPROING” noise that the ears made when squeezed on that red dot very interesting. That’s why she’s jumping up to grab the ears from off my daughter’s head. Olivia did sit still to pose with them for a bit, but only if someone sat with her to distract her from trying to paw that thing off her head.

Settings: Sony A33-SLT • Oops, I don’t have this handy since I combined the two into one.

Weekly Photo 12/52 for 2013: Iceplant

Weekly Photo 12/52 for 2013: Iceplant by Kristen Koster on FlickrToday’s weekly photo post could be considered cruel and unusual punishment for those of you stuck in winter mode. Here, spring has definitely sprung and the hills are green (this is usually seen as a bad thing here because by fall it will make abundant tinder for raging wildfires) and the flowers and trees are blooming. From the amount of pollen on our cars, I’d think we were back in Austin, TX. I’ve never seen it so thick here. I got to watch a stand of pines dump pollen on a couple of students walking beneath them the other day. A good strong breeze caught the trees and it looked like someone had taken a huge bottle of yellow talcum power and dumped on them.

The iceplant pictured here is a succulent that’s used for sunny hillsides and in some of the medians on the streets. Once it gets in full bloom, like phlox, it looks like someone came along with a bucket of bright magenta paint and stood and swung it. Apparently, it also spreads to cover the area really well and can be quite invasive as well. Good thing it’s pretty.

Settings: Sony A33-SLT • 1/100 • ƒ/5.6 • ISO 100 • 35 mm

Weekly Photo 11/52 for 2013: Flowering Hedge

Weekly Photo 11/52 for 2013: Flowering Hedge by Kristen Koster on FlickrToday’s weekly photo post is NOT a daisy! Spring is starting to burgeon here in full force. It’s been in the low 80s this week and the flowers are loving it.

This also means that it’s warmer at night and that means foggy mornings. I was going to grab a shot of the sun coming over the hills this morning, but I got sidetracked and by the time I remembered I had been going to grab my camera, the effect I was looking at had gone.

Timing is everything. Ok, maybe not EVERYTHING, but certainly a huge chunk of getting some of those great shots! The other day I was coming back from school and a plane flew between me and the summit and the way the sun flashed off it was very cool, but of course, the plane veered off and I didn’t have my camera with me, let alone turned on and ready.

Settings: Sony A33-SLT • 1/100 • ƒ/5.6 • ISO 250 • 55 mm

Weekly Photo 10/52 for 2013: Purple Daisy 2

Weekly Photo 10/52 for 2013: Purple Daisy 2 by Kristen Koster on FlickrToday’s weekly photo post is another of the purple daisies from our front steps. The photo didn’t quite come out how I wanted it to. The flower itself looked as if it were purple in the center and white on the tips of the petals.

I should have gone back inside to grab my Sony, but we were heading out to the dog park with Olivia. Didn’t think to take pictures over there either.

It was rainy here last week, so we should be getting some more variety in what’s blooming soon as the temps this week are expected back in the upper 70s if not 80s.

Settings: iPhone 4S • 1/120 • ƒ/2.4 • ISO 50 • 4.3 mm

Weekly Photo 9/52 for 2013: Cheese Steak Peppers

Weekly Photo 9/52 for 2013: Philly Cheese Steak Peppers by Kristen Koster on FlickrToday’s weekly photo post is of our lunch the other day and it probably looks familiar if you follow me on Twitter or Facebook. The original recipe for Philly Cheese Steak Peppers had a few things we don’t typically like, so I fiddled a little.

Settings: Sony SLT-A33 • 1/50 • ƒ/4.5 • ISO 1000 • 28 mm

Philly Cheese Steak Peppers

8 oz sliced Roast Beef
8 slices provolone cheese
2 large green peppers
1 medium onion (I used ready-cut diced onions and eyeballed it)
4 oz jar of Green Giant sliced mushrooms
2-3 Tbs butter
1 Tbsp minced garlic
1 pinch salt and pepper

Preheat your oven to 400˚F (205˚C).

Slice peppers in half lengthwise and remove ribs and any seeds.

Slice onions and mushrooms, if they’re not already. Sauté over medium heat with butter, minced garlic and a pinch of salt and pepper. Sauté until veggies are soft and begin to caramelize.

Slice roast beef into thin strips (small squares might work better) and add meat to the onions and mushrooms in the pan. Cook 5-10 minutes, tossing well to blend.

Line the inside of each pepper with a slice of provolone cheese. Push it down in there. Then, fill peppers with 1/4 of meat mixture each. They shouldn’t quite overflow. If you’re worried, stuff it down in there tighter. Top with another slice of cheese. (I folded these in half so they fit our peppers better and more would end up on the meat and not the bottom of the baking dish.)

Bake for 15 to 20 minutes until cheese on top is golden brown. (We baked ours for the full 20 minutes and the cheese was too dark for our liking and the peppers were still a bit crunchy. You could solve this by blanching or nuking the peppers slightly before stuffing and adding the cheese on 5 minutes into cooking.)

Weekly Photo 8/52 for 2013: Fungi

Weekly Photo 8/52 for 2013: Fungi by Kristen Koster on Flickr

Today’s weekly photo post is of the giant fungi growing on our dying willow tree. There are several of this variety at the base of the trunk and on a couple of the higher branches. There’s also small white fungi along the upper branches that almost make it look snow covered. Yeah. Not likely here, right?

We’re going to have to call someone to take this tree down. One substantial branch already fell and several more were trimmed off. It’s a pretty sad-looking specimen at this point.

Settings: Sony SLT-A33 • 1/500 • ƒ/5.6 • ISO 100 • 250 mm