Today The Daily Artisan begins an occasional series of posts called “Bits and Bobs” featuring five random and brief things. While Americans use the term “Odds and Ends,” I’m using the British “Bits and Bobs” in honor of Queen Elizabeth, for whom I have great admiration!
The five items will come from subject matter relating to one or more of The Daily Artisan’s website categories for photography, baking, art, crafting, and creative lifestyle. They’ll be a quick read with one accompanying photograph for each item.
So, without further ado, here’s “Bits and Bobs – The First.”
SALE: 20% Off All 2022 Calendars by The Daily Artisan
Starting today, The Daily Artisan’s 2022 calendars are on sale 20% off while supplies last.
Featuring all original photographs by Susan Evans, the two calendars and their 12 months of photographs can be viewed at:
The Beautiful Blues: 2022 Calendar (12 Months) – The Beautiful Blues
Farm Fruits and Vegetables: 2022 Calendar (12 Months) – Farm Fruits and Vegetables
The photography backstories for the calendars can be read in a previous blog post. I had so much fun putting together these calendars from some of my favorite shots.
Coupon Code for 20% Savings:
At checkout in the Shop, enter coupon code CALOFF20 to take advantage of the 20% discount!
Be sure to get your 2022 calendar in time for the new year!
Birds and Cameras
Recently I posted about the challenges in taking photographs of birds when they suddenly swoop at your head just as you’re about to shoot!
During one of our recent foggy mornings, these three bird characters made their way to my backyard.
There’s no way I would get close enough to know this for sure (!), but they looked to be about 3′ tall.
I took a bunch of pictures of them, but only through the screen. I’ve learned my lesson with even smaller birds than these … and these three walked up with what looked to be a big bird attitude.
If you enlarge the photo, you can – safely – see their pretty red heads through the fog!
2020 Pandemic Escape with Camera
The time was July 2020, and people had been quarantining at home from work and the rest of normal life due to COVID-19.
Most of us had been home for three or four months by the time July of 2020 rolled around. We had no idea how long our changed world would last or what would come next.
Although I was working remotely pretty much around the clock, I started to get cabin fever around the time I saw online that the famous Nik Wallenda and his team were doing select shows outdoors to give people a needed break, and the one in Estero was about 10 minutes away from my house.
I got a first row parking pass, and on July 10 drove to Nik Wallenda’s Daredevil Rally – where I spent two glorious hours standing on my driver’s seat up through my SUV’s open sunroof. From this vantage point, I took hundreds of photographs of all the acts, and watching these amazing performers was more than just an amazing show that day.
As long as I live, I’ll always remember – for those couple of hours despite a global pandemic of fear – feeling free like I was soaring through the sky with these incredible performers, Nik Wallenda and his daredevils. I could feel the tension releasing and euphoria rising throughout the cheering crowd perched atop their vehicles – and although safely distanced – feeling connected for at least this greatly needed moment in time.
Homemade Bread and Pulled Pork on the Buffet Table
Some of my posts have talked about learning how to make breads earlier this year and also my favorite slow cooker that gets a lot of use in my house with browning and slowly cooking meats.
As you start getting a bit tired of all the Christmas leftovers … and you will … it’s great to have some non-ham, non-turkey items! Your family and guests will enjoy a buffet table set with items such as the ones shown in this photograph.
It’s an eight-hour, slooow cooked pork shoulder that easily becomes pulled pork barbecue when you use large forks to separate the tender meat – served next to a freshly baked loaf of oregano and thyme bread sliced for sandwiches.
This makes a delicious go-to dish that likely will be the star of your buffet table!
A Favorite Photograph and Memory
Some photographs and the moments behind them stick with you forever, and this is one that does for me.
It was a December early morning in Georgia with temperatures barely reaching 30 degrees. I remember throwing on duck boots and a heavy coat over my pajamas and running about a hundred yards with my camera to get the shot. I’d seen through the windows the way the rising sun was trying to burn off the heavy fog that laid over the lake, and I knew what I wanted.
It was so cold that I was breathless – and also from running – but I got to the old blue boathouse at just the moment when the golden sunlight was starting to show on the left (eastern) side of the skinny pine trees.
I’ve written about the golden hour and this was prime time for someone with a camera in her shivering hands!
I got the shot I wanted with the boathouse looking like it was floating on fog – much different than its brighter shot for the month of May in the 2022 The Beautiful Blues calendar.
Be sure to enlarge the photo to better see the boathouse’s mirror reflection in the water that was just starting to show through the fog. It was such a gorgeous scene and I still can taste the cold, fresh air that rushed through my lungs as I ran for the shot.
So, there’s the first Bits and Bobs from The Daily Artisan, and I hope you enjoyed these snippets as much as I did pulling them together!
