Happy Father's Day!

Dad, a photo by Teckelcar on Flickr.

I very cool picture of my father.

Flag Day

flags, a photo by Teckelcar on Flickr.

I took this picture on Monday simply because I liked the sky and how the flags were snapping in the breeze. I completely forgot about flag day and it wasn't until after dinner and I was trying to decide what to post that i remembered.

Even if it wasn't Flag Day I would still post this picture. The lighting and composition are just right. I did nothing to this picture it is straight out of my cell phone. Cell cameras have come a long way.

End of the Rainbow

Rainbow, a photo by Teckelcar on Flickr.

Just one more day.

One more day of getting up early to prod children out of day and bustling them out the door to meet the bus.

One more day of packing school lunches that might be eaten.

I can't wait for that day to be over.

Conversely I can't wait for the first day of school in September.

Artist of the Week: Castle

Dinosaur Max, a photo by Teckelcar on Flickr.

This week's artist is Max, pictured here during the class field trip to DC. He is posed in front of a sculpture of a triceratops skull in front of the National Museum of Natural History (very interesting story about the skull). The triceratops was at one point Max's absolute favorite dinosaur, so it struck me as the perfect backdrop. Max agreed and happily stood in front of the bronze replica.

Anyhoo, this is about the little castle Max made in art class. It just came home yesterday, but I took this picture almost two weeks ago when it was on exhibit at the main administrative building for the school district.

castle, a photo by Teckelcar on Fl

It was a lovely little thing, perfect with a myriad details. There is a cluster of small buildings within the castle's walls and an aqueduct  brings water to the hot and tired.

Baking With Julia- Savarin

Savarin, a photo by Teckelcar on Flickr.

Last week's challenge over at Baking with Julia was Savarin. Yes I'm a week late, but it is the end of school and things are even crazier than usual. Between potluck dinners, end of soccer season parties, and hey lets give 5th grade pizza for lunch, I've been a wee bit busy. Also in my defense I made a complete hash out of my first attempt.Fortunately all I wasted was an egg, a bit of flour, sugar, and yeast. I had enough sense to toss the flat mess and not just plow forward.

So as you can see by the picture here I was very successful in the end.

As I mentioned before in my first attempt, the bread base was a flat and miserable failure. The second time around I halved the rising times and doubled the dough. Combine that with  going  all out on greasing the ring mold, I had a far more successful go of it. It still slumped a bit, but once you start soaking the bread with simple syrup, splashing a bit of pear flavored vodka (the recipe called for pear eau-de-vie and that's the closest I was going to get without shopping, hurrah for freebie sample bottles come with the regular stuff), filling the hole with whipped cream and ladeling warm berry sauce on top, who cares.

I admit I was a bit dubious of the whole thing, I nibbled on the flop and found it wanting in flavor. However, the full on savarin was fantastic. I don't know if I'll make it again, it was easy but certainly required a huge amount of tarting up.

Bootsy Collins- Stretchin Out Live

Because we can all use a little more funk on a rainy Monday.

Land Shark

land shark, a photo by Teckelcar on Flickr.

A few weeks ago I was in the woods, camera in hand, when I stumbled onto this fallen tree. Now I know it doesn't look like an actual shark, but the worn protrusions that flare out from the base of the tree look an awful like a dorsal fin of some sort of sea going creature.

Anyhoodle, I liked the tree and took a picture.

So what do you think it looks like?