Through the open window…

Posted on January 10, 2013 by backyardsisters

A coyote yips and howls. I don’t know what time it is, still dark. The Siamese jumps onto the sill, presses her body against the screen, hackles raised. She emits a low moan. In the distance an owl hoots and the dog rumbles a half-hearted growl. J still sleeps, so I get up to close the window and notice a pinking sky over the mountains. The cat and dog settle back down, tightly tucking into furry curls against the January chill. But for me, the night is over.

Today, this not-the-first-of-the-year, but this ordinary-Thursday-when-the-holiday-rush-has-finally-faded is my annual Life Visioning day. It begins when I light a candle against the dawn.

Actually I begin every day by lighting a candle and spending moments deep in reflection.

What am I grateful for from the previous day?

a little dancing after dinner
candles on the hearth
neighbors who share homegrown oranges

With a smile and fortitude from recalling all that’s good, I next invite my sacred heart space to be bathed by a divine floodlight where I cannot hide, not even from myself. I think back to the day before, and remember ways I did and didn’t act in alignment with my values and intentions. Can I repeat what went right? Can I correct the imbalances that caused failure?

I set me intentions for this day, write my to-do list within this womb of new dawn freshness. Then, I pray. I trace the presence of my family and friends upon my hands, using one index finger I begin at each fingertip recalling a name, a need, until the faces and the names of all those who are close to me are joined in the center of my heart-side palm.

I leave this meditation time by rejoining the entire human chain with an invocation for peace and love, “For those who will be born today, and those who will die.” Each month I also add a special intention. My January focus is, “For those who struggle with addiction or mental illness and for those who care for and try to love them.” I join my hands together, press them to my heart, bow to the sunrise and begin my “real” day.

Oh my goodness, telling you all this was difficult.

I’m an intensely private person by nature. There were years and years and when I didn’t even tell my own husband that I prayed, let alone that I meditated and lit candles in the dark and drew his name upon my palm.

Why change?

Maybe I’ve decided that being myself is something I should do publicly.

Maybe I wrote, be yourself out loud on my to-do list this morning and it’s too early in the year to break promises to myself.

It is, in fact, right in the middle of the month the Backyard Sisters have dedicated to focus and while Susan will tell you how to focus your camera, I am relegated to suggesting ways to focus your writing life.

I learn today that the word focus comes from the Latin focus, meaning “hearth, fireplace.

focus (n.) 1640s, from L. focus “hearth, fireplace” (also, figuratively, “home, family”), of unknown origin, used in post-classical times for “fire” itself, taken by Kepler (1604) in a mathematical sense for “point of convergence,” perhaps on analogy of the burning point of a lens (the purely optical sense of the word may have existed before Kepler, but it is not recorded). Introduced into English 1650s by Hobbes. Sense transfer to “center of activity or energy” is first recorded 1796.

Inspired by the connectivity to the word focus and home, as nurturing my family ties always rises to the top of any priority list, I reread my last year’s life vision and adjust paragraphs or sections that no longer seem important. I focus on the lines that have followed me from year to year to year.

Write a book. Write a book. Write a book.

I realize I am. I have. Written the book(s). I just haven’t pushed hard enough for publication. I cross out the line. ~~Write a book.~~ I revise: Send out book. We are only in control of our own actions, I realize. And now is the time to act with focus, with fire, with the kind of fierceness you would use to advocate for someone that you love.

With light and love
~Catherine

Précis: (This is a lovely new word I discover today. It means a summary.)
When you sit in peace, quiet self-truth speaks loudly. Pay attention to what you’re trying to tell yourself.

Practice:
Can you create a vision for your life? Nothing fancy, just write about the life you want to live. I live in a house small enough to vacuum in an hour. Date it. Remember to include all the elements of nature: Air-spirit. Fire-ambition. Water-refreshment. Earth-body. Space-mind. Focus on one action for each element that you can accomplish within the next month or so. Write that down too.

Play:
Create a scene of dialogue between two characters, one whose inner and outer life is aligned – think Atticus Finch from To Kill A Mockingbird by Harper Lee – and another who projects a false outward image – think Fermina Daza from Love in the Time of Cholera by Gabriel García Márquez. Now what would happen if they end up in a story together?

Pay Attention and Focus

Posted on January 8, 2013 by backyardsisters

Focus . . .

Maybe it’s just me, but why can it be so hard to focus sometimes? Is it that there is so much to do that choosing one or two things to concentrate on is downright difficult? Or, is it that fun opportunities trump work, which can be OK, for awhile, but eventually those responsibilities won’t be able to be put off any longer? Once the decision has been made to buckle down and focus on a task at hand, it can be eye opening.

Photographically speaking, focus is important. It shows what a photographer is trying to express by drawing attention to an object or person or part of a whole. Yet, achieving focus on the subject in your pictures can be as difficult as focusing on areas of your life. For DSLR users, I have a few tips to offer and aid in finding focus this month. First things first, it’s time for you to tell the camera what you want to focus on and don’t rely on the camera to know what you want automatically. When in auto mode, the camera chooses the focus points based on the shooting conditions. Sometimes this works, but sometimes it doesn’t and when it doesn’t it can be frustrating. You end up with your subject out of focus and something in the background in focus. To correct this, put your camera in manual, aperture priority, shutter priority or program mode, choose a focus point and take back creative control.

It can turn your world upside down, in a good way! Now that you are out of auto, the first thing is telling your camera where to focus. Go ahead get bossy! Most modern cameras have at least nine auto-focus points (some have many more), which are the spots the camera will look to achieve focus when you have your lens set to auto-focus. Using the selection point button, you can choose one of the nine points by highlighting one and then using the dial to move the highlighter to the different points. If you highlight all the points the camera chooses automatically which point for each shot, so choose one. Often, the center point is the most sensitive and hence fastest at achieving focus, because it uses cross type focusing and the others don’t. But, maybe you don’t always want your subject in the center of your picture. What then? You can do one of two things; either change your auto-focus point to one of the others that is closer to your subject or focus using the center point and then recompose your shot. To do this, push half way down on the shutter button and when focus is locked in, you will either see a red highlight of your focus point and/or hear a beep, keep holding the shutter down half way while recomposing your shot and placing the subject where you would like; then push all the way down on the shutter button taking your shot.

While recomposing, it is important to remember to keep your subject in the same focal plane or risk loosing focus. Now, go out and practice, practice, practice!

This year, we are offering suggestions of ways to practice and hone the skills you may learn from Backyard Sisters and feel free to let us know how it’s going.

To Recap:

Getting out of auto mode and telling the camera where to focus, will give you more creative control in your photography.

Challenge Yourself:

Think about what you want to say in your photos this week and how focus can help convey that message.
Use any mode but auto and use the center point to focus lock and recompose
Also, try switching auto focus points using the point selection button

Cavort:

Try using the eyes of a person or an animal as your focus point in a photo this week. If the person is angled and the eyes are not on the same plane, focus on the eye closest to you.

Keep in mind, according to Mark Twain, “you cannot depend on your eyes if your imagination is out of focus.”

Imagine away,

Susan

“Get up! Get up!”

Posted on January 4, 2013 by backyardsisters

I dream last night of my grandmother, my mother’s mother, the one my sisters and I call Gammy. She was one of the original Backyard Sisters, the youngest of four girls born in an Illinois small town. She always wore high heels and a silk petticoat, carried a patent leather pocket book, and never pierced her ears.

Gammy, far left

No one laughed like Gammy, or danced like Gammy, and lord knows no one loved or was loved quite like Gammy. Our mother, an only child, and we, her four granddaughters, were the sun around which she revolved. She was the kind of grandmother who, with each hello or goodbye, would clasp her hands around both your cheeks, pull you within inches of her own face, and with her eyes drink you in like whiskey the first night Prohibition was lifted. Not that Gammy ever drank. She was a confirmed teetotaler. Her giddiness bubbled purely from joy at being alive, surrounded by family.

We girls loved her back with reckless abandon.

Gammy has been dead now for almost 12 years. But last night, when she leaned over me, right there in the moonlight, white lacy dress fluttering as she circled her hands over my head and cajoled, “Get up! Get up! Get up” I was only slightly surprised. See, even though I use the term “dream,” to name these occasional encounters, it feels like a much more substantial spirit than my subconscious. The other sisters will tell you their own stories about Gammy visits. It’s like she was right there, right there in the room… The only difference between our stories is what she tells us.

“Get up! Get up!” Oh my Gammy knows I’m struggling with rising out of the holiday stupor of too much food and too much fireside reading and too much nothing-to-do. It’s January 4 and I haven’t yet set my intentions for the new year, haven’t decided yet what to focus on.

And focus I must. Why?

Because, like the holidays, my to-do list is rich with too many good things and I’ve been acting like that squirrel in the headlights, unwilling to say yes to anything because I’ll have to say no to so many others.

There is one sacred rock. Family. There are 22 of us now, our parents, we four sisters and mates, our own children and in-laws. We gather at least once a month to celebrate birthdays, or graduations, or holidays. We bake Gammy’s cake recipes and roast chicken like she did and never say we’re too busy to sing and dance in the kitchen.

But work projects are essential. Our writing, teaching and photography sustain us and pay our bills. And then what is life without trying to leave the world a little better for someone else? Nothing! Gammy would say.

So in honor of what would have been Gammy’s centennial year, the Backyard Sisters decided to challenge ourselves.

We’ve selected 12 photographic terms, one to concentrate on each month. These words convey a message, or capture a moment, a mood. We’ve picked expressions that easily become inspiration and metaphor for family, for creative projects, for our place in the human collective. They’re essential to saving life’s ordinary moments from the brink of oblivion; without these intentions meaningful art and life become difficult.

Our theme for January is focus. Works for photography. Works for poetry.

“It Is Out Of Focus” by Joel Lipman, (Poetry Foundation)

Ansel Adams once said, “When words become unclear, I shall focus with photographs. When images become inadequate, I shall be content with silence.” (LensWork, Issue 55, page 33.)

The Backyard Sisters welcome you to 2013 with words, with photographs, and yes sometimes silence, just to remember.

Each day we all travel one step closer to the inevitable endless silence of death. The challenge then is to leave behind the words, images and memories that when recalled will reflect our best efforts.

Are you with us? Then “Get up! Get up!” The program begins on Tuesday. Until then, think about what deserves your attention this year.

With focus,
~Catherine and Sue

“It is difficult not to write satire.”

Posted on December 13, 2012 by backyardsisters

Dear Family and Friends,

It’s seems almost impossible that one whole year has passed without a call, letter, e-mail, or text from you. I’m sure you’ve been as busy as we have. Let me tell you all about our wonderful year.

Ed captured the Western Hemisphere Sales Director VP and Marketing Consultant, Business Generator title at First Corporation Corp. He’s catapulting into position to be the First Second Man! He flies between Hong Kong, Australia, Singapore, Taiwan, Beijing, Boston, Fargo, and home on a regular route. He always appreciates the tender touches of clean underwear, socks, love notes, and credit card bills I slip into his carry-on. Our 20^th wedding anniversary was special. We rented the Anniversary Suite at Punta Pacifica in Costa Rica. It’s a beautiful country with gorgeous beaches and many English-speaking people. It was perfectly romantic and the two days, one night just flew by.

The blessing behind that little February interlude was Edward Jonathan III. He’s beautiful. He’s a boy! He looks just like me even though I know he’s squinting in the picture. He was, after all, just 12 hours old. I wrote this while nursing in the hospital since we wanted you all to get the fresh, fresh news immediately!

Elizabeth turns 3 tomorrow. Her favorite activities are singing at Sunday School and playing nicely with other children. She was chosen to be preschool helper at the So Good Academy twice already! By the way, please don’t ask for any more references for your children’s applications to So Good. The Director requested that even though we are the largest donors it might be nice to let other families on the west side have a chance at the 12 spots for the ’13 and ’14 admission classes.

Grace is now 4. She’s very sweet and social. She has many girlfriends and is invited to birthday parties often. This trait, (guess who she takes after?) coupled with the gymnastics classes she’ll begin in January, should make her the undisputed Captain of Cheer when she begins Old Fashioned Fancy Crest as a freshman in 2021!

Lauren turned 8 on the fourth of July. Her lemonade stand on the holiday parade route brought in more sales than any other child’s! Our little firecracker still wins all the spelling bees, geography quizzes, and mathematics derbies in her classroom. The biggest blessing about her new age is that she can finally compete outside of the Good Academy for city, region and state honors. You’ll probably see her name in the paper just after the first of the year. Please don’t call and congratulate her. We’re trying to keep her humble.

Anna Mary turned 10. Her hair is finally growing out after the great candle and scissor debacle in art class so she once again looks like she belongs in the family, Ed’s side, of course.

Edwina began Old Fashioned Fancy Crest in September. She took her first SAT exam and earned a near-perfect score of 2150, so she has three years to get even better! Her greatest achievement was acceptance into the Big East Coast Ballet Summer Intensive Workshop. Can you believe I sent my child across the country to spend six weeks in the company of prima ballerinas? She was placed in second level which is incredible for someone her age! I made it to the gala extravaganza finale so I could clap and throw roses from the front row. It was magical.

My work is really quite wonderful and exciting. I love it! I’ve been working full time on the same deal – worth $300 million! – since I started in May; I work 80-90 hours a week, but I find out next week if the contract goes through, so, I’m hoping I’ll have a nice Christmas bonus. I spent my birthday in Toronto, Canada, on business. Last month I went from there, to Plano, TX, to Seattle, to Philadelphia, to San Francisco, Atlanta and Chicago, but now I’m on maternity leave through the holidays so I can be well rested when it’s time to ramp up again on January 2.

Anyway, do keep in touch. We’re too busy to reply, but we count our long Christmas card list as one of life’s greatest gifts.

Air kisses!
~The Naughty Alter-Egos of Nice Catherine and Sweet Sue

p.s. Juvenal, the Roman poet whose quote titles this post, is one of history’s great satirists. To find a fine discourse, written by Roger Kimball in The New Criterion, on Juvenal’s style, perspective and the nuances of his enduring legacy, click here.

Sugar and Spice Sure are Nice

Posted on December 11, 2012 by backyardsisters

Pop a cookie sheet of these cookies in the oven and the house will fill with the scent of cinnamon, ginger and cloves. As the cookies progress from this:

to this:

Molasses Crinkles are another one of the cookies which make an appearance on the Big Platter. The cookbook containing the original recipe is one the Backyard Sisters have turned to many times over the years.

When younger, and the baking urge would strike, we usually pulled out this book and flipped through the pages for just the right confection to satisfy that urge. I don’t remember what prompted the first attempt at Molasses Crinkles. Perhaps it was the exotic sounding ingredients molasses,

and the spices cinnamon, cloves and ginger. Whatever it was, once mixed and baked, they have beckoned with their spicy aroma.

Spices which boast health benefits by the way, and can evoke feelings of comfort and joy.

So, bake a batch and watch them disappear.

The recipe:

Molasses Crinkles

Mix thoroughly in a large bowl:

3/4 cup butter
1 cup brown sugar, packed
1 egg
1/4 cup molasses

In another bowl sift together:
2 1/4 cups flour
2 tsps. baking soda
1 tsp cinnamon
1 tsp ginger
1/2 tsp cloves
1/4 tsp salt

Mix dry ingredients into butter mixture until blended well.
Chill dough in refrigerator for at least 2 hours or overnight.
Heat oven to 375°.
Roll teaspoonfuls of chilled dough into balls the size of large walnuts.
Dip the tops in granulated sugar. Place the cookies, sugar side up on a lightly greased or parchment paper covered cookie sheet, 3 inches apart.
Bake 10 minutes or just until set but not hard.
Cool on wire rack.

Makes 4 dozen.

Or bake some and share with friends and family.

~ Sue

The Weekend Dish-Herb Vinegar

Posted on December 7, 2012 by backyardsisters

Writers and cooks know one true thing and that is, as Stanley Kunitz said,

Just as a tapestry cannot be woven out of a single set of threads…you need another set of threads as counterweave…

So go ahead and make your Christmas cookies and fudges, cakes, pies and candies. But when you need something to cut the sweet, consider creating a batch of herb-infused vinegars.

There are endless possible combinations, but I created this one to put forth a ruby jewel color and to make use of the bounty of my herb garden. You can buy clear bottles, or put the empty Pinot Grigio bottles out of their recycle bin misery and let them be the life of the party again.

For PDF labels, complete with poetry quotes courtesy of the Academy of American Poets, click here.

Backyard Sisters Herb Vinegar
– 1 sprig rosemary
– Several twigs of thyme
Wash herbs and air dry. Slip them carefully into the bottle.

In a separate container, preferably several large pitchers or bowls, mix equal parts:
– Apple Juice
– Apple Cider Vinegar
– Red Wine Vinegar
– White Vinegar
– Rice Vinegar
– Cooking Sherry
Stir. Fill bottles. Using a funnel helps immensely, but I’m pretty sure you already know that.

It’s so easy to make, even a writer can do it.

~ Catherine

Here a word, there a word…

Posted on December 6, 2012 by backyardsisters

“Did I forget to look at the sky this morning /  when I first woke up?”

So begins Jim Moore’s,”Twenty Questions,” one of my favorite poems to read as a reminder to live attentively. When I take Moore’s attitude of inquiry into the day, I’m frequently rewarded with a high word count of odd snippets which I hoard like gold to incite new projects. And then I lose my words within the dozens and dozens of journals I’ve kept for years.

I once attended a reading where Charles Simic and Laure-Anne Bosselaar stood in front of a large audience and spun magic from their tattered leather journals, taking rapt listeners from first jot to finished poem like sure-footed adults leading children over stepping stones in a rushing river.

My process is infinitely messier.

I keep journals everywhere. Stacks of filled Moleskins pile up in a purple silk-wrapped box on my bookshelf. There are three journals on my bedside table, one in my purse, another in my messenger bag, and a water-spotted, sandy one in my beach backpack. There’s a slim brown journal in my car, a hardback one in my upstairs office, and the smallest journal of all waits downstairs by my muddy shoes. I slip it into my jeans pocket before every hike.

Writing is the easy part. Keeping track of my observations is the trick. Yet I find that randomly picking and choosing to read from this year or that, from land observations or seaside ruminations can be weirdly fun.

It’s never a good thing to be a cautious trumpeter, I wrote while listening to music at San Francisco’s now defunct Jazz at Pearl’s club.

Do not ever show an oak a photo of a pine. When you write about the aspen, don’t let the birch read a word about it, came after a late fall walk in the canyon near my house.

I’d rather lose an armpit than a finger, was gleaned at the AFI Film fest while riding the elevator from the parking garage to the ArcLight Theater in Los Angeles.

And then, my most promising:
” ”

This emptiness lies within the small leather book, decorated with with a botanical pomegranate image, that I picked up at Charta an exquisite book bindery in Venezia.

The proprietor, whose name I’ve sadly forgotten, warned me that I’d never write in this book.

“No one ever does,” he said as he wrapped the small book in gold paper. “But just so you know, I offer free refills. When you fill this up, you send me a letter and I will send you more pages.”

“Oh, don’t worry, I’ll fill it up. I’m a writer.”

He nodded sagely, patted the package before he handed it to me.

“You’ll be the first.”

I think of this – self-fulfilling prophecies and keeping track of journal notes – as I bid my students a semester’s-end goodbye. They tell me they’ve turned into writers now and they want to know how to continue the practice.

Off the top of my head, I offer my own best advice.

* Write frequently, at least 1,000 words a day.
* Save your writing in documents titled by month and year.
* Take a journal with you everywhere. (Shhh, I didn’t tell them the story of what happens to mine.)
* Make a regular practice of transcribing your journal notes once a month. (Now there’s a thought.)
* When a new month rolls around, open a new document and begin again.
* At that time, make a regular practice of reading the previous years’ journal entries for that month. For example, every December I read all the December documents from previous years.
* And lastly, don’t ever let someone tell you that you won’t write.

I always miss my students, for their optimism, their tenacity, their freshness, and finally because without them I’d have no occasion to hear myself say aloud things I know to be true.

“Don’t ever let someone tell you that you won’t write.”

It’s time to face down the Pomegranate journal.

bare feet
low sun
blue in the afternoon

There. In pencil, with eraser marks, a far from perfect entry. And then I remember my second favorite line from the poem “Twenty Questions.”

“Wouldn’t it be wrong not to mention joy?”

I scribble joy! in Pomegranate journal, just to remind myself.

Joy! I tell my students instead of goodbye. And then, because a statement offers no possibility for dialogue, I ask a question.

Will you remember to look at the sky at dusk?

With joy,
~ Catherine

P.S. Jim Moore is an American poet and recent recipient of a John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation fellowship.

He writes in the his fellowship profile about spending time in prison and learning that his fellow inmates were poetry lovers.

I discovered that a big notebook was kept secretly (passed from inmate to inmate so the risk was shared) and at some cost (its discovery would have resulted in the loss of good time, which meant a longer stay in prison) in which inmates kept poems—poems of their own and poems by poets whose work they loved, mostly Black poets, but I remember Neruda was there, Whitman, and Longfellow, of all people.

You can read the entire poem “Twenty Questions” here.

The Great December Cookie Bake

Posted on December 4, 2012 by backyardsisters

Come December, the Backyard Sisters take to the kitchen. We buy pounds of flour, sugar and butter and rummage through the pantry for chocolate chips, food coloring, sprinkles and other various ingredients. The main objective – cookies, and lots of them. There’s nothing like the sweet buttery scent of sugar cookies in the oven to put one in the mood for elfish activities. This month, we are sharing some of our favorite cookie recipes, photos and stories from our great cookie bakes. Closer to Christmas, all the sisters and cousins who are in town get together for the annual great Christmas cookie bake. Energized by Christmas carols and each others’ company, we sift, mix, dance, roll out dough, laugh and decorate the day away. Just about every year there is one batch that doesn’t come out as planned – like the year the snowball cookies came out resembling hockey pucks more than snow balls. . .

still not sure what happened there. Or, the time the fudge turned out powdery; prompting careful monitoring of the second attempt.

Usually, though, things go smoothly.

And after a day filled with rotating cookies sheets in and out of the oven and ending with a delicious artistic expression. . .

we produce a platter over-flowing with the sweet, crispy, tasty, fruits of our labors. ( Note the usual snowball cookies front left.)

At this backyard sister’s house, the first batch to kick off the season is sugar cookies.

These are crisp and delicate with a hint of vanilla.

For many years, the youngest backyard daughter and her friend have made a batch to sell in front of the house, along with cocoa, to the many people streaming through our neighborhood to enjoy the light displays, but, most importantly, the “Big Guy” likes them too.
From our house to yours:

Extraordinary Sugar Cookies

1 cup butter                                        4 1/2 cups flour
1 cup granulated sugar 1 tsp cream of tartar
1 cup powdered sugar                          1 tsp baking soda
1 cup oil                                                1 tsp vanilla
2 eggs                                                  1 tsp salt
1/2 tsp almond extract (optional)

Cream the butter and sugars in a large bowl until light and fluffy. Beat in oil and eggs. Beat well. Add flour, cream of tartar, baking soda, salt and extracts. Mix until well blended. Chill the dough. Roll about heaping teaspoon size amount of dough into a ball and roll in sugar (can mix colored sugar in with granulated sugar) then flatten with bottom of glass dipped in granulated sugar. Bake at 350° for 12 minutes or until lightly browned. Makes about 6 dozen cookies.

Enjoy!

~ Sue

The Weekend Dish-Savory Bite

Posted on November 30, 2012 by backyardsisters

Since tomorrow is the first day of December, I thought it might be nice to share an appetizer recipe for your holiday gatherings. I belong to a Bunco group. Bunco is a game played with dice. We get together monthly to play and eat. We are a Bunco group that likes to eat, and everyone brings either a dessert or an appetizer. One month before Bunco I was trying to decide what to bring while looking in the refrigerator and pulling out ingredients that just might go together . . .

What to make with these ingredients

I came up with this appetizer. The Bunco ladies liked it and hopefully you will too.

Mushroom and Goat Cheese Crostini

1 loaf of french bread baguette sliced
1 lb. crimini mushrooms (you can use any kind, I prefer these)
3 Tbsp olive oil
1/2 yellow onion
2 cloves of garlic
1 Tbsp soy sauce
3 Tbsp red wine
balsamic vinegar
goat cheese
black pepper

Toast the bread slices under the broiler until lightly browned. Finely chop the mushrooms, onion and garlic; a food processor works great for this. Heat the olive oil in a saute pan on medium-high heat. Cook the onion and garlic until translucent about 5 minutes. Add the mushrooms and cook until the liquid released from the mushrooms evaporates. Add the soy sauce and red wine and cook until most of the juices have evaporated. Spread the mushroom mixture on the bread slices and sprinkle a little balsamic vinegar on each (just a sprinkle, don’t want it running all over the bread). Place about a quarter inch slice from a goat cheese log on top of the mushroom mixture on each. Sprinkle with coarse ground black pepper. Put under the broiler until the goat cheese is warmed, about 2-3 minutes. Keep an eye on it.
Serves 12 as an appetizer.

Let the festivities begin-

~Sue

waiting and watching and wishing and hoping

Posted on November 27, 2012 by backyardsisters

While doing the morning dishes and looking out the back window lately, I am entertained by the sight of finches using our bird bath. One recent morning, I grab my camera, stealthily creep out to the backyard and stage myself close enough to hopefully allow for an action shot of the activities. Sitting as still as possible with camera poised I wait. . . and wait; for a half an hour, at least, I wait and not one bird comes close to taking a dip. A few days later, still determined to capture the activities, I venture out again. This time trying a new location a little farther away and armed with a 100mm-300mm zoom lens. About fifteen minutes in, my mind begins wandering. Thinking back, many years ago, to when we purchased the bird bath and one of the backyard daughters, Michele, was about four years old. We lugged it out to the carefully chosen spot in the garden, placed it in the dirt wiggling and maneuvering it back and forth to level it and filled the bowl with water. Michele was excited about the new addition to the backyard and couldn’t wait for the first visitors to arrive for a bath. “How will they know it’s here?” she queried. I assured her the birds would be able to find it but she decided to help out and rode around the backyard on her pink bicycle with training wheels and streamers hanging from the handlebars shouting, every few seconds, “Birdbath! . . . Birdbath!” Unfortunately, it had the opposite of the desired effect and eventually we decided to wait and watch from inside the house. Sitting there in the yard, warmed by the sun and the fond memory, I waited once again. This time there were a few birds but they seemed to distrust me and kept their distance and a watchful eye on me and the bird bath.

No birds were brave enough to dive in that day either. Not one to give up easily, I decide maybe third time’s a charm. Same zoom lens and location, I stake out once again. A few minutes in, there goes my mind again. Thinking of the upcoming holidays and trying to decide when to begin decking the halls, I realize many of the plants in our backyard are festively red and green at this time of year. The pepper tree’s berries are just ripening.

As are the toyon berries.

The only rose bush flowering in my garden right now is the one with the red blossoms.

Spirits lifted by this unexpected holiday gift, I notice the loud caw of many crows nearby. Looking up, I see a beautiful hawk with a crow in hot pursuit.

Those crows are relentless.

Getting back to bird bath watch, I notice there are more birds in the yard getting closer to me and the bath this time. One is slowly working its’ way over. Finally, it alights on the bath; although it is partly obscured by the foreground plant.

It is barely there a second, as I achieve focus and start snapping away, it is spooked and takes off.

Photography can benefit from patience, also the occasional wandering mind to help pass the time and alert the eye to other photo worthy subjects in the area doesn’t hurt. I am not through yet. My spot is waiting and I dare say the birds are becoming accustomed to the occasional visitor. I will be on bird bath stakeout again soon. I want the shot of the water flying as the birds wiggle and splash in the bath and I will get it!

With perseverance, persistence and a bit of meandering,

~Sue

backyard sisters

Saving ordinary moments from the brink of oblivion

Author Archives: backyardsisters

Through the open window…

Pay Attention and Focus

“Get up! Get up!”

“It is difficult not to write satire.”

Sugar and Spice Sure are Nice

The Weekend Dish-Herb Vinegar

Here a word, there a word…

The Weekend Dish-Savory Bite

waiting and watching and wishing and hoping

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