Randomness

I decided at some point over the winter that I wanted to try growing ginger. So I went to the store and got some fresh ginger (in the spring) from the grocery store. I cut it into pieces and planted it in a pot full of potting soil. I watered. And watered. And watered some more until I FINALLY saw some shoots. The shoots, since I'm blogging about this all sorts of late, are now about a foot tall and look (I think) very similar to bamboo. But hopefully they'll produce some nice ginger pieces for cooking.

I also decided to try growing sweet potatoes, which meant that I needed to get slips. I opted to buy a potato from Whole Foods, sliced off the bottom and put it in a jar of water. The slips started sprouting almost immediately. As the sprouts came off the potato I planted them in the garden. Of course, the problem is that it's been so freaking hot that if I forget to water the slips every 12 hours for the first week they're out in the garden then they just crisp up and die.

Now then, all I need to do is try growing some crocus for saffron, right?

Motion

This month's Gardening Gone Wild photo contest is about capturing motion in a photo. In other words, it's something that I generally consider a 'bad' photo. Of course that's not to say that I don't love it when other people do it, but when I do it I think it doesn't look very good. But then, I probably am just harder on myself than I am on others. And I always look at a photo I've taken and think "motion blur (bad)" as opposed to "motion blur (cool)". The best motion blur photos I think I've ever taken were done unintentionally: I somehow managed to get my point and shoot camera to create these awesome blur photos when I was in New Orleans; I have never been able to get it to do that since. For this project, I took a crap load of photos, but never got one that I really absolutely love, but I think some of it is the angles that I had to use and what have you (I mean who really wants to see a downspout on my house?)

I took a trees in the breeze photo which I like, but there's very little motion in it:



In the end I ended up deciding that one of the many feather grass photos best showed motion:


I still don't like how grainy it looks in the small photo - much better at the embiggened size...

Lizard

Right before we left for Washington State, Shawn and I saw a lizard a lizard hanging out on our deck, all flashing his dewlap. Then we saw this guy, also flashing his dewlap but hanging out on our deck chair. And then he held still for a photo.

Camera: Canon EOS Digital Rebel XTi
Exposure: 1/640
Aperture Value: 4.97 EV (f/5.6)
ISO Speed: 400
Flash: No
Metering Mode: Pattern
Exposure Program: Aperture Priority
Focal Length: 70.00 mm
Post Processing: GIMP - Saturation +10, Border


He ran off, returned to his normal green, and paused long enough for me to get another. The fact that I used a 70mm lens means that I was within a foot and a half or so of him, so he was mighty tame.

Camera: Canon EOS Digital Rebel XTi
Exposure: 1/2500
Aperture Value: 4.97 EV (f/5.6)
ISO Speed: 400
Flash: No
Metering Mode: Pattern
Exposure Program: Aperture Priority
Focal Length: 70.00 mm
Post Processing: GIMP - Saturation +20, Hue -7, Border

Pink Flower

Some silly pink flower in Washington State (Yakima area) that doesn't have much above ground other than the flower itself. Strange little plant...



Also, these were taken the day after Shawn almost stepped on a Bull Snake. Yep. Washington State is full of snakes.