Assorted Autumn Photos

 An autumny scene... I am now of the opinion that if you take a random photo, tilt it to the side, and crop it into a square,

it's bound to look either artistic or like a CD cover! (I'll leave it to you to determine which one this counts as.)

 

 

 I LOVE AUTUMN!!!

'Tis the most beautiful time of the year!

 

 

 I am ever and always amazed at the vivid colors of autumn leaves!

 

 

 Yes, I did boost the colors of this photo; the scene didn't look quite like this in real life. ;)

 

 

 

Last fall I took a bunch of mushroom pictures. 
I happen to be very fond of mushrooms (the real ones as well as the kind made of meringue), and had a lot of fun editing these photos!

  

 

 

 Crop, boost, posterize, soft focus, and vignette - quite a few edits for just one photo!

 

 

 This is probably the "spookiest" photo on my computer. It has "minor key" written all over it!

 
 

 A portion of my bookshelf! I love hard backed books with those fabric-like covers, or with any sort of unique bindings.

Somehow it makes the book seem more special, and even the words inside look more meaningful.

 

 

Leaves aglow with sunshine - a favorite fall sight!

 

 

 Looking upwards... an oak tree as seen by a caterpillar!

 

 

A Hobbit's Delight

A few weeks ago I was trying to come up with a Lord of the Rings themed dessert/snack to bring to a costumed event, as Conner and I were both attending as LotR characters. (Frodo Baggins and Arwen Evenstar, to be precise.) So I got to thinking... what do hobbits and Elves like to eat? Once I began thinking about hobbits, two things instantly came to mind: mushrooms and beer! Obviously, beer was out of the question, but the idea of doing mushrooms sounded good – especially since I happen to know how to make meringue mushrooms, which could almost be thought of as having a similar taste and texture to lembas, the way-bread of the Elves! Of course, these mushrooms could be used for any fallish, woodland, fairy, or garden theme – or anything that involves mushrooms!

ingredients:
one half cup of egg whites
one quarter of a teaspoon of cream of tartar
one quarter of a teaspoon of salt
one teaspoon of vanilla extract
one cup of white sugar
white chocolate chips (for assembly)

the first thing to do is to separate the egg whites from the yolks.
(if you have any ideas on what to do with the leftover yolks, i would be highly interested in hearing them!) 

beat the egg whites until they are foamy...

then add the cream of tartar, salt, and vanilla, and beat until the meringue will support soft peaks.

  

gradually add sugar while still beating...

...until the meringue can form hard peaks.

Using a Ziploc bag or other such piping device, pipe the meringue onto baking sheets in the shapes of caps and stalks. the caps are easy - just make little mushroomy domes of whatever size you like! The cone-shaped stems can be tricky... I had a world of trouble with mine, as the meringue kept falling over, basically making oddly-shaped caps instead of the nice pointy peaks I wanted to see. Aargh...



Once your baking sheets are all filled up, put them in the oven at 225 degrees for an hour or so. (I had to add ten minutes for ours.) The caps tend to get a sort of cracked effect on top when they are done, which I think looks quite nice for mushrooms.

Did I mention that a layer of parchment paper on the baking trays might be a good idea? No? Well then... once you manage to pry the pieces off the trays, sprinkle them with cocoa powder.

Now for the assembly process! Take a cap and hollow out a little hole for the tip of your stalk. Fill the hole with melted white chocolate, insert a stalk, and let the ''glue'' cool completely to ensure that the pieces stay together. A few hours later... voila! You have incredible edible mushrooms!

Now all you need is something equally awesome to put them in... Mom made this wonderful basket and sign for ours!

A hobbits delight... mushrooms from Farmer Maggot's field... perfect!!!

 

A note added on February 28th: I made these mushrooms again yesterday and realized that the photos I provided for the meringue-making process are not quite ideal. It was a rather humid day when i took those pictures back in October and the meringue kept falling flat. So, if you choose to make these little treats, I would recommend doing so on a dry day, whipping the mixture at a very high setting, and not trying to emulate the look shown in my photos. :)

As to the quantity of mushrooms made by this recipe: yesterday I made two batches, forming stalks with the first and caps with the second, and when all the pieces were assembled there were about seventy-five completed mushrooms. Modify the quantity according to your needs.

Day 4 ~ Niagara Falls!

The day began with a delicious breakfast at our hotel, followed by a 200 mile drive!
We were happy to make the drive, though, for it would enable us to finally see Niagara Falls!

The beautiful Ohio landscape

 

I was astonished at just how hilly Pennsylvania was! I am not usually prone to carsickness, but the continual ups and downs of the surroundings made me dizzy to such an extent that I had to just go to sleep to keep from feeling sick!

 

We drove alongside Lake Erie the entire morning. It was incredible to look out the lefthand windows and catch glimpses of this vast expanse of water, and to be driving alongside it for the full 200 miles between Cleveland and Buffalo, and to realize that it was not an ocean but was just a lake! The Great Lakes always seemed so much smaller on the map...

We arrived in Niagara, got into the parking lot after a brief mixup at the ticket booth, got out of the van, and headed to the visitors' center. We then made our way to the lines for the Maid of the Mist and the Falls!

The INCREIBLE view from the bridge on the way to the elevator:

Walking out onto the bridge was a bit overwhelming for some of us... it was entirely unexpected to suddenly be so high up! And right there, over to the lefthand side, was - NIAGARA FALLS!!! The powerful rushing sound of the cascading water... the strong wind being generated by it... the vast view all around... the dizzying height, and the little specks of blue-clad folks down below... WOW!!!

 

We took the elevator down to the bottom of the falls to go on the boat tour titled "The Maid of the Mist".

We were all given blue plastic ponchos... Dad said it looked like we were at a convention of Dollar Store Jedis!

The ship started, and our fifteen-minute ride began!

The American Falls

The "mist" began fairly soon after we started. I put "mist" in quotes because it was more like a strong rainstorm, but without the lightning and with a different sort of thundering sound!

 

The American Falls cascading down!

 

Moving onward...

To Horseshoe Falls! The water was absolutely beautiful!!!

It was this lovely sea-green color with white swirls of foam all around... simply spectacular!

 

 

The bridge to the beautiful country of Canada...

After the Maid of the Mist tour, some of us went on a little walkway thingie, right up next to the American Falls!

Unfortunately, there was far too much water to get any decent pictures; indeed, I couldn't even see anything but gusts of wet grayness! Still... it was AWESOME!!!

Then we went to this lovely shaded grassy place by the top portion of the river!

There were lots of squirrels and gulls all around for watching -

or, as the brothers preferred, for chasing!

 

Photos from the Observation Tower:

NIAGARA FALLS!!!

Notice the little things floating in the water; those are the Maid of the Mist ships, 

each of which holds about two hundred people!

 

A modified photo of the river spilling over the edge towards Canada.

This neon outline thing is a pretty neat effect!

We returned to the park around 9:30 or 10 that evening to see the falls all lit up!

The photos are nowhere near as incredible looking as the actual sight itself, but it was fantastic!

 

Canada... I hope to visit it someday, eventually!

We ate some icecream on the way back to the hotel, and upon our arrival there,

promptly crashed into bed!