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2011 Summer Interview Series | Randy Lay at Recipes Randy Cooks
If you're new here, you may want to subscribe to my RSS feed by email! Thanks for visiting!Randy is Kathy’s husband and I met him through the same channels I did Kathy. He cooks up a killer meal and served us several times when we were living in Florida. He’s always got interesting views to discuss and is always up for trekking to take photos with us when we’re out in the wilds of Florida. Recently he started blogging his recipes and we’ve made Penne with Italian Sausage, Fresh Tomatoes, Feta, & Herbs and can vouch for it’s awesomeness. Hope your hungry so you can try some of his recipes!…
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Florida Trail Tales 12: Nokuse Plantation to Crestview
After leaving our stealth/trespassing campsite for the night, the morning was dawning as if it was going to rain. It was spitting when we got up that morning, we ate our breakfast in a hurry, took down camp and hit the road, literally. We had a couple of miles left before we entered the woods again at the Nokuse Plantation. Immediately back in the woods we started following a stream for quite a way. It was a beautiful little creek and we noticed that the clear running water was going to be the trend for the rest of the hike. The rain continued as we weaved around the creek and…
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How to Hug a Tree.
First: Find a big tree. Yes, that is a leg you see up top. A coworker climbed it…he was daring, I was not. Second: Get up close. Wrap your arms around it. Third: Don’t forget that it might dwarf you. We found our largest tree so far, at least I think so…we’ve seen some rather large stumps that were logged, too…a Nyssa aquatica aka: water tupelo. This one was hollow and had cool air coming from the little crevice in its base. I peered inside, got a whiff of musty odor and found nothing living there. We decided it’d be a great place to camp out if the base was…
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3 Book Reviews
Back in April I wrote about three books I’d bought at the used book store. I finally finished all of them, the last one last weekend. Here’s a bit about what I thought of them. Made in America: An Informal History of the English Language in the United States by Bill Bryson: I was familiar with Bryson’s work from A Walk in the Woods but had only thumbed through his other books at the store. This one was on clearance so I nabbed it and was immediately fascinated with the book. The book begins with the initial colonization of the U.S. and how the English language was brought over from…
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Texas Wildflowers: Heliotropium curassavicum
Ah, yet another salt marsh plant! This dicot is a native to the majority of the US and several Canadian provinces. This heliotrope can handle saline and wet communities and is found around salt marshes and margins of wetlands within the interior. It flowers for quite awhile from spring to early fall, preferring mostly full sun. I can’t find a lot about the wildlife value of the plant but I imagine it attracts butterflies. It could be difficult to find in nurseries if you are trying to use it as a garden plant, so maybe starting from seed from a plant in a natural habitat might be the way to…
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Hollyhock Pastel—Finished?
Finishing something is a struggle for me. At what point is it done? Right now I am struggling with the background. I don’t particularly like it. I tried to mimic the photo, the blurry background and all but I’m not liking it too much. What do you think? I was thinking of blending it more and making it a more generic darker/darker green background. I just don’t know.. What I want to do is spray it and put it away but I also don’t want something crappy lingering around either. I did the main part of the flower with pastel pencils, which I actually liked except I’d invest in better…
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Site Re-design
Had the urge to re-design the site. New banner some streamlining on the side bars…lemme know what you think. Honest opinions are wanted! I may change a few things still… Have lots to write but might be a few days before I get to that. I’m backlogged and of course I got the idea to redo the site…so I did that instead! Be back in a few days with real posts.
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2011 Summer Interview Series | Kathy Hunt at Analog Soul Photography
I first met Kathy through Chris’ aquarium club where she and her husband Randy were active members in South Florida. Through the last several years in Florida we got to know them pretty well through camping and hiking adventures and they were gracious enough to let us crash at their place while we were getting ready for the Florida Trail this past January. They are really cool folks and I’m glad to share Kathy’s interview with you. She’s got some great photography and is interested in film so that is very distinct in a digital age! First off, give us an idea of who you are, why you blog and…
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The Vegetarian Conundrum
I’d of thought that with vegetarianism and veganism being much more prevalent and accepted these days it wouldn’t be difficult for people to grasp the concept or get orders correct. It seems that it is increasingly common for wait staff and/or kitchen staff to continually screw up my order. I mean, really how hard is “no meat”. I didn’t say “no guac, no onions, no meat, no cheese”. Just one thing was taken out. I want everything else. That pasta I ordered? I want the pasta with everything but the meat. Instead I got a kid sized order of pasta without meat. I didn’t say re-size my pasta. I *don’t*…
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Texas Wildflowers: Distichlis spicata, salt grass
Ok, ok, this isn’t a wildflower, but a grass, however I really like this grass so I’m throwing it in for fun! Yes, we’re still on a run of salt marsh plants I learned in college and as for grasses, they are really difficult (in my opinion) to key out and since I actually know this one I’m going to share it. As its common name suggests, salt grass is tolerant of saline environments however it is known to grow in non-saline areas. It handles the wet soils well but can tolerate drier, sandier soils as well. In North America the habitat it can grow in is widespread, including the…