Inspired by Now

Published: Thu, May 09, 2019

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Categories: Architecture, Blog, Burnside 35, Photography, USA

Today I once again was able to discover a gem in our area. I had heard about the Helena Modjeska Historic House before, but I had not visited it. When I noticed an interesting program being run there, I immediately signed up. In the first hour we got a short tour of the house, and in the second hour we created lavender wands from fresh lavender we picked in the garden. I really enjoyed both. I was able to take a few pictures of the place, which I’d like to share with you.

Very briefly about the history: Helena Modjeska, a Polish actress, moved to America with her husband in 1876 in search of a new life. After a very short time of trying to farm, she started learning English, and soon she was able to perform in the States as an actress. She became a beloved performer all over the country, and after a decade on the road, she and her husband bought a cottage in an Orange County canyon. With the help of architect Stanford White, they built a wonderful house with a beautiful garden. This is what I visited today.

I don’t want to give away a lot from the tour, you should visit the place if you can. It’s truly picturesque and the stories about Modjeska are very interesting. She was a very talented actress, musician, author, etc. Some parts of the house shown on the pictures were later additions. (Iphone and Lensbaby Burnside 35 images.)

Published: Mon, May 06, 2019

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Categories: Blog, Gardening

In an earlier post I posted pictures of the growing boxes that I have in my backyard. I thought it might be helpful for others to see how these boxes are used.

I discovered these City Pickers boxes (same idea as EarthBox planters) last Fall. I actually had heard of the idea of a growing box with a water reservoir in late summer, then happened to find some boxes at a local store. I even tried growing some vegetables and herbs in them during the winter, but the amount of sunshine we got in the backyard was only enough for the herbs and the lettuce to grow. But as soon as spring (and more sunny hours) arrived, I set up all the boxes in the backyard. Why are these boxes helpful? If you use the right potting mix and keep the water reservoir full at all times, you can grow a lot of wonderful produce in a small area, and without wasting water.

This is what the box looks like:

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Published: Thu, May 02, 2019

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Categories: Blog, Food photography, Photography, Recommendations

Since April is over, I am not going to post every day – it was a great challenge for me though. But I felt that I had to write this post soon after my yesterday’s one to show how I am using the vegetables I mentioned in the Lensbaby Blog Circle post.

While visiting grandparents in Colorado a month ago, my father-in-law introduced us to a great salad mix he constantly makes. We learned the recipe, and have been creating this salad base since then. I call it a salad base, because we love adding additional items to it after it’s plated. But the base itself only contains vegetables that are “dry”, therefore the mix keeps for days in the fridge in a Ziploc bag.

Published: Tue, Apr 30, 2019

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Categories: Blog, Food photography, Lensbaby, Lensbaby Blog Circle, Photography, Single Glass, Sol 45

A few days ago I hinted that I was going to bring up a topic and a related project I started working on. The topic is a life style change my husband and I decided on at the end of January, and it involves a diet change. We have been eating a lot less carbohydrates and minimized the sugar intake as well. We are not following a “brand name” diet, we have been just making more educated choices when it comes to our food. I don’t want this post to be just about the diet, but I do want to say that in addition to losing a lot of weight we are also feeling full of energy.

Eating a low-carb diet means that our vegetable intake has increased, and our fruit choices have changed as well. A few weeks ago I thought of a photographic project I could start that involves our new lifestyle. I want to photograph the food items that we are encouraged to eat, and therefore we have them at home almost all the time. In order to make these images a bit more interesting, I also started learning about food photography just recently. Hopefully, you’ll see an improvement in my food photos throughout this project.

A few days ago I posted some strawberry images. Strawberries are one of the recommended low-carb fruit, and I’ll repost two of my favorite images from the set:

Lensbaby Single Glass at F5.6

Published: Mon, Apr 29, 2019

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Categories: Blog, Landscape, Photography, USA

This evening Mark and I joined a hike just minutes away from our house. This was an organized hike, on the Irvine Ranch Conservancy land. It was so beautiful! We both took tons of pictures. Here are a few from my phone: