Photo Friday: 2013 Cutting Room Floor

I was going back through my image folders recently and saw a lot of shots that, for whatever reason, never made it to the blog. So, here are a few of them for your viewing.

We started off 2013 with a trip to Australia. I posted a few of the photos, but never got around to the rest of them. One of the highlights of the trip was our visit to Uluru. We did a lot of hiking during our brief stay, and the scenery was amazing.

Lynda in front of Uluru

From the above photo, it’s hard to appreciate the size of Uluru. This monolithic rock formation rises up in the middle of a flat, not-quite-desert area, and can be seen for miles. Up close, you can really appreciate the size and the surface features. Despite the high temperatures, we enjoyed hiking around the base. I estimated we covered almost 15K one day.

closer view of Uluru

We also visited nearby Kata Tjuta. It was so hot that day that some of the trails were closed. According to the Australian Bureau of Meteorology, the high that day was 44.1°C/111°F – and that was in the shade! I probably don’t want to know how hot it was in the sun.

me at Kata Tjuta

After leaving the Red Centre of Australia we went to tropical Queensland. The rainforest at Daintree was hot, humid and lush. We have a tradition of taking photos of the two of us by sitting the camera on the best available surface and using the timer. It’s our version of a ‘selfie’.

Lynda and I at Daintree

We boarded the cats while we were gone on that trip. They must have missed each other, because they were inseparable when we all got back home. This image was shot the same day as the one we used for our holiday cards.

Ace and Puddin

We have several kinds of hawks that regularly visit us at HA. Often times I hear them before I see them soaring overhead.  I got a blurry image of one that landed on one of the corner posts of the fenced vegetable garden. I believe this one is a Red-Shouldered Hawk. I quickly grabbed a telephoto lens for this one, but I wish I had brought the tripod along to steady the camera. The hawk was gone in a couple of minutes.

Red Shouldered Hawk on garden fence

Not long after the hawk visit I got this shot of our resident male bluebird on top of the nest box. This was back in late April, but I saw a pair again just a few weeks ago. Bluebirds don’t really migrate in winter, but do move around to find food. It is always nice to see a bluebird in the neighborhood!

male bluebird on nest box

In autumn of 2012 I misplaced my trusty Wilcox trowel while working down at the Impact Community Garden. I figured it had gotten buried in the mulch, and would turn up eventually. It just happened to be my oldest one of my collection of trowels, so I was very happy when I found it while tilling there the next spring. It’s the top one in the below photo, reunited with its cousin trowel. Gotta love a trowel that survives being buried all winter, then meeting up with a killer tiller!

Wilcox trowels

I experimented a lot last year with using cardboard for mulch. Below you can see it used beside a row of potatoes. It’s certainly an easy, inexpensive and organic way to help control garden weeds. I’ll be doing more of it in 2014. It was a good year for potatoes, and we are still enjoying them even though some have started sprouting.

using cardboard for mulch

Our figs have not died back to the ground the last few winters, so I have had to do some major pruning in spring. I cut them back severely in mid May. As you can see in the below photo, I did not take the time to do much weeding though! By summer, the figs had grown to the top of the garage roof, which you can see in this photo I did post. I am sure they will die back this year after our bitter cold winter temps.

fig plants after pruning

I shared a photo of some Minestra Maritata (aka Italian Wedding Soup) I made last week. Here’s a photo of some I made in November. I still haven’t written up the recipe, but this one from Eating Well is a good starting point.

Minestra Maritata soup

I’ll close with one more cat photo. Like most cats, Puddin loves to snooze in the sunshine. She follows it around the house during the day, staying in one spot then moving as the sun moves. Here she is in one of the cat cubes, basking in the sun.

Puddin in cat cube

I hope you have enjoyed this look at the some of the 2013 photos that didn’t make it on the blog until 2014. I’ll be back soon with more adventures – probably more current ones!