Month: March 2018

Wednesday (07-March-2018) — New Jersey

Home Cooking. Hearty Whole Wheat & Rye Bread.

Whole Wheat Bread Recipe: Whole Wheat Flour (1 cup); Bread Flour (1 cup); Sprouted Wheat Flour (1 cup); brown sugar (2 1/3 tbs); dry milk (1/4 cup);  salt (2 tsp); egg (1 medium); unsalted butter (1/4 cup cubed); water (1 1/4 cup). Above ingredients added to Panasonic Bread Bakery. Yeast (2 tsp) added to yeast hopper and the unit set for Whole Wheat Bread (Rapid) and started. Three hours later, the loaf of bread was removed and allowed to cool. Probably need to cut back on the yeast or sugar a bit since the loaf totally filled the bread maker.

Hearty Whole Wheat & Rye Bread Recipe: Whole Wheat Flour (1 cup); Bread Flour (1 cup); Sprouted Wheat Flour (1 cup); Rye Flour (1 cup); brown sugar (2 tbs); dry milk (1/4 cup); caraway seed (1 tbs); fennel seed (1 tbs); anise seed (1 tbs), dill seed (1 tbs); salt (1 tsp); instant coffee (1 tbs); cocoa powder (1 tbs); egg (1 large); flax oil (2 tbs); water (1 1/2 cup); molasses (1/4 cup). Above ingredients minus the molasses added to Panasonic Bread Bakery. Yeast (2 tsp) added to yeast hopper and the unit set for Whole Wheat Bread (Rapid) and started. Once the unit started mixing the ingredients the molasses was slowly added. Three hours later, the loaf of bread was removed and allowed to cool.

Loaves of Hearty Whole Wheat & Rye Bread. Image taken with a Leica CL camera and 18 mm f/2.8 lens (ISO 1000, 18 mm, f/2.8, 1/50 sec). (David J Mathre)
Loaves of Hearty Whole Wheat & Rye Bread. Image taken with a Leica CL camera and 18 mm f/2.8 lens (ISO 1000, 18 mm, f/2.8, 1/50 sec). (David J Mathre)

Compare with the bread recipe I was using five years ago (06-March-2013).

Tuesday (06-March-2018) — New Jersey

Backyard Winter Nature in New Jersey — Spring is Near.

Little do the Snow Drops and Purple Crocus flowers in a neighbor’s backyard know that another Nor’easter storm is predicted for tomorrow with 1-12 inches of snow and lots of wind. While photographing the flowers, a wary cat kept track of my every move.



Individual images from the slide shows can be viewed here.

Monday (05-March-2018) — New Jersey

Backyard Winter Nature in New Jersey — Signs of Spring.

Early American Robin scouting out the backyard to see if winter is over. It should have been here a day earlier when there were many worms on the ground that had been forced to the surface because of the rain. The Robin will have to go hide again if we get the Nor’easter with the strong winds and heavy snow predicted for Wednesday.

Early American Robin scout checking out if winter is over. Image taken with a Fuji X-T1 camera and 100-400 mm OIS lens (ISO 200, 400 mm, f/5.6, 1/80 sec). (David J Mathre)
Early American Robin scout checking out if winter is over. Image taken with a Fuji X-T1 camera and 100-400 mm OIS lens (ISO 200, 400 mm, f/5.6, 1/80 sec). (David J Mathre)

Sunday (04-March-2018) — New Jersey

Backyard Winter Nature in New Jersey.

A large number of Turkey Vultures were circling in the late afternoon sun. Some started to land in one of my neighbor’s trees. I really don’t want them spending the night on my roof soiling and damaging the solar panels.  I may install a security camera on the roof.

Turkey Vulture in a Tree. Winter Backyard Nature in New Jersey. Image taken with a Nikon Df camera and 80-400 mm VR lens (David J Mathre)
Turkey Vulture in a Tree. Winter Backyard Nature in New Jersey. Image taken with a Nikon Df camera and 80-400 mm VR lens (David J Mathre)

Saturday (03-March-2018) — New Jersey

Backyard Winter Nature in New Jersey.

It took all night before the power line burned through the tree. I was fortunate that my power was restored after about 2 hours. Those further down the street had to wait. Later on, as the sun was setting the western sky lit up. It looks like light from the sun came in under some remnant clouds from the Nor’easter just before setting. I don’t really have a good western view from my backyard. I ended up going all the way back to the section I have cleared for a wildflower meadow. After all the rain and snow for the storm the section is now a muddy field. The sunset panorama is a composite of six images taken with a Leica CL camera and stitched together using AutoPano Giga Pro. Best viewed in full screen mode.

Tree after being burned by power line. Image taken with a Leica TL2 camera and 55-135 mm lens (ISO 100, 133 mm, f/4.5, 1/400 sec). (David J Mathre)
Tree after being burned by power line. Image taken with a Leica TL2 camera and 55-135 mm lens (ISO 100, 133 mm, f/4.5, 1/400 sec). (David J Mathre)
Colored Clouds at Sunset. Composite of six images taken with a Leica CL camera and 18 mm f/2.8 lens (ISO 100, 18 mm, f/2.8, 1/25 sec). Raw images processed with Capture One Pro and the composite created using AutoPano Giga Pro. (David J Mathre)
Colored Clouds at Sunset. Composite of six images taken with a Leica CL camera and 18 mm f/2.8 lens (ISO 100, 18 mm, f/2.8, 1/25 sec). Raw images processed with Capture One Pro and the composite created using AutoPano Giga Pro. (David J Mathre)