Wednesday (07-March-2018) — New Jersey

Backyard Late Winter in New Jersey. Nor’easter Two.

Winter finally arrived with the second nor’easter in a week. This time with lots of snow. The snow started last night. By mid-day it was coming down pretty fast. I was surprised when I had an Amazon Prime – Prime Pantry delivery. In the past, UPS or USPS would hold the delivery if it was snowing. The independent Amazon delivery folks came through. The driver did indicate he was having issues with the GPS on his phone not working, and had to use a map.  During the afternoon I heard thunder, and several trees falling. I took these images just before 17:00 while it was still light out. In some places the snow was up to my knees. It will be a while before I can get the car up the driveway. It looks like I lost 3 or 4 trees, and my last Rhododendron bush. I will miss the Rhododendron flowers since they attracted both bees and hummingbird moths. By evening the power was spiking several times. It only went out once, but I did have to reset several devices.


Individual images in the slide show can be viewed here.

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)