My favorite tree

When I was a kid, our rural home was ringed by the hills of Northern Michigan.  On one of those hills, the one visible from my place at our kitchen table, was a gigantic lone spruce. It towered above the lesser trees that made up the forest surrounding it. I admired it each and every mealtime.

When we moved into our apartment here at Waitakere Gardens, in Henderson, New Zealand, I immediately spotted this lone tree against the horizon as I stood on our balcony.  It's a Norfolk Island Pine, rather than a spruce, but, in my opinion, it dominates its surroundings almost as well as my boyhood favorite did.  It became my new, old-age favorite. 

I have come to rely on it to provide photographic opportunities.  Today's post will highlight this tree, with pictures which have been taken for the most part during sunrises, many times with birds decorating the space around it, and sometimes in the fog.  

I'll start with my most recent photo. When I saw my tree in the fog that morning, I hoped that a bird or birds would fly by. I held my camera on it for several minutes before this gull graced us with its presence.  

I often share my sunrise pictures with a friend, Trevor, who also loves photography, and I generally claim that I employ bird-handlers who release birds at just the right moment for me to catch them in my pictures.  Here are two that were released perfectly. (The real trick, and the reason my bird-handler charges so much, is to get the birds to flap their wings in unison.) These two have clearly been working together for years and are in high demand, among photographers around Auckland.  

This is one of my all-time favorite shots.  I wish my handler could have released the bird a little closer though.  I've tried zooming in, to make the bird appear larger, but then the framing of the scene by the palm fronds disappears, and they add depth to the picture.  

In most of these, I wish the birds were just a little closer.  Oh, well, I'm lucky to have them at all. 

Not long after I started using this tree as a subject of many pictures, I went walking in search of it. I found it in the back yard of a home less than a mile, as the crow flies, from our apartment. We're seeing just it's tip.  It really is quite a massive tree. My boyhood spruce surpassed it, I'm sure, but when I found it, I saw that this one's trunk, at ground level, was approaching a meter across, so it's definitely an impressive specimen and a suitable substitute for my long-lost Castile giant.     -djf

Let's make some Damper

I just made some oven damper and I am pleased with it.  I called it oven damper because I have watched a number of videos about making it, and in most of them, the loaf is made in a Dutch oven, over and under campfire coals, or even just tossed directly on the coals. It is the simplest of breads and takes very little to prepare.  

Damper is what they call it in Australia.  I imagine that this sort of bread has been made all over the world by all sorts of people and it must have all sorts of names.  

I don't have any pictures of my efforts yesterday, when I made it to accompany a pot of lamb stew. Instead, I'm going to attach one of the videos I watched about making it so that you can get some visual reinforcement, and possibly, motivation. 

This was my recipe:

2 cups of flour + a little bit to put on my hands and dust the loaf with and baking pan with. 

2 teaspoons of baking power

3/4 teaspoon of salt

water

Bake at 375 F for about 30 minutes. Your oven might vary.  Check it now and then. 

I didn't measure the water. I just poured it in a little at a time and tried to approximate the consistency of the dough in the video. I did well.  

Further, you obviously don't have to bake it in a camp oven over coals.  I put mine on some baking paper in a cast iron skillet, but it would have worked just a well I'm sure on a cookie sheet.  It's the kind of recipe that doesn't call for perfect conditions.  

The consistency of the finished bread is a bit coarse, so don't expect light and fluffy. But it's surprisingly tasty in its simplicity and wonderful with jam or honey or something of your choice.  Mine worked perfectly with the stew.  And, it's not the sort of bread that will stay fresh for long. I used two cups of flour and Jeanne and I finished the loaf between us at dinner.  She toasted the last of it and we had it for a sort of dessert a little later with jam.   

So, there you have it. It is inexpensive to make and doesn't take much work. Why not give it a try sometime?  

I know that I'm going to make it again. Here is one of many videos that are available. I'm showing it to you so you can see how he treats the dough. Several of the other videos added butter to the recipe, one used milk instead of water, and others added everything from grated cheese to bacon bits, turning this very plain bread into something like fancy scones.  I'm sure they are all tasty, but I wanted the simplest possible bread, period. And I was satisfied with what I got.    -djf

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D0DjWOb099k&ab_channel=RangerNick