Clouds and moon

Are you getting tired of my pictures of the moon?  I hope not. You can run through them quickly if you are, or even, (gasp) click out of my post... (can't believe I said that)  

Are you still with me?  

The first set of these pictures turned out rather oddly. The clouds were so heavy one night the end of May that I doubted that I'd be able to see the moon through them at all. And by eye, I couldn't very well. The camera picked it up better, I suppose because of the magnification. 

There was a fair amount of diffused moonlight coming through though so I hoped that I'd get lucky.  The clouds were racing by...

It was warm that night, and humid. I don't know if the traffic passing our village was actually less that night than it usually is, or if it was the foggy conditions that made it seem quieter to me. I do know that I found it very agreeable. I wish now that I had turned my camera and taken a shot of the Atrium as well as the moon pictures. You'd have a better idea of the conditions.    

I think that possibly I appreciate these pictures more than you'll be able to because I remember the almost magical feeling of the evening. Had I been in Michigan I would have been listening to frog song as well.  

Anyway, take a look at how they turned out. 

The settings of the camera have now been changed. The difference is striking.  These were taken, for what it's worth, on the camera's moon setting.  Some of the ground fog has also moved aside for the moment.  

This last one really turned out great.  The terminator (line) is at the 'top' of the moon and I therefore got some craters/mountains along that line. Love it.            -djf

                                                                        

Get thee to a fernery!

To the best of my knowledge, there was no Elizabethan slang definition for the word fernery, so you can be assured that it is only with the best of intentions that I suggest to you what I do in my title. 

Its meaning here is completely unlike Hamlet's dismissal of Ophelia with his insult suggesting where she should 'get,' but it's obvious that I paraphrased Shakespeare's line. My reasoning for doing so is this. We have a wonderfully cool, shady fern glen just a couple of minutes away from our apartment. A fernery would be a perfect place to sit and relax, maybe even read some Shakespeare; and possibly about the nunnery which Hamlet mentioned. 

And you know, thinking more about it, a fernery like ours would be a great addition to a nunnery, if by nunnery you are referring to its usual definition, and not the meaning of the Londoner's disrespectful slang. **

Our fernery is very small but I think it's an integral part of the gardens here in the village. We first enjoyed it on a hot day last summer. It seemed 10 degrees cooler under the ferns.  And I cannot enter it with out remembering my years of picking fiddlehead ferns along the Big Cedar River each spring. How could I not?  

Enough talk.  Let me show you some pictures.  

Jeanne in the fernery, on that hot day that I mentioned, gazing up into the canopy.  

This is what she sees.  

Michigan fiddleheads. Picked in the spring, just as they come out of the ground along the Big Cedar River. Boiled briefly in salted water, I always thought they tasted like a cross between asparagus and green beans. Next to several species of mushrooms, these were my favorite wild edible. 

If Michigan has fiddleheads, then New Zealand has 'double-bass fiddleheads.'  See how they grow....(This is one very massive fiddlehead unfurling right now in our fernery. The time-lapse of the photos was 8/30 to 9/30.

Here's a shot of a mini-tree fern. 

There are so many plants here that I know nothing about.  This one is a long vine-like thing that grows along the border to the fernery.  

Obviously, none of thee can get to our fernery. I hope however, that each of you can sometimes get to some restful place, whether that be in a backyard, garden, park, forest, blind, or even a favorite chair and room.  

During my working years especially, I needed to get away, usually on a Sunday afternoon, to our land, and relax and unwind before starting another hectic week.  

To me, looking up at the fronds on these black tree ferns in Henderson is not too dissimilar to looking up at the white cedar tree canopies of Wilson.   

** I've read that in Elizabethan times, (during which Shakespeare lived) nunnery was used as a slang term for a brothel.          -djf

Red wine tasting at Maison Vauron

I've done a number of posts about Maison Vauron, the French wine and cheese merchant and  restaurant located in Newmarket, New Zealand. I love that place. 

We have eaten a number of meals there, enjoyed several lunches and afternoon snacks, and taken home lots and lots of bread, cheese and wine.  My favorite treat is to grab two loaves of bread and about 300 grams each of Brie, a blue of some sort, and a chicken/duck liver mousse that is one of their specialties. I wish I could share them with each of you.  

Today, I attended one of their wine-tasting events. Jeanne was busy and couldn't come this time so I didn't linger for long. 

I did taste a few wines, had a few bites of cheese and took home a few items. The pictures were taken with my phone. I'd like to share them with you.

The lights are low back here. It's friendly and comfortable. Even the wines are soft and rounded.  

   

Let's sample some of the cheeses before we go upstairs for the more expensive wines....

  

The lights are quite dim here, trouble focusing. 

Meanwhile, things are jumping outside as well.   

That tiny truck selling duckburgers is a work of art. 

It's time for me to go.  That display case in the back is full of cheeses. The mousse that we like is in another case out of site to the right.  

This time though, what I chose to take home were two long, half-baguette sandwiches made with sausage, cheese and greens.  They're the very ones that are standing up in the baskets you see on top of the glass case that the bluejeaned man is now facing. I replace him moments after this picture was taken.    

This is looking down into the restaurant. 

The is the case he was looking into. I briefly looked too but didn't take any.   

I'm on my way out of the door and see all the folks at the tables along the street.  

This has been fun. I have attended quite a number of these tasting events over the years and have seen their popularity grow.  

I commented to the woman accepting my payment for the sandwiches that it was only noon and already it was amazingly busy.  She delightedly rolled her eyes, shook herself a little and said, " I know."     -djf

Doorways

'Doorways are like people. Some you approach are open and welcoming. Others remain closed until you find the right key.'  -djf

A trio of uniquely decorated 13's 

This door is open but I don't think anyone is home...

This last one is interesting. I think of it as a physical oxymoron. 

(You have to climb a long flight of stairs (20 steps) to get to the elevator.) (lift) 

I wonder if the lift goes to the top floor or if it stops one short?   

Or better yet, I wonder if it goes.....down? Too funny. I kill myself sometimes...  .-djf