Apple peels and such

He almost got the apple peeled in one long swipe of the peeler! A few minutes later, with a Jonathon apple, he did get one long peel, but it broke in two pieces just as I got the camera. You have to believe me.

This week, we've been casually baking and sewing and wood carving and sketching a self portrait and reading for fun. And watching tv and using computers, too.

We had my FIL over for dinner (stir fry) since he's 'bach-ing' it for a week, and had a little card playing with him afterward.

"I" of GAIN decorated the church for Advent. She LOVED it.

I also took a lot of food pictures this week for the food + foto challenge at the Souvenir Foto School. I'm halfway through the challenge (see my submission this week at my new blog), and I'm determined to have a different knife in each of the remaining weeks.

I always take many many many pictures before I choose my selection. This week, my photo pool included the apple peelings (pretty interesting), bagels (Martha Stewart styling and food ad styling), and pies. I keep the guiding words of the incredible Sarah in my head at all times, "It's hard to make food photos not look like barf." So true.

Emergence

Mama Podkayne's photo challenge is "emergence." This looked suitable.

We have milkweeds in our backyard. Every now and then we find eggs and caterpillars. This gives us a great opportunity, so we move them to jars that Grandpa Campbell gave us, feed new leaves as needed, and miraculously get butterflies.

The caterpillars climb up the empty stalks to the lid of the jar, get into "J" formation. When all of the larvae get to this point, I move the lid so that it hangs from the light fixture in our dining room. The chrysalides get thin and dark before the butterfly comes out.

In the big outdoors world, butterflies have a smaller chance of surviving to adulthood. We have had the privilege of watching this miracle happen a few times since we moved here in 1999. One year, we had a male emerge just as my sister's baby shower began, so all the guests were able to see its wings unwrinkle and harden. Mom's cousin couldn't believe it was real because it stood so still!