Hiking and Great BBQ

Last week the Foodie Daughter and I took a trip to Ohio to 

Hocking Hills State Park.

I had visited this beautiful area once as a child and wanted to visit again, this time to take photos for my photography business, Photoscapes by Marilyn.  The Foodie Daughter was kind enough to go along with me so that I would have a traveling companion and a hiking companion.

 All of these photos were taken on my iPhone.

 The lower falls at Old Man's Cave.

 The Foodie Daughter poses in one of the small caves in the
Old Man's Cave area.

Old Man's Cave is named after a hermit who lived in the area during the Civil War.

 

 The upper falls and the stone bridge at Old Man's Cave.

 

 Cedar Falls.

 Another view of the falls.

In all, we hiked nearly six miles along four trails including the one leading back to Ash Cave, Ohio's largest recess cave.  The cave stretches 700 feet across and is nearly 100 feet deep.  It is 90 feet to the top of the cave, where a seasonal waterfall spills over the ledge into a pool below.

We didn't get a chance to see everything during this trip and hope to return, perhaps in the spring time some year, when the waterfalls will be at their best.

While staying in Logan, Ohio, we ate at a local BBQ place called Millstone BBQ.

The online reviews were good and it was just down the road from the hotel.

The place was busy when we arrived on Monday evening.  Despite that, we were promptly seated and given menus to peruse.

It took us a while to decide what to have as so much on the menu looked good.

 I finally opted to have the Big Bad Wolf with sweet potato fries.

This was a delicious sandwich, but the bun either needed to be toasted longer, or it needed a heartier bread, as the bun fell apart after two bites and I ended up having to eat the sandwich with a knife and fork.  It was still the best tasting beef brisket I had ever eaten, though.

The Foodie Daughter decided to try the Texas Trio, an assortment of sandwiches, along with sweet potato fries.

I've had BBQ in Texas, but this far outshone anything I had there.

I'd go so far as to say this was the best BBQ I have ever had.

A Photo from the Foodie Daughter

I wanted to share a picture that my dear daughter took while on our trip out east last month.

She's quite the budding photographer, if I do say so myself.

Brood II cicada on phlox.

The Foodie Daughter is proud of this photo, and rightfully so.

The Natural Progression of a Sunset x 2

Today has been an odd day, with thunder sounding

in the distance for most of the day.

A check of The Weather Channel's web site

confirms that we are surrounded by slow moving storms.

Here?

It has only rained for about an hour.

Yet we have listened to the sound of thunder for most of the day.

Curious.

I was hoping to catch sight of our newest visitors

to the butterfly bushes, the goldfinches,

but caught this sight instead.

Later, yet another camera-worthy view

over our chimney.

These things are worth waiting for.

Total time?

A little more than an hour.

Meanwhile,

out front my evil doppelganger

was busy with her camera on the front porch.*

*If you believe that,

I have some ocean-front property to sell you in Iowa.

Call me.

I can make you a deal.**

**Deals may or may not benefit the buyer.

The light is beginning to change, ever so slightly.





Keep watching.

It looks like we are going through the color spectrum.

I'm rather partial to this palate.

Lovely, isn't it?

By the way,

the later photos were all taken

using the sunset setting on my camera.

It allows the colors to "pop."

Lightning Crashes

The first evening we were in Lexington, Kentucky, my husband went out and visited with other Masonic friends staying at the hotel. I took that opportunity to go out on the balcony of our hotel room and practice taking pictures of lightning. Now, have you ever tried to take pictures of lightning? Not an easy thing. First you have to figure out just what setting to put your camera on. Auto with flash? No good. Nighttime with no flash? Not much better. Ah ha, I’ve got it! Fireworks! Now, just where do I point the camera? And just when do I take the picture?

The storms have moved on, so it's relatively safe to go out and take pictures of the lightning.

Lightning is a difficult photographic subject as it is unpredictable both in location and timing. I solved this problem by simply clicking the shutter button as often as I could. The camera must also be held as steady as possible. Ideally, one would have a camera tripod handy. As I didn't, I used the balcony railing to keep the camera steady.

After uploading the pictures to my computer I was left with many duds, which were summarily deleted. Then I had to contend with the pictures that contained bright white blobs.

I used Microsoft’s standard photo software where I played around with the exposure settings, changing both the brightness and contrast settings until the bolt of lightning could be seen.

Still working on it...

A little closer...




And there we have it.

You can even come up with different versions of the same lightning strike, simply by changing the brightness and contrast on the photograph.

See?

I have to say that I now have a much greater appreciation for those wonderful photographs of lightning that are out there.

Another Glorious Day

I decided today that I was suffering from acute stock withdrawal. The cure? Why, making some stock, of course. I picked up some beef soup bones at the grocery store today and when I got home I pulled out the saved beef bones and trimmings from the freezer. Those all went into a 400 degree oven for 30 minutes. Meanwhile, I cleaned and cut two carrots, two celery ribs, half a large onion (including the outer layer) and two cloves of garlic. After 30 minutes I tossed the veggies in with the beef bones and trimmings and baked for another 30 minutes. I also tossed the celery leaves, a couple of bay leaves, some dried thyme, black peppercorns, whole cloves and dried rosemary into a stock pot and added some water.

Now, this is what I call therapy. After transferring the contents to the stock pot, I added water to this pan and heated it on the stove while stirring to lift up the fond from the bottom of the pan. The water and the savory bits were then poured into the stock pot. I then turned the heat for the stock pot to medium and allowed the stock to simmer for several hours.

Let's take a look outside.


The skies cleared up just in time for a glorious sunset.

This picture was taken just after the last photo. The difference is that the flash was turned off for this shot while the flash was used for the last one.

A few minutes later I took another photo of the same view. The flash was used here.

And no flash for this one. The subtle differences in the ambient light makes a huge difference when you take a picture. I would suggest that you play around and take pictures with and without the flash.

And now we come to the money shots.

It has been a long time since we have had such a beautiful sunset.

Hope your day was as nice as mine.

I See Trees

My dear husband asked if I'd like to go for a drive this past Sunday. Of course I would. It was a beautiful day and the fall colors are just gorgeous. I grabbed my camera and we set off for places unknown.

I can see my house from here! Well, not really, but I can see trees...

My husband was given orders to mainly drive north and west so I could have back-lit pictures. This time of year you want to shoot away from the sun so the colors pop.

Sumacs in fall color.




I am beginning to love autumn.

I'm really not sure where we were most of the time, but it was beautiful.

I don't think I could find my way back to some of these places if I tried. Most of the roads were not marked, so I don't even know what roads we were on. We even found some one-lane roads and a gravel road with signs warning to stay away when flooded.

I love the hills of southern Indiana.

The trees with the whitish bark are American Sycamores. Most have already lost their leaves by now.

Can you see the trees?

You know you are in for a ride when the road has the word 'Hollow' in it. That usually means a narrow, winding road that rides the ridges and dips into the hollows. And it's a very good idea to stay on the road. Some of those drop-offs are doozies.

Oak sapling in color.

One of the many creeks we crossed on our journey.

Oh, look. Another creek.

Isn't this just gorgeous?

Now, I want you to remember that all of these pictures were taken from a car and most of the times the car was in motion as I was snapping pictures.

Hope you enjoyed the ride.