Friday Shoot-Out: Yard food a la francaise

This week's topic for the Friday Shoot-Out was yard food. Now, I haven't been on many picnics lately, BUT, I do have some shots from a Bastille Day festival that I attended. Their yard was actually the street! It was a street festival, but so much fun!

Hmmm...now what kind of crepe do I want? Sweet or savory?

Watch as Chef Jean-Pierre starts to ladle the batter onto the crepe pan...ooohhhh, yummy goodness here...


Now another chef...I'll call him Jean-Louis, spreads the batter around the pan...

I decide to go with a chocolatey crepe...can't go wrong with chocolate, kittens!


Voila! Une crepe extraordinaire...


You can't go wrong with French food...especially delicious French pastries...


...or yummy fruit tarts...

These look to beautiful to eat. I imagine they're raspberry flavored.


And of course, what French yard food would be complete sans bread?


Happy Friday, kittens! Enjoy your yard food!

Friday Shoot-Out: Reflections

I have been horrid with the Kodak moments lately. This week, and last, were filled with errands and volunteer work--lots to do, kept me off the streets, but didn't leave me enough time to take photos.

I took a picture of myself in the mirror, and it didn't come out too well. Hated it. Was going to upload it, but decided against it.

So, I did what any good Bookkitten would do: I combed through the archives of my photo album and decided to think abstractly. In the process I found what I feel is one of the best photos I've ever taken:


New York is not my hometown. However, I live close enough to the Big Apple that I'm able to visit a few times a year. Last year I went into the city for a Bastille Day celebration. Afterwards I took a walk on the Brooklyn Bridge and took some shots. I used my zoom lens for this one, and cropped it when I got home.

This photo was taken at a time in my life when I was recovering from my last major episode of depression. Every time I look at this photo I think of several things, among them, how far my life had come since I began to rebuild my life. I know it sounds dramatic, but I was at a really, really low point.

For me, Lady Liberty is a reflection of every emotion I was experiencing at that time. Fear, but hope. Sorrow, but happiness. Insecure, yet confident.

Maybe I'm stretching things a bit for this assignment, but what can I say? I absolutely love this picture.

Until next week, Shoot-Out gang...

Friday Shoot-Out: Yard objects

These pictures were taken last week, while I was housesitting. I live in a condo and our association by-laws don't allow for many--if any--yard objects on the property. So here are some of the yard objects at my friend's house:

Yes, this cat is a yard object in the sense that he's almost always outside, especially on his favorite chair:


My friend has these little lanterns all over her garden:


I love this little table and chairs. There's a little slide in the background. It belongs to my friend's nephew:


The pool: classic yard object.

You can barely see it, but there's a little dog peeking out of the bush:


We finish with one of the many kitties lining my friend's garden:

Next week's theme is "reflections." I've been thinking a lot about that one. See you then!

Friday Shoot-Out: Textures

I haven't been a participant in the Friday My Town Shoot Out for a while now. but finally had some time this week to take some photos.

This week's theme is Textures, and as you can see, I didn't have to go far to find some great pictures. All of these photos were taken in my house and my front yard.

We start off with a shot of my popcorn ceiling:

I got a package in the mail the other day. I always break down the box before I recycle it, and on the inside, I found the great texture of corrugated cardboard:


Here's a shot of one of my end tables. I've always admired the patterns you can find in wood. Yes, it is very shiny and shellacked. It's how I bought 'em.




Here's my jean jacket:



I don't know if you can tell here, but this is my cat's fur--one of my all-time favorite textures:



These are the rocks that line the gardens at my condo complex:


Tree bark is a great texture. Here's the bark of one of the crabapple trees in my front yard:



And here's a close-up of some lichen from the same tree:


I tried to get a close-up of the veins of the leaves on the tree as well. I don't think I was quite so successful:



Flower petals are a great texture, especially on a brightly colored flower like this one:



Grass is my favorite summer texture. I love going barefoot in the grass!




Here is some brick. These bricks support the sign in front of my condo complex:


Here's a patch of sidewalk in front of my condo:


And here's some moss in one of the gardens outside my condo:


And finally, here's my neighbor's doormat, which has some great texture in it:
Thanks for looking at my photos! Be sure to go to the Friday Shoot-Out blog (the link is at the beginning of this post) and see all of the other photos from the Friday Shoot-Out gangsters!

Friday Shoot-Out: Random

Kittens, I haven't had time to go out and shoot some proper photos for this week's Friday Shoot-Out. I had a clever idea for the "random" theme, but life has kept me tres occupee this week. (Yeah, I know that "tres occupee" needs to have some accents in there, but how does one make accents in Blogger? Help!)

Anyhoo, for this week's "random" theme, we could choose anything we wanted. And since they haven't made any appearances on the blog for a very, very long time, I thought it was time for me, the Bookkitten, to highlight...my own kittens.

So here are some of the best of my Gorgeous Grey Girl, Maggie, and her sister, my Most Colorful Girl, Gabby.

The first three shots were taken on the same day, within the same hour, in one of their favorite spots: my glider rocker. Note how they switched positions during their nap:

Notice especially how their sleep positions are nearly identical: same angles, same facial expressions, same tail position.

Here's a random cat fact for you: cats love boxes.

Cats also love bathtubs, especially on warm afternoons.

Mags never lies on the vanity. Notice how nervous she looks as I snap her photo:

Both my girls love to stare out the window from their perch. I'd love to photoshop the trees as a winter scene and use this as a Christmas card. I'd call it "Waiting for Santa":

Maggie loves boxes, too:

Gabs loves to take naps in the most random places. One day I was getting ready to go grocery shopping, and set one of the empty bags on the couch. Let's just say my trip to the store was postponed for about an hour:

We end with a shot of both gals on top of nice, clean, fresh from the dryer laundry. Notice how Mags has her leg wrapped around Gabby's body. They rarely cuddle like this, so whenever the opportunity presents itself, I get the camera out right away.

We wish you all a very happy weekend!

Friday Shoot-Out: Water, water everywhere!

It's my first Friday Shoot-Out, kittens! I first found out about this through Reggie Girl. I left her a comment last week, saying that I'd like to participate in this week's version, and she wrote back and said she'd hold me to it! Well, I can't let Reggie down! She's a great girl and has such an awesome blog!

And a few days ago, Reggie's friend Patty, who is co-moderator of the Friday Shoot-Out, E-mailed me a welcome. She's got a cool blog, too, filled with awesome shots of small-town America.

Well, I don't live in small-town America, but rather, mid-sized city America. Our theme this week was water, and my town is full of it!

We start off at Wadsworth Falls, one of the most spectacular waterfalls in our fair state. (Please be aware, kittens, that I wrote that last sentence before I linked to the website for the falls. The link has an identical sentence.)

Here are the falls as you approach the banks of the Coginchaug River:


I love this shot:

There's a little platform at the top of the falls where you can stand and watch them go over the rocks. Here's a view looking straight down. I estimate that it's a 20-foot drop (but I am horrible at estimation):

Before you come to the main falls, there's a very small waterfall that goes underneath short bridge:

I've always loved looking at rushing water in a river:

This afternoon I took a walk in Harbor Park for our next set of shots, and found this neat old water pump:

Here's a shot of the bend in the Connecticut River, which forms the southern border of my town:

If you look very closely, at the top of the hill you'll find one of the main buildings of Connecticut Valley Hospital:

Here's a boat docked next to Harbor Park Restaurant. There's a barge right behind it. Harbor Park's the home of the Head of the Connecticut Regatta, which is held every October:

And here's the Arrigoni Bridge, one of the symbols of our town. It connects Middletown with Portland.

Cross the Arrigoni over to Portland and you'll find the historic Portland Brownstone Quarries.

You know those brownstone houses that you see in New York City? They're made of good ol' Portland brownstone!

The quarries flooded after a flood in 1936 and a hurricane in 1938. There have been many attempts to drain them, all unsuccessful. Recently they were converted into an outdoor recreation area. In this photo, if you look closely, you'll see a zipline. You can zip from one side of the quarry to the other, and if you want to, dive right in!

A smaller version of the brownstone quarries opened about fifteen years ago to supply materials for renovation and small construction projects.

Did I also mention that the quarries are on the list of National Historic Landmarks?

Wow...my town sure has a lot of the wet stuff! I hope I followed all of the Shoot-Out directions all right! If I didn't...well, this was my first time, please forgive me! I still think these were great photos!

I can't wait to see next week's theme!