Radically Retired

Category: Photography

  • It’s a Norwegian Thing

    It’s a Norwegian Thing

    Hubs is Norwegian as far back as he can trace his roots on both of his parents’ sides.

    One of their typical pre-Christmas activities is to make lefse, a Norwegian flatbread made with mashed potatoes and flour.

    My mother-in-law made beautifully thin and soft lefse. In their family, good lefse is defined in comparison to their mom’s. She taught me how to make it, and I passed the skills on to our daughter, who will, in turn, teach both of our grandchildren.

    I hadn’t made lefse since we started coming to Texas, but decided it was time, so purchased all of the equipment and yesterday, made a big batch (192 rounds), along with my sister in law, Lori. Hubs’ brother is also wintering in our park now and he loves lefse too. Lori had never made it before so wanted to learn and practice every step.

    This was our Christmas gift to our guys.

    It’s not an easy task and took us 8.5 hours of rolling and frying to make the amount we did. My feature photo is one stack of many we made yesterday. This amount used a 10 lb (4.5 kg) bag of potatoes.

    One Christmas, many years ago, my mother in law famously made lefse from 100 lbs (40.5 kg) of potatoes!

    The two- day process involves:

    Day 1: Boiling the Potatoes
    Ricing the Potatoes
    Mashing the Riced Potatoes
    Day 2: Making and Rolling the dough
    Frying the rounds
    Cooling, then bagging the rounds
    And flour everywhere!
  • A Lucky Catch

    A Lucky Catch

    A few days ago, as a part of our usual pre-Christmas activities, hubs and I headed to South Padre Island.

    One of our favourite activities while there, is to sit and watch the seagulls and pelicans as they scavenge and fish over the deep blue waters of the Gulf of Mexico.

    The seagulls were especially plentiful, the day was windy, and I was trying to catch a shot of even one gull soaring on the wind current above us.

    I had no luck with my plan, but was completely shocked and amazed when we arrived home and I reviewed my photos to see this.

    The direction of the wings is something I’d never seen before, so to say I’m well-pleased with this accidental shot is an understatement.

  • Zero Humbugging Allowed

    Zero Humbugging Allowed

    Everyone in our park gets into the outdoor decorating for Christmas.

    Each year, on my morning walks, I find new and fun additions.

    About a week ago, this one, at our neighbour’s house, caught my eye and gave me a big smile.

    I agree 100% with “No Humbugging”

  • A New Cup

    A New Cup

    Last week, for our wedding anniversary, hubs and I spent the day visiting our fave stores in the RGV in search of things both useful and whimsical as a part of our anniversary and Christmas gifts to each other.

    For the next couple of weeks, as a departure from my usual Mon, Weds, and Fri posts, I’m going to just stop in randomly, and likely more often, to post things about our Christmas season here in South Texas.

    This cup caught my eye at the World Market Store near here.

    My Mexican Hot Chocolate actually tastes better from this fancy cup (the mind is a powerful thing).

    That’s cinnamon you see floating on the top. I stirred it in after the photo and enjoyed every last sip from my new cup.

  • Family Tradition

    Family Tradition

    December 1st is traditionally when I start my Christmas cookie baking. It’s when my mom always started hers, so I guess the date is firmly ingrained in me from an early age.

    I bake the cookies that both of my grandmas and my mom made over the years, plus I always add a few of hubs’ faves from his memories of his mom.

    My feature photo is of sugar cookies – a must every Christmas.

    Each year, we exchange gifts with friends here in our park, and my gifts always include a selection of my home made cookies.

  • Making it Pop

    Making it Pop

    It’s been some time since I’ve posted about the smart phone photography classes I’m continually taking.

    In a most recent class about photo editing in Lightroom, information was given about how to isolate one colour in a photo and correct/enhance it without disturbing the other colours.

    In my feature photo, the one on the left is the original, so I chose to work only on the blue water and sky, while leaving everything else as shot.

  • Love is All You Need

    Love is All You Need

    My cousin, Carrie has visited us in Texas a few times since we bought our place here.

    Hubs and I have enjoyed touring her around and I’ve especially enjoyed the fact that she loves to walk and hike.

    My feature photo was taken at Quinta Mazatlan, a fascinating and fun place to visit in McAllen, Tx

    We found this mural while hiking the trails that surround the historic adobe mansion.

    As I was making this post, I was reminded of the Beatles’ song, “All You Need is Love”.

  • Getting my Popeye On!

    Getting my Popeye On!

    Carrying on with my prepared salads reviews:

    This one is by Marketside and is called Spinach Dijon.

    Ingredients: spinach, eggs, shredded Monterey Jack-Colby Cheese, chow mein noodles, almonds, sweetened dried cranberries, and sweet onion dressing.

    The dressing is just sweet enough to cover the earthy taste of the spinach.

    This salad is one of my faves in the line. If you like raw spinach, you’ll love this one!

  • Ranch Hand Weekend

    Ranch Hand Weekend

    Once every year, King Ranch – the biggest working ranch in the USA, hosts a breakfast for the public. All monies collected are donated to local charities. This is the only day all year that private vehicles are allowed on the ranch proper.

    Hubs and I have attended the breakfast twice since 2019, once by ourselves, and once a couple of seasons ago, with friends from home who were ranchers at one time. This year, along with these same friends, we skipped the breakfast, but did the bus tour of the ranch.

    The bus tour is open year round and is a great way to spend 1.5 hours learning about this 825,000 acre (in South Texas) massive ranching operation.

    On the same weekend as the ranch hand breakfast, the city of Kingsville hosts a festival, complete with vendors, food and art demonstrations, rides for kids, entertainment, and lots of opportunities to get to know the locals. We decided to do the bus tour on the morning of the festival, so we could spend some time checking out the happenings in town, and then head out for the tour after lunch.

    Unfortunately, just as the bus tour was about to begin, the rain started. We went anyways and, with the exception of not many photo ops through the bus windows, we didn’t regret it.

    At the train museum in Kingsville, we met some young dancers preparing for their performance
    All were very obliging to have their photos taken
    I’ve always wanted to try on a Sampan hat. Who knew I’d be able to do that in cowboy country?
    This was inside the King Ranch Saddle Shop in Kingsville. I think this guy liked Cindy
    Me, doing my best Vanna White pose, showing this tree decorated with antlers!
    Cindy and our bus driver/tour guide.
    Cindy and I sat at the back of the bus
    Photos through a drizzly, wet window aren’t the best. The King Ranch brand is everywhere
    The King Ranch was instrumental in the development of the American quarter horse.
    The turkey vultures were numerous and huge!
    Originally named “The Santa Gertrudis Ranch” … The Santa Gertrudis name was given to the cattle that the ranch is famous for developing
    A small portion of the beautiful King Mansion – still in use by descendants of the namesake who built it

    After my post Steamroller Blues? , I promised some of my followers that I would explain the festival in greater detail.

  • Oh to Have 8 Hands …

    Oh to Have 8 Hands …

    … Not just for the many flavours of ice cream, like the fellow in the mural, but to get everything done that I want to in a day.

    This time of year is usually busy for me, as I prepare for Christmas.

    Either this year is busier than usual, or another year added to my age has slowed me down a bit. Hmmm – I wonder which is true.

    My goal for tonight and tomorrow morning, is to try to get caught up with the bloggers I follow.