Beginning a Journey with A New Camera

First photo shoot with my new camera! I finally got a DSLR and love it so far but have a lot of experimenting yet to do with it.

I'm sure that I'll still be using my old tiny Canon Powershot plenty though, when I'm out and about. I call it my 'spy-camera' because I can hold it in the palm of my hand and snap away without being overly obvious and I know the way it works like the back of my hand so can get my shots really quickly. You know, sometimes you don't mind being seen as the 'girl with the camera' and at other times you want your picture taking to be a little more discrete!

Anyway, for this session I was already dressed for something else so I popped a vintage hat on my head and grabbed some plastic cherries from my big bowl of fake fruit, and took my first tentative shots with my remote control.

Mysterious Place : The Port Lands

We got our first new car together this past year. To get around we have always relied on walking, public transportation or the use of a car-sharing service we are members of. Truth is, we didn't really need a car. That's not to say that we didn't want one though. The freedom associated with having our own set of wheels was enticing, so last March we got our first car while we've been together. Well, I should say that Nick got our first car, a Mustang sports car. Anyway, it being brand new and the streets being grimy and salty in the winter months, we haven't been using it much lately, preferring to keep it safe and sound (and pretty) in the garage. So when Nick went to start it recently, to take it for a spin on a gorgeous, remarkably warm day, it wouldn't start. Lo and behold, the battery was dead. Little did we know that new cars use up their battery power pretty quickly and have to be driven every couple of weeks!

This has resulted in regular little drives around town to keep her going. Which brings me to these shots of an area that is called Toronto's Port Lands. These pictures were taken from the moving car with the window rolled down (note I took the pictures while Nick was driving!). I just couldn't resist this amazing looking sky.

Eddie Blanket Boy

Eddie relaxing on some blankets. The plaid one has been in Nick's life forever and probably covered him as a newborn, as he was born in the middle of a snowstorm that was so bad that the electricity went out at the hospital, so he came into being under the lights provided by an emergency generator.

Food Friday : Blueberry Pie

Me-oh My-oh, Nick made Blueberry Pie-oh! With all the antioxidants found in blueberries, we treated each piece like a dietary supplement. Be damned sugar and butter! lol It's my favourite pie in the world, though my mom's raisin pie is up there too! Leftovers keep well in the refrigerator but are best served slightly heated.

There is this little corner store in our neighbourhood that does not stock much fresh produce except, for some reason, a variety of lovely berries. They always seem to have beautiful blueberries, raspberries and blackberries for sale, at an affordable price, which was why we were able to make a fruit pie using fresh berries in the winter. Albeit these are not the more desired wild blueberries but they make a very nice pie nonetheless.

To make it, use a pie crust of your choice, be it pre-made frozen or home-made. Nick makes his with butter rather than shortening and does not partially bake it before adding the fruit.

How to make Blueberry Pie:
Rinse enough fresh blueberries to fill your crust right up. Our pie plate is a large deep-dish one, so we used 4 pints (about 2 cups). Mix the berries with 4 tablespoons flour, 1/2 cup sugar, a dash of cinnamon, 1 teaspoon grated lemon rind and 1 teaspoon fresh lemon juice. Toss around gently until well mixed. Pour into your prepared pie crust and dot with pieces of butter (about 3 tablespoons total). Top with your pie-crust lid and cut a hole in it.

Bake at 350 degrees for 1 hour. Yum

Sound Checking … Check Check

Nick and I are in a band called The Rails, along with our friend, drummer Chops. Though it's a pretty big part of our lives, with us performing a live on-line show at least once a week, I haven't talked about it much on this blog. It's not that it's a secret or anything .. it's more that I understand that musical tastes are very personal and I wouldn't want to be seen as trying to 'push' our music on anyone reading my blog.I'll leave some links at the end of this post for those who are interested but please don't feel obligated. I am happy to keep this blog and my musical life separate, though it would be great if there was eventually some cross over, but only if you like the music, which I realize is not everyone's cup of tea.Our music is loud with quite a punky edge and our songs were all written by Nick with some input on arrangement and melody by me. I am the singer in the band and play keyboards (Nord Electro). Nick plays guitar and sings back-up, and Chops plays the drums. We have played many live gigs around town and have 13 songs professionally recorded and produced by Michael Jack. In recent years however, we have really taken to performing on-line for a world-wide audience. We have been doing live audio streams withing SecondLife.com since 2007, which means the audience can hear us live but the visual aspect is in avatar form. You can see my other blog which I will link to below, if you want to see more about our experiences in SecondLife. (Shout out to Krakov Letov of The Notes Shack Pub, who's virtual club we performed at, and Brucie Lusch our adorable helper / hostess, who has been helping us for years. We've not met these them in real life because they live in Europe, but meeting them both in real life is high on our bucket list of life's hopes and dreams.)The exciting news for The Rails in 2012 is that we are in the process of adding a live visual element to the show, made possible by Nick's skills in computer programming and sound and tv studio experience. We tested it yesterday with our regular audience in SecondLife, most of whom are from Europe because they really seem to dig what we're doing, and we play at 5pm Toronto time, which is 10pm their time. Our test run worked pretty well with a few glitches that need ironing out, so we have more work to do before the 'official' launch, but it's looking good! Unfortunately Chops was sick so he couldn't participate, so Nick and I used our ancient drum machine (an Oberheim).