kevbeaux's photostream  

These are for my inside herbs in the kitchen window. I got two of these sets. The other one will have Impatiens in them on the bistro table on the front porch.

Finally found a piilar large enough for these 19 inch tall leather wrapped glass hurricanes. Pier One has the sand, shells near in the candle department. I still need to add some shells, Most of them were too big for this space between the glass and candle, so I put more sand in a crystal bowl and displayed them separately.

My Dad has been going through so much lately and not feeling like eating a lot. I decided to fatten him up with my homemade soups. Making soups is my favorite thing to cook. If you can make a roux or a bechemel, you can make any cream soup. This had six large Yukon Gold, two leeks, onion, shredded carrots, roasted garlic, chicken stock and cream. It was crazy good. He ate like a field hand. I leave mine unblended. I like the more rustic unpureed soup for something like this.

If you are not familiar with leeks, make sure you use mostly the white part, some green is ok, cut them in half and then into 1/4 inch rings. I put mine in ice water and agitate them to make the sand (and there's ALWAYS sand) fall to the bottom while the leeks float. Drain them and saute. I once ruined a very expensive 5 onion soup by not rinsing the leeks. GRIT is not attractive in soup. I promise you.

I took the backroad today to my friend's house 15 miles away. On the way the Sun was so bright because it was near sunset. All of a sudden I saw a bright yellow stain on the clouds. No white light at first. Just bright yellow. I saw the sun at far right and I thought ok…what the hell? Then white streaks started streaming out the sides and it got brighter. I don't know what this is, but I would love an explanation. It was pretty cloudy, it's like almost along hollow tunnel through the clouds. It was as bright as the light from the sun. At first I thought it was a rainbow, but it was only yellow and white. Whatever it was, was beautiful. Several people on Facebook have said this is clouds reflecting the sun, in a ring or tunnel like configuration through ice crystals. Someone said the Native Americans considered it a sign for good hunting. I thought for a moment it was the rapture and I was terribly underdressed.
UPDATE: A sun dog or sundog (scientific name parhelion, plural parhelia, for "beside the sun") is a common bright circular spot on a solar halo. It is an atmospheric optical phenomenon primarily associated with the reflection or refraction of sunlight by small ice crystals making up cirrus or cirrostratus clouds. Often, two sun dogs can be seen (one on each side of the sun) simultaneously. Even rarer is to see a complete halo with a brightly coloured spot on each side and above.