Spring is in the Air

The last couple of weeks were filled with delving deeper into the world of photography, hence our brief absence from posting. Since we upgraded to digital SLR cameras, a steep learning curve awaited us, and we decided to participate in several workshops offered by creativelive.com up in Seattle. It also helped that Seattle is one of our all time favorite cities. If you have never heard of this terrific outfit, check them out. Their classes are free when you participate online during a live event, and can also be purchased for download at a very affordable price. The latter is definitely recommended, to allow for later review of the study materials. Creativelive has attracted a host of well-known experts in their respective fields, and the instruction offered is truly outstanding. As you can tell, we love Creative Live, and cannot say enough good things about them. (But just for posterity’s sake this is just our own personal opinion, we do not receive any compensation for saying this.)

Today’s post is all about the beauty of Spring, which is ever so welcome in the barren desert that surrounds us here. Please bear with us, most of the photos offered were taken prior to our classes, but were beckoning to be published, waiting in the ever present and overflowing draft folder.

Some of the images are actually from our own garden, i.e. the pear blossoms, daffodils, etc., others are from a Spring Bloom Garden Show in Albuquerque, New Mexico. Spring gardening in the High Desert is filled with obstacles – very warm temperatures all through the day and below freezing at night. Covering the more delicate shrubs and plants with plastic and/or burlap becomes a daily necessity, at least until the temperatures stabilize.

Before we get to the photographs, we also wanted to let you know that, of course, we are continuing with our Food Culture series, and are featuring Japan this month. Why Japan, you might ask? Well, not only because of the association of cherry blossoms (Sakura) and Spring, but it makes for a very interesting food culture study as well.

There is so much to learn and discover about Japan. While most people are familiar with sushi, sake, and teriyaki, and Japanese tea ceremonies, Japanese food culture has an abundance of offerings that are largely unfamiliar in the West.

While living in the Pacific Northwest, we were closely connected with all the Asian cultures, through our neighbors, various homeschooling programs, local food markets, etc. and this allowed us to incorporate some of their traditions into our own lives. Sadly, we have yet to visit Japan, and will be the armchair travelers along the way, just like you.

Since relocating to the Southwest, we have missed some of these influences and connections in our lives. Doing extensive research for our upcoming food culture posts, we discovered some hidden gems here and will be sharing them with you over the next few weeks. Lets us welcome a new country – Japan – to be highlighted starting with our next post, later today. Any food recipes we will share, as usual, will always be gluten free.

At last, here is a sampling of our Spring photos, all taken here in the Southwest.