Sharon's Week 37: Please Join Me for Dessert

Textures

I was back in the schools this week and I got to witness the chaos that results when kids show up unexpectedly at schools the first day of school.  I'm not sure of the reasons for so many unplanned changes but of the eight schools I visited this week, five of them had to make classroom changes to accommodate increases or decreases in student numbers...not great for the students, teachers or those of us looking for the students.  Anyway, I got to see all of my kids and remember what it is to be busy with actual therapy instead of report writing and project work, yay.

So far I have kept the back-to-school germs out of my system but poor Levi is done in...he's feeling pretty bad right now.  Hopefully he bounces back quickly.

I am much happier with my effort this week with regards to the project.  I started right away last Sunday, did a few more photos mid-week and finished off today.  I really enjoyed this topic and I found myself thinking of different textures to experiment with at different times throughout the week.  I think I used my macro lens for all of these photos and since I love macro photography, that made it even more enjoyable.  I still didn't head out to take any other photos but I would give myself a G for good (bypassing S for satisfactory but not quite reaching E for excellent) for effort this week.

Let's start with some food.  A group of people at my office are hosting a meal for a group of people tomorrow (vague on details, yes, but that's all I know) and I was not able to help out at the meal but I offered to bake for dessert.  Yesterday being a day off for me, I baked (and maybe tasted a bit of the baking).  A former colleague of mine used to make these amazing brownies and thankfully, she shared the recipe before moving away.  I decided to try my hand at them and they turned out just fine, if I do say so myself.  This is the very yummy icing waiting for the brownies to cool.  I'm not sure how to describe this texture...smooth and creamy?

I also made some chocolate chip cookies.  These are just cooling and the texture of the melty chocolate chips is just divine.  I was not able to break open a cookie while taking a photograph so you will just have to use your imagination.

My book club weekend is coming up and I volunteered to make my lasagna rolls for one dinner so I got busy and made those yesterday too.  The gooey cheese sauce, the smooth spaghetti sauce, the sprinkled parmesan cheese and the chopped parsley pretty much cover the gambit of different textures.

While we are on the food topic, I visited my mom and my sister at the campground Monday evening and there was an apple pie cooling on the counter.  My brain went, "duh, pie crust...texture."  The light was low but there was a small spot of sun shining in the yard so I grabbed the pie, went outside and got to work.  This would be slightly more awesome on a homemade pie but there you go, it was a bought pie.

I don't know what I did to my white balance but the pie was not actually blue, neither was the cutting board.  My sister thought it was funny that I was shooting a pie outside so she took a picture and texted it to a friend.  Her friend is very nice and told her to leave me alone, photography is a serious pursuit.

This sunflower is growing in the shade at the campground and I don't think it will make it to full maturity.  It did however provide a photo with lots of texture.

These mushrooms are also at the campground.  They have a smooth texture in themselves but create an interesting texture in how they are wrapped around each other.

Also in the mushroom category is this close-up of some gills.  I'm sorry to say that this fungus was indeed harmed in the making of this photo.

Our small fish tank which houses two guppies always has these water droplets on the inside of the cover.  I admire them each day when I feed the fish but this week I finally had the opportunity to photograph them.  I like the abstract nature of this texture with the bit of green and orange in it.  I think the orange is bits of the male guppy reflected - or maybe it's flakes of food, what do I know.

One of my students was doing some exercises with my therapy putty and he pointed out this cool marble.  I immediately made plans to photograph it but didn't remember until an hour ago.

I wanted to photograph something super smooth so I asked Levi if he could think of anything that was smooth and silky in the house.  He immediately replied, "Cissy."  I did try to get a photo of Narcissa since she is the softest kitty I have ever met but nothing turned out the way I wanted so no kitty photos this week.  Happy weekend everyone.