Thursday, March 16, 2023

Greyscale

 Hi everyone. It's Thursday, and time for Rain's Art and Dinner Date.

This week Rain's theme is greyscale.


Last week I met my walking friend and we walked around the 2 malls that are back to back in Newington (New Hampshire). It takes an hour to walk around them, and though usually not a very exciting walk, it works when there is snow or lots of mud on the ground. It also works when the tide is high at the beach. For most of the walk there are sidewalks, and usually, especially over at the bigger indoor mall, there is barely any traffic because much of the mall (like many indoor malls) is now empty.

I looked up and took this cloud photo which I then changed to greyscale. You might wonder why I was looking up and taking a photo, but there were a couple of bald eagles soaring overhead.

Next let me share the original photo, and since I was only using my phone, you can just make out one of the left hand side of the photo. In fact it looks more like a speck of dust. 


I think it makes a cool photo of clouds though.


I cropped this photo a couple of times so you can see it is actually one of the eagles. 


I wonder if this pair was the same pair or one of that pair's offspring that nests out on one of the small islands in Little Harbor that we've seen while boating. We have a decent size and rising  bald eagle   population here in New Hampshire, and although I don't see them on a regular basis, I do see them relatively frequently. (According to the NH Audubon  Society website we have 80 breeding pairs.)

And some photos tell totally different stories whether they're in greyscale or in color.
Here's the side view of my yard Monday morning in black and white. (With the snow we had before the big storm  Monday night and Tuesday.)


The black and white version is a cool picture, but it doesn't capture the color of the sunrise. It does make the morning feel colder than it actually was.

Here's the color version (not altered), as well as a couple of other  sunrise photos, below.




I also made another loaf of bread this past week. This one is called pain de mie, and it is another white bread.



I seem to be in a white bread baking mode lately. I'm working backwards as I started with sourdough artisan breads several years ago.  This bread was delicious and makes great sandwiches if you don't want something chewy.

I needed a covered pan to make this bread called a Pullman pan.




By covering the bread while baking you get a thin crust, as you can see on my loaf. I also found the backstory behind these pans interesting. They're called pullman pans because back in the day when train trips were popular, the chefs would bake their bread in these covered pans. The cover allowed the chefs to stack their rising loaves on top of each other simply by pulling the cover over the dough that was forming the loaf in the pan. This worked perfectly since train kitchens weren't exactly the roomiest of places.

That's it for me since this post is long enough. Have a great Thursday and for those of you who I only visit on Thursday,  have  rest of your week also. 









20 comments:

David M. Gascoigne, said...

Miriam took used and bruised, brown and unloved bananas yesterday, assured them that they still had worth, and mashed them fiercely together and added them to other ingredients to make her world-class banana bread. Heaven in a mouthful, especially the crust, fresh from the oven, eaten while still warm. Milton wrote about Paradise Lost, but I can direct him to Paradise Found. The next day, lightly toasted, with cream cheese and red pepper jelly with mid morning coffee is a ticket to Shangri-La. so keep making bread, Erika. It's more than you think! Hugs - David

kathyinozarks said...

Good morning, very interesting post-I don't know about how to change up photos-but I like the grey and perfect for the theme. those were interesting clouds-very thickly covered too with textures. I love seeing the eagles so much, glad you have pairs near by.
I enjoyed the story about the covered the pans-I am thinking this one is made by King Arthur as I have their gluten free pan for bread.
Happy Thursday-we have lots and lots of rain coming in this afternoon and they mentioned the snow word for evening so the temps will be dropping big again at night.
hugs from the lake Kathy

Christine said...

Good grayscale entry. The bread looks delicious. Thanks for explaining the pullman pan.

Angie's Recipes said...

I like both b&w and colourful versions...they both look really beautiful.
We are fans of pain de mie :-)

Jim and Barb's Adventures said...

Black and white sure does add a different element to a picture. Love the one of the clouds and the barren trees.

We used bald eagles here occasionally but not as frequently as we did back in Wisconsin.

Jeanie said...

I don't think Rick has ever made a pan du mie and I know he doesn't have a pullman pan. That's very interesting. the skies are beautiful -- I like both versions but with that bright pink, I lean toward color!

Ira said...

Hello, Beautiful clicks!

Colours do give justice to natural beauty however I love the mystery behind the black and white. Our mood and state of mind sets the tones for the images.


Also, the information about the Pullman pan was quite interesting!
Hope you have a wonderful week ahead.

carol l mckenna said...

Wonderful cloud and sky shots ~ beauty ~


Wishing you good health, laughter and love in your days,
A ShutterBug Explores,
aka (A Creative Harbor)

Valerie-Jael said...

The cloud photos are wonderful, I would like to see eages here! And I swear I can smell your bread over here! Have a great day, hugs, Valerie

Lowcarb team member said...

I enjoyed seeing all of your photographs.
Your bread looks good.

Have a happy end of week and a good weekend.
(Where do the days go?)

All the best Jan

Debra She Who Seeks said...

Love your clouds photo but yes, the sunrise photo definitely needs to be in colour, LOL!

DVArtist said...

I so enjoyed this post. Your walk made for some very nice photos. The bread however looks amazing and that pan. Well now I have to have one. I used to bake bread in the ground in a cast iron pan with a lid. It was the best bread. Have a nice evening.

Bleubeard and Elizabeth said...

I really liked the gray scale on your photos, but those pink sky photos are great, too. Nice to see eagles. One at least.

I'm not fond of white bread, but yours looks yummy. Interesting to read about the Pullman pans. Hope your Thursday was great, dear.

Tom said...

...Erika, you have enjoyed some beautiful skies, keep looking up!

Iris Flavia said...

I prefer clearly the color-pics!It seem Spring is on the way - sunny and warm (sadly I still have to work).
To a happy, nice weekend, hugs

Divers and Sundry said...

Cool sky photos, and I'm impressed with how clear your eagles are. Your sunrise photos are breathtaking!

The bread looks good. I've never seen a loaf pan that looked like this. Your explanation of the name makes me -once again- long for a better system of passenger train travel.

Andrea @ From The Sol said...

Your Eagle is an adult, the off spring would more than likely not have it's white head and tail feathers yet, so you would be able to tell them apart. It takes them five years to achieve the white head and tail. And lucky you to have a growing population in your area. And though the prompt is for grayscale, I have to say your colored pictures of the sunrises in your yard are magnificent. What a beautiful way to start your day :)
Fresh baked bread of any kind is a treat. We are told that white bread is not as healthy as whole grain breads and though that may be true a good sandwich on white bread is to die for. Love your pullman pan ... can't say that have ever seen one before, but seems like a great idea. Fun post, as always, Erika ...

Andrea @ From the Sol

Neet said...

Never heard of that loaf but it does look very tasty.
Love the sky photos, as i started looking I thought how much I admire black and white photography and how atmospheric and dramatic it can look but then as I scrolled along and colour came into view I was torn. Both have their places and I could not honestly say which I prefer. I was very impressed by the enlarging of the photo and how clear the eagle looked.
Hugs Neet xx

Rain said...

Your loaf looks great Erika, would you say the Pullman Pan would be a good addition to the bread bakers kitchen? I love how the clouds look in grayscale, what a difference in mood!

NatureFootstep said...

nice clouds :)