Two Weekes in Provence and North Florida: November 2018

Friday, November 16, 2018

Autumn peppers, garden

This year has been a record year for my chili peppers, of all varieties. I have discovered the secret to growing them. Buy from a reputable business, Ace Hardware in this case. Plant in a large container with good garden soil. I buy black plastic tubs from my favorite nursery, Plant Ranch. They are the size that trees come in. Before I fill them I duct tape over two of the four drain holes, on the inside. Fill with dirt, put in a little fertilizer and water regularly for three weeks. Then go to Provence for ten weeks with a very kind neighbor watching my garden. Come back to find the plants are four feet tall and covered with fruit. My neighbor tells me that he only watered the week after I left. After that we had enough rain here to keep them going. They have a lovely heat and I have been using them fresh in chilis and soups. Now they are drying off. The skin goes from a typical pepper skin, to a dryer, leathery skin, shown here, with incredible reds to browns, and then to a brown papery skin. They retain the lovely tasty heat even when dry, so I will be set for winter. My only regret is that the markers that told me which exact pepper they are, were lost over the summer, so I don't know what variety they are. Luckily I have a lot of seeds.

Saturday, November 10, 2018

Muhly grass and 20mm f/1.7

Muhly grass is a very popular landscape grass around here. It is very hardy and makes a nice, innocuous tuft of grass all summer long. It the Autumn it sends up these incredible inflorescences in a stunning magenta that fades to a nice yellow.

The first two lenses that I bought when I moved into Micro 4/3 were the Olympus 90mm f/1.8 that I posted pictures from a few days ago , and the Lumix 20mm f/1.7 a semi normal length. It was very sharp but had a big problem, it took forever to focus. So, it slowly made it's way to the back of my lens shelf. I saw a comment on Michael Johnston's T.O.P. blog that indicated that the newer bodies made it focus faster. I have a Lumix G9 so, on it went...and voila! much faster focus. It is still a sweet lens so it's at the front of the shelf.