Three Beautiful Things 11/18/12: Tender Roast, Tripod at the Ponds, 30 for 30

1.  First I seasoned the pork roast with Greek seasoning and some garlic powder.  Then I seared it and, after searing, covered it with rosemary.  I lined the bottom of the crock pot with peppered onions, set the roast on top of it, and lined the roast with yams, a sectioned honey crisp apple, and mushrooms.  I  set the crock pot on low and our dinner simmered away for about six hours and, after I took it out and sliced the roast,  the Deke and I enjoyed our dinner, a lot.

2.  I drove out to Delta Ponds Park and took pictures with my 135 mm/f2 manual lens, mounted it on my tripod and shutter release cable and had an exciting time experimenting with light and subject matter, especially with gusty winds blowing.  I felt like taking pictures was a completely new thing to do again.  I took some naturalistic pictures, but also some more artsy ones, experimenting with color blurs in the foreground sometimes and bokeh other times.  It's fun to experiment, even if the failure rate is sort of high.  I love Delta Ponds Park and I love all that the place inspires me to try.  I'll get back there as soon as I can and keep working the tripod.  Here's one example of a picture I took, an experiment.  I don't know if it's a failure.  I sure enjoyed taking it!



3.  Until this evening, I had never watched any of ESPN's 30 for 30 documentaries.  Tonight I relived and marveled at the Boston Red Sox 2004 victory over the Yankees in the American League Championship Series in the short film "Four Days in October".  I'd forgotten how nearly miraculous Boston's wins were, until the rout of Game 7.  I had followed that series on the radio and I'd never seen images of it.  It was thrilling.  Then I started, and got half way through,"Fernando Nation".  I remember how staggered I was my Fernando Valenzuela's 1981 spring.  Watching that has been great.  The documentary also digs more deeply into the history of Chavez Ravine, which is the history of Latino/a citizens in Los Angeles and this background to the sudden emergence of Valenzuela has been fascinating and sobering.