Saturday, September 14, 2024

Three Beautiful Things 09-13-2024: Returning to the Pentax Q, Stir-Fried Pork and Vegetables, Copper's Trusting Relaxation

1.  Through flickr and the Mac Photos app, I looked at many, not all, of the pictures I've taken over the years with my Pentax Q. I purchased this camera in November of 2013. Overall, I was happy with many of these pictures -- in fact, I thought I had taken many of them with my Nikon 3100. I'm puzzled why I've let this fine and conveniently sized camera languish unused for so long. 

I turned on the Q and began to teach myself once again how its buttons and dials work, what its capabilities are, and so on. I have a ways to go as far as learning and re-learning the versatility of the Pentax Q, but I'm glad I have it back in action again. 

2. A couple of nights ago, I fixed Debbie and me boneless pork chops baked with a mustard and panko and poultry seasoning topping. I baked half the pork chops in the package and a little later Wednesday night I found a simple recipe for a delicious Asian marinade and put the remaining chops in a zip lock bag with the marinade I mixed up. On Thursday, I took the marinated pork chops out of the marinade, cubed them,  and stored them in the refrigerator.

Today, I chopped up white onion, yellow squash, yellow pepper, mushrooms, carrots, and celery and stir fried them in the wok while a pot of brown rice cooked. I added spinach leaves and red pepper flakes to the vegetables along with the marinated pork cubes and I made a stir fry sauce. Once the rice finished cooking, I blended it in and poured the sauce over it. Our dinner was a tasty blend of sweet, spicy, lemony, and, thanks to the brown rice, nutty. 

3. Some of my friends, for various reasons, have accepted my always standing offer to send them my blog posts via email. Some of these friends are not on Facebook, so when they comment on a post, I'm the only one who reads it. 

Today, Deborah, my longtime/forever friend, starting in 1974 during our time at Whitworth, wrote me the perfect response to the picture I posted of Copper resting on the spot on my bed where I like to lie when I read. 

For starters, here's the picture again: 



Deborah wrote: "Oh, my. The epitome of trusting relaxation. Gorgeous. . . "

She added: "If there is another dimension beyond this one I so hope all the creatures are there, in peace."

Deborah's response moved me, touched one of my deepest desires. 

More than anything, with Copper (and the other animals I've lived with) and with my friends and family, I want them to experience trusting relaxation. Developing this trusting relaxation with Copper has taken some time, especially during the month or more when I was under the impression that being in the same room with Copper was risky because of my post-transplant condition. 

Thank goodness I double checked on that understanding and learned it was my misunderstanding. 

In the time this summer since Copper and I have spent many hours together in the bedroom and since we put up a gate to keep Copper and Gibbs apart, Copper's trust toward me has grown, slowly and surely. 

He's been increasingly willing to make physical contact with me, pressing himself against my legs while I read, resting his face on my palm other times, sometimes even pressing himself against my side above my waist. He licks me on occasion. When I pet him he purrs more willingly and happily than ever. 

When I read Deborah's words, "The epitome of trusting relaxation" it thrilled me that in this picture Deborah could see what I've been experiencing over the last couple of months and loving with Copper. 

Today, Copper lay on a hooded sweatshirt of mine I had lying on the bed. 

I tried out my Pentax Q and took some pictures of him. 

I was rusty. 

I decided to edit one of the photographs by cropping it and making it a monochrome picture. 

So, here it is: my first published picture in the Copper Project 2024 taken with my Pentax Q! 





 

No comments: