Total Lunar Eclipse

  Early this morning was the Total "Blood Moon" Lunar Eclipse, the last we'll have for three years. While I didn't want to get up for it (it bottomed out at 41° here and was partly cloudy), I did set up my Wyze V3 to do a time lapse from 3 AM to 7 AM.

 The eclipse began at 3:02 AM, reached maximum (totality) at 5:59 AM and ended as the moon set at  7:21 AM.

 I set the camera up behind the garden and aimed it high (the moon would be at an altitude of 44° as the eclipse began). The results are not good, mostly because the sky wasn't clear and partly because the full moon is too bright for the camera. But as the moon moved west and became more covered by the earth's shadow, the sky began to show more detail. In the final seconds Orion  can be gliding westward with the moon.

I shot for four hours and set the time-lapse for 20 seconds. That produced 720 frames (60x4x3) and when played back at 30 fps, it nets a 24 second video. The original MP4 is much better than the WMV I converted it for a smaller file size.  

It's not good even at  60.3M .... but here it is:

 The converted file with considerable quality loss is just 7.42M and even less interesting.

 But I didn't want to miss have something to show for the event. And that's what I got: almost nothing.

Apple Dumplings again

  With five pounds of Granny Smith apples in a bag I thought I'd better get to using them. The last blog was  apple crisp so now I felt it was time for apple dumplings.

 I used Mom's Mennonite recipe which was the one Bob and I loved as kids. I used it the last time I made them, too. That blog and a link to the recipe is here.

I made one notable shortcut by buying pre-made dough. Actually Tom found pie dough as Aldi's when we were in there a few days ago.

 Of course the trouble with that is that it comes in two rounds (one each for the top and bottom of the pie).  I decided I could make it work anyway by dividing each circle into three equal sections.

 I never  end up with homemade dough that wraps  around an apple very  well anyway so I figured  this wouldn't be any worse. It wasn't. I did let the dough sit out of the  refrigerator prior to use until it was almost room temperature to make it more pliable and more easily worked.

 I cored and peeled six beautiful apples. I sat each apple on one section of dough  and poured a mixture of cinnamon and sugar into the center (nearly filling it).

 This is what they looked like getting ready for the oven. I poured the sauce over them at the last minute and had Tom carry them to the oven, With my tremor I don't trust carrying anything liquid.

 And here's the finished product. They were large apples and I could barely fit six in an 8x8" glass pan. I left them in to bake the full 40 minutes.

Note: I figured that the two cups of water for the sauce would be too much. Even after baking there seemed to be a lot of liquid around the dumplings. But after refrigerating overnight, it's just perfect. Enough needs to be left in the dish to spoon over each  dumpling when served.
 Also,  the last time I made this recipe I  added a little red food coloring to the sauce. Not so this time. The brown color of the sauce is just perfect as is.