Allyson Whipple

Category: photos

  • Weekend Adventures: Galveston Island

    This is what convertibles were made for: waking up early and heading out with a friend to get possibly the best bagels in the entire state of Texas from Hot Bagels in Houston. And then putting the top town, heading out on I-45 South, and driving to Galveston. And as you’re heading down the highway, knowing you’re probably already getting too much sun even though it’s only 8:30 a.m., but accepting that this is a fact of living in Texas, and deciding it’s worth it to drive down with the wind blowing all around you.

    I spent most of the morning fiddling around with the different settings on my camera, which is why this is overexposed. However, I like it anyway.

    Sunday was my first time in Galveston, and also my first time on a Texas beach. I’d seen the Gulf of Mexico from Florida, but was looking forward to see some of my state’s coast for once.

    We hung around the seawall and spent the morning relaxing, alternating between the water and the sand. The waves were small at first,  but they started to pick up, and I had a ton of fun playing in them. There were also schools of fish that kept swimming by and jumping out of the water, as though just daring the gulls to try to eat them.

    When the sun started getting intense, we headed out to get some food. Being on the coast made me want oysters, so we ended up at The Spot, where I indulged my whim and ate a full dozen oysters. Which I realize is not the most well-balance meal ever, but it was delicious, and exactly what I wanted.

    The perfect lunch

    Finally, it was time to head on back. Meaning more time driving my wonderful car, listening to good music, and enjoying the wind. And winding up with quite the sunburn, despite liberal applications of sunscreen. Welcome to summer in Texas.

  • Weekend Adventures: McKinney Falls

    A long weekend is perfect for exploring. This past Friday, I celebrated four whole years of living in Austin. On Sunday, I realized that, despite having lived here for four years, I have not once spent time at McKinney Falls, which is a lovely hiking/camping/swimming destination just a few miles away from the airport. So armed with a camera, a traveling companion, and a bottle of water, the adventure commenced!

    When I say that I don’t like flowers, I mean that I don’t like flowers slowly dying in vases while attempting to symbolize affection. I very much enjoy wildflowers growing in their natural environment.

    Most of the trip was spent on a hiking trail, trying to avoid poison ivy (I was not 100% successful in this endeavor). I also fell in the river, which was nice for the heat, but not so nice because I reeked of algae all afternoon. Also, thank goodness for waterproof camera bags!

    There are turtles in this photograph! I swear! *sigh* I need a better lens…

    After dealing with the chronic dryness of last summer, it was refreshing just to sit and listen to the water. We’ve had some decent rain in Austin this spring, and I wouldn’t mind a little more before summer hits us hard, but the chances for that are quickly passing us by. Let’s just hope this summer isn’t quite as intense as the last one. As much as I adore living in hot, dry climates, I do have an affection for water.

  • Weekend Adventures: Photos from Enchanted Rock

    This Saturday, a friend and I headed out on 290-W for a sojourn to Enchanted Rock. The last time I went out there was in August of 2010, and I ended up with heat exhaustion, so it was nice to be able to get out in cooler weather and see more of the park. We climbed the rock, wandered through a gully, got lost, and then found ourselves again. It was a lovely way to spend an afternoon, and I got some great pictures.

  • Photo Walk

    I had December 26th off, and my friend Savanni and I decided it would be a good time to take a photo walk. We’d been meaning to take one together forever, but schedules have perpetually interfered. Finally, though, we had a day off with nothing else to do, so we walked around the Butler Park area snapping photos.

    The morning started off cloudy, but finally the sun broke. After two hours of walking, I got some fantastic shots. Enjoy!

     

    Marfa is always in my heart.

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

  • The holidays in food

    I think I cooked more for the holidays this year than I ever have before. Or maybe it’s that Channukah and Christmas overlapped, and so all the cooking was lumped together in the span of a week, so all of my holiday cooking was lumped together in the span of about five days. Either way, I was really proud of the food I made last year. So for your viewing pleasure, here is a roundup of all of our culinary indulgences.

    To celebrate the beginning of Channukah, I made sourdough challah, as well as this slow-cooker brisket. I actually have another brisket recipe I love, but it doesn’t work well in the slow cooker, and since Channukah began during the busiest time of the week, it was easier for me to prepare something in the slow cooker before work to have ready when I came home. The challah came out great, and the brisket was absolutely perfect.

     

     

    A few days later, I made a lamb soup for Solstice. I’m not pagan and thus don’t observe any of the spiritual aspects of this particular day, but I do like the symbolism. I hate the short days and long nights, and the fact that the days are gradually getting longer is definitely reason to celebrate!

     

    On Christmas Eve, we had latkes for dinner. I mean, Channukah was still going on, I had cooking plans for Christmas Day, and since latkes from scratch are time-consuming (but absolutely the best), we had to do it on a weekend. So Jon spent the better part of Saturday night making completely delicious latkes by hand, complete with applesauce and sour cream.

    I'm apparently not great at photographing latkes. But trust me, they were amazing.

     

    On Christmas Day, we went a little overboard, but it was completely worth it. We started the day late (well, Jon did; I’m a perpetual early riser and spend most of the morning working on poetry with a puppy cuddled in my lap) with a fantastic brunch. Jon prepared this sweet potato hash that is without a doubt one of the most delicious breakfast dishes I have ever tasted in my life. It did take a lot of prep work the night before, but was very easy the morning of, and completely worth all the effort. We cut the recipe in half, and we were full right up until dinner.

     

    And on Christmas night, we had a lasagna, which took me well over three hours to prepare (but was totally worth it). This year (I do a different lasagna every Christmas, or at least I have for all the Christmases I have spent in Austin), I stuffed it with kalamata olives, roasted red peppers, and roasted artichokes. Unfortunately, the roasted artichokes didn’t turn out so great. This was my first time attempting to cook them, and my instructions weren’t very clear. Still, in mid-preparation I snapped a cool photo of an artichoke looking like a lotus.

     

    Despite my artichoke issues, the lasagna turned out delicious, and everyone had seconds (and in one case, thirds).

     

     

    We spent Christmas with friends, drinking sake and playing board games (and cooing over Maxwell). It was a lovely end to a lovely cooking spree. And I look forward to reheating leftovers and not thinking about cooking for a few more days.