Wednesday, February 20, 2008

CakEclipse: Real Time Live Blogging Of The Lunar Eclipse AND The Baking Of The Poppyseed Cake

Real time live bloggin' from Pure Florida ...

Here's the poppyseed birthday cake in progress ... deep inside it's secret oven hideaway. It has about 20 more minutes to go. I'll update when it comes out.


Here's the lunar eclipse in progress as seen from my secret PFHQ hideaway. It has a couple of hours to go. I'll update it in a little while after the lunar scenery changes a bit.

UPDATE!
The poppyseed cake is out of the oven and cooling off. I went outside and cut a sliver of cabbage palm stalk to stick in it to check for doneness ... that's the green thing laying across the cake pan. She just has to cool off a bit.


UPDATE OF ECLIPSE!

The clouds rolled in for a little while and then slipped away to reveal a rapidly eclipsing moon.

Once it gets this far along, it really seems to move rapidly across the face of the moon.


Final eclipse update. T'was too dark after this point and the rest of the event would be essentially a reverse of these photos, so I'll stop here.
It was really, really amazing ... for once clear skies during a sky event!!


Last cake update too.

All it needs now is candles and coffee ... or milk.

I may take tomorrow off from blogging since I posted twice today and it's past my bedtime.

Maybe ...

20 comments:

Anonymous said...

Drat, I've been running outside most of the night to capture the Eclipse but it's too cloudy here! These were excellent pics!

The cake looks delicious!

robin andrea said...

Too cloudy here for the eclipse. I'm so glad you live-blogged this beautiful celestial event. Great cake blogging too.

roger said...

you do keep busy. nice looking cake. i do love a poppyseed cake. kinda interesting looking out at the same moon (for a tiny bit here) as someone on the other side of the country and almost comparing views.

oh yeah....mmmmmmmmmmmmmm.

R.Powers said...

Laura,
In between the first eclipse photo and the second, I went inside for cake monitoring,etc. When I went back out, a bank of high clouds had covered the sky. They were coming off the Gulf and moving fast. Then ... they just moved on and the rest of the evening was crystal clear.

Robin and roger,
The part I didn't photograph was the full eclipse with a red moon as part of a triangle formed by Saturn and Regulus. The sky was completely clear, DARK, and full of stars.
It was the most awe inspiring, beautiful sky I've ever seen.
roger, when i was dating mrs fc long distance, we used to get off the phone and step out and look at the same moon at the same time, even though we were hundreds of miles apart.
seemed like a connection.

Anonymous said...

Lovely, both moon and cake. I watched, also reveling in the clear night and clear view. I waited too late in the eclipse to try for photos, but now I have yours, so it's no loss.

Unfortunately (from my perspective) we didn't have the same occurrence of poppyseed cake here. I may have to think about remedying that.

Anonymous said...

great pic both moon and cake in cincinnati was clear and all inspireing. the picture still don't capture the hole essence of that very short moment in time. I was inpressed enought that I called thunder&lighting so thay wouldent miss the moment. thay were glad. I am thankful that your dauter is ok. no matter how old thay are you still worrie for there safty & health. reading your blog has become a habbet since i have been off. I do so enjoy it.great job. S T E B

Deb said...

We had a nice clear sky here in MN. Luckily we had a good view from the bedroom window, because it was another %$&*@ cold night.

SophieMae said...

It's ketchup time for me again.

Hope Mrs. FC's b'day was the best ever! It's wonderful that you bake her cake. Looks delish!

So glad to hear your Katie was unscatherd! I found the lack of news coverage interesting.

I had planned on trying for some pics last night, but I kept dozing off and never even made it out the door for a peek. >:-\

It's raining here right now and I'm day-dreaming of weather warm enough to jump in one of those springs. Aaaaahhhhhhhh......

Unknown said...

Hey Daddy,
We went outside to watch the eclipse last night...it was neat but the after sky lacked the awespiring effect with all the lights around us. Laura was disapointed and said "Oh no I wish we were at your house then the sky would be so pretty!" I was suprised that almost the whole dorm went outside to watch (I was even more suprised by how many people had NO idea what was happening lol). Anyways I'm coming home today and I'm excited about poppy seed cake...for mom ...of course. Love ya!!

Anonymous said...

Happy Birthday Mrs FC, the cake looks good but I probley should stay away from a poppy seed cake as we were warned that they can give a false positive during a random drug test at work.

Anonymous said...

Hi, I am HurricaneTeen's mom and I graduated from SAHS in 1974. Somewhere near the time you were walking those halls as well. My brother graduated in 1976. Bet I know you!
Your blog is amazing. I love the photos of our beautiful Florida! Hope to meet you and your family sometime.

MinorcanMeteorolgist said...

mmmm poppyseed cake. Delicious.
My friends, Ben and Jimmy, and I have renamed the "lunar eclipse." It is now called a "Flamato" due to the fact that it looks like a flaming tomato at the time it is fully obscured.
We hope it will catch on.

Sharon said...

The cake looks great! Good pictures too. It got very cloudy here, but I managed to get a couple of decent shots in between the clouds.

R.Powers said...

FYIYALL,
Yes, her birthday was Tuesday, but she was out of town, so I did the cake baking last night.

Wren,
You must have been freezing as you watched!
Sorry, no poppyseed cake appeared.

STEB,
Glad you enjoy Pure Florida! Good of you to wake up Thunder and Lightnin for the eclipse!
:)

Deb,
Sounds like a plan ... a warm plan!

Sophie,
I'm guessing the coverage did not spread beyond Gville much.
That warm weather will get here soon enough. I'm enjoying the low humidity bugless weather.

Emma,
Can't wait to see you. I'm sure your Mom will share a piece of cake with you.
I think so anyway.
Love you.

Rick,
I thought they had fixed the sensitivity of those tests.
I guess better safe than sorry!

Hi HurricaneTeen's Mom,
Welcome!
Yeah, we were there together. Your brother graduated with me ... now I just have to figure out the details!
Small world!
By the way, you have a really neat, talented son.

HTeen,
I'm sure that moniker will catch on like wild fire.

Sharon,
I was totally guessing on the exposure times for the eclipse.
The cake was much easier.

Thunder said...

Excellent shots of the eclipse! I tried to get a few shots, but they didn't come out very good so I just sat back and enjoyed the show!

R.Powers said...

Dave,
Sometimes that's the best thing to do.

Danielles Garden said...

Nice moon shots. I've been a fan of your blog for a few months now and forget...what type of camera/lens do you use? I'm jealous of the moon shot!

Steve said...

Hello. I read your blog every now and then, and it's always very well done. When the eclipse was happening, I went to my back yard (in SC) and took some photos, too. My blog's last two postings feature some of them.

The power of suggestion is strong...I keep thinking I'm smelling cake!

R.Powers said...

Idybug,
Welcome to Pure Florida!
I have a Sony Cybershot DSC-H5, which is an all in one type of camera.
I'm pretty thrilled with it and the fact that I don't have to carry a bag of lenses around to go from macro to tele.
The newer version (H9?)is even more powerful.

Steve,
Welcome!
Thank you for the kind words. I'll have to check out your shots!

Anonymous said...

I too enjoy reading your blog and have it on the list of blogs on my space so I can head over here when I add to my own...
Great pics of the moon. I missed it..dead batteries and they wouldn't charge quick enough! It was clear enough here in NW FL that I enjoyed it anyway :)
Happy belated B'day to your wife and gosh does that cake look great.
OH! Do tell me what color is the paint on your kitchen wall? I love it, it's so 'happy'.
Jackie