The hint was the image was blurry because the camera focused on the wrong thing. I have zoomed, cropped, and mirrored a portion of the image to show the camera was paying attention to the espresso machine’s portafilter and not the surface of the liquid in the cup …

I had put the milk in the cup before pulling the shot of espresso and the first few drips created the latticed ripples like a spider’s web. The camera caught a the moment after a single drop had hit the surface and thus the crater.

The picture is out of focus but that’s because the camera focused on the wrong thing … and what it *did* focus on is a hint this what this is …

This past weekend, the countertops were installed (finally) and the drawers were install (sans the one missing drawer front), and the bin pulls were installed (the 3rd set I purchased). And here area couple of pics …

Direct from the supplier, the soapstone looked its typical light gray with small variances. After it was placed on the base cabinets, seamed together, sanded to finish, and then oiled, the white and green really shown as the field of gray turned nearly black. As the oil seeped in, the sheen subsided and took on a satin finish. The green looks almost like jade and is a nearly perfect accent to the warm hues of the bamboo. The brass reproduction Eastlake bin pulls look right at home.

I am very happy with the results “thus far”. There is still much work to be done. There is still the issue of the one missing drawer front and that will be addressed next along with making the panel front to the dishwasher and the drawer front that goes in the bottom portion of the sink basin cabinet. I managed to align all the plumbing under the sink so there is ample space on either side. I have built two drawers and will link them together with a single drawer front.

I will use traditional blank for the toe-kick area but the end and back of the peninsula (on the dining room side) will get a full skirt to the floor for a more furniture look.

December will be set aside for completing the pantry cabinets and planning out the upper cabinets with their glass panel doors and stain glass soffit lighting.

This challenge should be pretty easy. The only clue I’ll give is that NASA’s Hubble Telescope was not involved in capturing this stellar image …

If you can identify the bird, please comment. The image is of poor quality but it was the best I could do on short notice. I’ll try to get a better image if/when it returns.

We are near the end of the raptor migration here on the Eastern Shore and given the farmhouse is not near water, I did not expect to see much without putting in some effort. However, over the past week, I have noticed a few hawks hunting the fields for food. This morning I was checking out some project work and was surprised to see this bird at the edge of the lawn, about 400 ft away from the farmhouse.