Sunflower Topaz Adjust

Nicki suggested my sunflower photo might lend itself to Topaz Adjust, and this is something I've thought about trying for awhile. I finally downloaded the 30-day free trial, and played with it a little with this photo. This particular adjustment is "dramatic". I tried the HDR adjustment, and thought I liked my own version better, but I don't know how to work with all the sliders in the program yet. I also liked the "ghostly" version, but it definitely results in a creepy, Stephen-King-like vampire sunflower field! The painting adjustments were also fun to play with.



Thanks, Nicki! I think I'm going to enjoy playing around with Topaz Adjust!

Sunflower Mob and Dragonfly Portrait

Doug and I went for a wander in the woods, and saw this bad boy stalking the perimeter.



Then we headed off in search of buffalo, but they were no where to be seen this weekend. We were, however, accosted by this mob of sunflowers.




We paid their toll, and they let us go home. . .

Turtle River State Park

Turtle River State Park is this little park about 20 miles from our house, perfect for a wandering in the woods, getting out of the house, little venture. On the way, we passed a sunflower field and a buffalo farm. . .
The park is not grand, by any stretch of the imagination, but it's got water, campground areas, mosquitoes, and kids fishing and splashing, picnic areas, and outdoor weddings. . . . even a touch of the old poison ivy. It makes for a very pleasant escape from indoors.


Nicki asked about how to make photos larger on blogger, and I stumbled upon a way the other day. I'd tried the same method in the past, and it never worked. But because it seems like blogger changes its format every now and then, I thought I'd try again. . . .

And it's easy!

You know how when you are entering a new post, you have the option to either edit html, or compose? After you upload your photo, go to the "edit Html" view.

Look at the code for a photo. Your specific numbers might be different, depending on how you prepare your photo for the web. In my code for a photo, I see:

width: 400px; height: 266px;

. . . and I just delete this. Delete it all the way from "width" to "px;", but make sure you leave the " after "px;" that stays in the code.

Next, a little further down in the code for the photo, you'll see something like:

s400

All I do here is change the "400" to "900" and there it is! A nice big honker of a photo! And if you click on the photo, you get it even bigger! (And then, . . . go ahead!. . . . click on it even one more time!)

Wonderful for those of you who might be having EyeBall issues (thank-you-very-much!), or just like things BIG.

I'm not sure if all the blogger templates will behave nicely with this method, but it worked for me. Give it a try, and let me know what you think!

Calling BIG PHOTO Fans

Wow! I didn't know blogger would now accommodate a photo with 900 px on one side! This is going to be fun!





I went to a friend's son's wedding shower two weekends ago, and it was so much fun to take random shots of the sweet couple, and random items in my artistic friend's house. It's so nice to have tolerant friends, who let me scope out their houses and yards for Beautiful Things to photograph!!

My sweet friend, Ruth, told me that after the wedding shower, her yard was nominated for "Yard of the Week" by the local newspaper--except they botched it and sent their photographer to the neighbor next door.

Here are a few photos of the right yard:

More for the Aging Memo: Posterior Vitreous Detachment

Subtitle: Keep an Eye on Your Eyeballs if You Value Your Sight

Actually, this is a more serious post on something that can happen to your vision, and happened to someone very near and dear to my heart this week, who gave me permission to post this.

I want all of you to know about this, because it's potentially sight-saving.

Another thing that can happen as we age is that our vitreous in our eye can detach. You know how eyeballs are shaped kind of like grapes? The vitreous is the inside of the grape; the retina is like the back of the inside of the skin of the grape.

Picture a lovely gelatin dessert sitting in your refrigerator, and a fine little gratin dish (like those beautiful ones that Maria sent me at Christmas.) Now, picture having somehow forgotten one of those desserts in the refrigerator. . . . and it ages. . . and the gelatinous dessert gradually pulls away from the sides of the dish. That's your eye getting older, at least for about 60% of those over 80 (and for an unlucky few, like my loved one, younger than 80.)

As this vitreous pulls away, it can detach (tear away from the retina, for an unlucky 10% of the 60%), and even bleed (hemorrhage.) And untreated it can lead to permanent blindness.

On Saturday, my Dear Sweet Loved One noticed a new floater; a super duper icky booger of a floater. And then by Sunday, he noticed that his vision was cloudy, almost like his eyeball had sucked in some hazy smog from L.A., leaving him with about 40% of his vision in the one eye.

The floater is actually matter from the tear that's floating around in the vitreous, back and forth, hither and yon, across the field of vision. The smog/haze is really blood cells, as the vitreous detaches, leaking into the vitreous. These are not good.

A good thing is to get oneself as soon as possible to an eye doctor, or emergency room, and they will refer you to a retina specialist, pronto, with statements of "Not good. I don't like what I'm seeing."

My Loved one and I quickly cut short our little ground support-helping-our-daughter-move hobby and hoped for stay at a B&B and headed back to Grand Forks. Loved One was urged along from the eye doctor to the retina specialist and a cool, fancy surgery involving lasers (in a very Star-Wars-like fashion was done) to cauterize the hemmorage.

But since this wasn't enough to re-attach the vitreous, Loved One and I headed down to Fargo on Tuesday (about 70 miles south of Grand Forks) for a little more laser razzle-dazzle.

Eventually the floater-guber-booger may or may not dissolve and the smoggy haze may or may not lift, but it shouldn't get worse, which would be the Awfully Awful outcome that you want to avoid. It's best avoided by getting to medical types with fancy lasers pronto.

It's also less likely to ever need this if you avoid things (other than avoiding aging) like putting a great deal of pressure on the eye, like blowing your nose like a Decibel 100 blast, or abruptly lifting weights, or. . . . (use your imagination.)

This guy is happy that ole Dead Eye is slightly impaired (hopefully temporarily) in the vision department:

Did EVERYONE But Me Get the Aging Memo?????

Subtitle: Public Service Announcement with Too Much Personal Information

(Now that's your cue to move along if you're especially squeamish about aging. . . .)

There seem to be these things that People Know, but not me. Like, I never knew that people needed "reading glasses" as they hit 40, because they're eyes were changing. I had no clue! I thought the pharmaceutical companies were cheaply trying to save money on ink by making the print on bottles really, really tiny! . . . . until my eye doctor diplomatically explained bifocals to me.

Now, I find that the vigorous, "Aren't I doing it right! brushing my teeth is a bad thing. A BAD thing.

As in receding gum lines!!!!

What the heck! I never heard of this! Receding hair lines, yes. . . (for guys!), but is it really fair that if you brush your teeth well (translate: "too hard") you get receding gum lines, and they hurt! And they can't fix it! Bummer. Actually, in the grand scheme of things, "bummer" with a little "B", because really, there are much, much worse things that could happen (probably also listed on the Secret Aging Memo, that I never got and intend to file a complaint form about as soon as I find my bifocals.)



And these 3 cute triplets, playing a little ballad with their musical instrument about my receding gums, were serenading me for my birthday!

Ugly, Ugly Nature Shots

Lots of activity on the river. But what are they doing?

And why is this little group gathered, and waiting. . . .

And what is this line for? What's in this cooler? Knowing what's in the cooler would probably shed light on this mystery.

Ewwwww!!!! What is that ugly blob? (blob, not bob.)





It's a freakin' butt-ugly catfish! (And you HAD to see it in the larger photo format, of course!) The so-called Cats Incredible (yeah, right.) tournament in Grand Forks, with big buck prizes, and a fine excuse for. . . . ummmm. . . . drinking. . . .
The fisher people. . . (oh, heck. The fisher MEN. Notice the predominance of male fisher-folk with their coolers) bring their ugly, ugly fish to the table to be weighed, measured, and applauded. . .

And after it's official entry into the Books, it's hustled along in a laundry basket (more ewwww!!!!) to the eager hands of waiting, innocent (easily amused) children . . .

. . . and ceremoniously dumped onto a slide. . .

. . . for the ride of its ugly life. . .

. . . back into the Red River of the North.

Shooting My Husband

Shooting my husband, shooting. . . .

. . . an empty luggage box . . .

Maybe, this is a sign we should take a trip with that luggage? (Rabbits, this is your final warning! Or next, I'm catapulting pumpkins at you!)

Urban Transplant: My Confused Relationship with Nature & Wildlife

I'll just confess this right off. I'm an urban transplant, and I have a confused (perhaps disturbed?) relationship with nature and wildlife. I grew up in the Chicago area and well knew bricks and billboards, rats and railroad tracks, alleys and used car lots. That was the extent of my wilderness adventures, nature, and wildlife.

But I live in a fairly rural area of the country now, with 9.3 people per square mile. (I have yet to see any of those .3 people!) When I grew up, there were 9 of us humans in a 2 bedroom flat! That means that here, there are plenty of opportunities for critters and nature to make there presence known, and mostly, they're baffling to me. You've heard of some of them: there were the bird events that happened around my house, and now the pumpkins planted by squirrels invading our stairs--(Remind me to talk to the paper carrier about an alternate route to my front door--like maybe a parachute drop!)

And I've mentioned in the past how this plant:




came to live in my office from another office, creeping in through the wall along the ceiling, and stretching across my ceiling, then dying in the neighboring office! I plopped its end-parts into a pot, and it's been living happily in my office ever since.

Now it's doing this:



It's going to bloom! I've only seen it bloom once before in the past 20 years! And once it blooms, it has these large allium-like blossom with the most dazzling fragrance that permeates the whole office. But again, there's that troubled relationship: I have to watch the blossoms like a hawk. . . It may bloom for months and months, but each blossom has it's own "expiration" date, and suddenly drops from the ceiling, usually on some startled Unsuspecting's head. And the blossoms themselves break apart into hundreds of little pieces, all with this sticky, gooey, "I-want-to-glue-myself-to-your-soil_and-Propagate!" substance.

I'll keep my camera handy, to show you the progress of the Invaders across my front steps, and the Invaders across my ceiling!

The Gift of the Flat Tire

I want to thank all of you who took the time the other day to post such caring, compassionate, responses to Bonnie's death. It helped Doug and me very much to know that Bonnie had so many fans! Your thoughts, words, and prayers were very much appreciated, and it just warms my heart to realize how many good, compassionate, people there are.

Bonnie's last day was a good day; I pestered her a bit to wake her up around 1:00pm. I knew her sleep wasn't particularly peaceful anyway; she seemed to be twitching in pain a great deal. She hadn't eaten much of her breakfast, but I wanted her to have a chance to eat the roast beef I had for her. I warmed it up, and the aroma got her quite interested! She came trotting into the kitchen, and I gave her the roast beef, mixed with her favorite dog treats!

I was about to eat my own lunch, but couldn't. The rain had mostly let up, and I thought, why not? I took her for a walk in the drizzle. It's been a long time since she got to go on a long walk, mainly because I was afraid I'd have to carry her back! And for about 40 minutes, she was totally blissed out! I let her lead the way, (sorry, neighbors), and tagged along under bushes, across lawns, around dumpsters, up to any tree she wanted (and there were so many!)

On a "regular" day, I would know that she would suffer for this walk later; it was not going to be so today. . .

When it rained much harder, I took her back home, where Doug met me, and he had a chance to feed her whatever treats, sausage, or cheese she wanted. Finally, it was time. . .

We went out to my car with her, and it had a flat tire! It's strange how your mind will work. . . my first thought was, "Well, then Bonnie doesn't have to go!", but I knew that wasn't true, and would not be fair to her, given what her life was now like.

We took our other car, and for Bonnie, I do think the process was so fast, that she was not distressed.

And Doug and I were unbelievably grateful for the flat tire! As Doug and I drove home, we knew we could stop crying because we'd have to deal with the flat tire! Normally, we would have called Road Side assistance through our auto insurance (if you don't have this, stop reading now and check with your insurance company! For about $8 a year, most auto insurance policies will provide tire repair, jump starting, emergency lock-out and towing. It's so worth it!)

But we wanted to change the tire! It was so wonderful to have to dig out the manual, have to figure out how to get the jack out of the back, how to raise the car, and how to get the bolts off. These are things that I used to do, way too many times, in my younger years, with my old junkers. Now, in my "mature" years, with my old junker, I call Roadside Assistance, and forgot how.

We brought the tire to Firestone, got the nail removed and put the tire back on our car. It gloriously took up two hours, all together, and it was so welcome, such a fine, concrete, task to preoccupy us! I strongly recommend a flat tire (preferably NOT in winter) for anyone under similar circumstances (but I don't want another one tomorrow).

And because I don't have a photo of the flat tire, here's a photo from the garden tour:







. . . or three.