The Fertile Trip

A few more photos from my trip to Bergeson's in Fertile, MN. Your reactions to "Fertile's" name cracks me up! If you liked this, you're sure to love little old Climax, MN, pop 264!



I printed this photo today, and was very unhappy with it. I understand how much better photos look on computer screens, and the translation necessary to a paper medium, CMYK ink profiles, but the photo turned out looking like mud.

Actually, I've been hating my printer, an HP Photosmart C5180 for about the past year. One night, I spent an hour on-line with an HP person (in India?), at the end of which he told me my printer was no good and he had a "special deal" on a new printer for me. The "special deal" turned out to be a refurbished printer, for the same price as a new one from Amazon. I declined.

Do you love your printer? Or hate it? What do you have and what are your best tips for printing?

Petunias, Geraniums!!!!! Garden Bliss!

My Weather Pixie is practically intoxicated with the temperature today! 60 + degrees!!!!!!!! As in, OUTSIDE!

Oh, yes! I'm blissed out, I tell you! You should see all the SKIN around here these days. True . . . pale, ND skin. . . . but it's really SKIN! Of the NAKED kind!

Once again, it appears that people have legs and arms under all that down and parkas and knitted Norwegian-wear.

You should see how much better these colors look in Bridge than they do in blogger! Then again, you should see how much more beautiful they are in real life than photographed!

Can you tell I'm excited about the warm weather? Even the WORMS are making me happy! (but not the birds.)

Fertile MN pop. 893

I love this place! I want to head back there and explore it further on a day when I have more time.

We were headed to Bergeson's, a glorious nursery stuffed to the brim with perfect plants; 2 quonsets alone are filled with geraniums.

I can't say much about the "welcoming committee" that crossed the road in front of us, however. . .


It's important to note that these are TURKEYS and not vultures, given my recent history with foul fowl.

Architecture and Another Peek at London

Since this week's theme is "architecture", I thought I'd shock everyone by being on-theme!



And no, I didn't go back to London. This is a photo just now edited, with LAB mode, to see how it turned out. Note those immense mountains of snow in the streets. . . .

Water is a good servant, but it is a cruel master.
John Bullein, 1562

The dikes protected Grand Forks this year, but when it comes to the Red River we have no illusions about who is the master! And it's so nice, each year, to leave April behind us!

f/13
1/200
ISO 400
70 mm
Manual; Raw
edited in LAB; I'm really liking LAB mode for editing landscape scenes!

Twitter! It really isn't what I thought. I didn't expect it to be a way to cull information, like about genuine medical/mental health topics: http://bit.ly/XjXKT and http://bit.ly/SERd8

or that it would result in an email saying that "Lost Zombie is now following you." (This sounds much more ominous than it is, and actually involves a collaborative writing/scrapbooking project creating a scrapbook on the timeline of a superflu/zombie (fictitious) event.

Swine Flu and Piggy Banks and the Psychology of Twitter

When life hands you Swine Flu. . .

. . . turn it into a Piggy Bank and fill it with quarters!

Yeah, that was lame! But I don't think this video is! This is from Psychology Today, and raises some of those burning life questions. . . like, "If I Tweet, therefore I am?"

About Swine Flu, The Beautiful Miss Bonnie says "Stay Safe."

She's not worried about swine flu. But she does say, "Cover your mouth if you cough. Wash your hands. A lot. Avoid sickies. And if you're sick, stay home curled up in your little bed."



See? Cute AND smart.

First Flowers of the Year!

Look! Even in North Dakota we're beginning to experience the first glimpses of Spring (even if snow IS in the forecast today.)

This is scilla, those tiny little flowers that can spread all over (but way better looking than crabgrass).



ISO 200
F/13
1/30
105 mm lens

Camera RAW; edited in LAB mode

More Fowl Appearances of the Unusual Sort and Professor Bonnie's Book Review

This is a duck. This is a duck that was standing in my driveway this morning! For no apparent reason! I've lived here for 25 years, and have never, ever, seen a duck standing in my driveway. Or on my block. Or anywhere in my neighborhood! Just standing there, looking at my house (of course.) I don't really know Which Side this duck is on, but since it wasn't dismantling my house, I'm going to assume in was standing sentinel on MY side. An owl recruit, no doubt.




There are times when you've just got to call in a professional. Professor Bonnie is taking an instructional role in teaching me more about LAB in photoshop, in part because of her affinity for all things "lab."



Oh, and I botched it yesterday, not correctly embedding the link to the video I wanted to show you on LAB mode, so here it is again today.

I See Owls. Everywhere.

I always wanted to be part of a secret society. Not a creepy, wear white robes, do bad things, kind. . . but one with secret handshakes and mysterious signals of recognition, letting each other know that "Shhhhh. . . . I'm one too. . . . Act discrete. . . . " Preferably organizing to fight Evil. That kind.

Well, maybe I am! Everywhere I look now, I see Owls. . . my neighbor across the street has one in her yard, on top of her playground equipment. . . .I always wondered about that!

And yesterday, I picked my husband up at the airport, and there, right above both entrances to the terminal (it's a small airport in Grand Forks), were Owl Decoys! Like Sentinels watching over comings and goings. . . .

And I know they're on my side!


I reworked both these photos in Lab mode to see what color could be captured, and I'm finding that I like the technique more and more!

Here's a strange video talking more about Lab, by Deke McClelland. I've been working through one of his classes at lynda.com, and this is a sample video. But, he's not anywhere near as frenetic at the lynda.com site as he is on you tube!

After you watch this video, you might want to do an intervention and remove caffeine from his house! Don't Fear Lab!