Steve Chong

The errant sheep has been caught and sent, and received by its proud owners. The end of the sheep saga.

I have been learning some good stuff from Steve C. about how to use my PS CS. Extraordinary guy. He is winning top place in salons all over the world where he has entered his photography. And then he has time to show me the basics of Photoshop. Here is his blog where he mentions his wins: Steve Chong

We have had about an inch of rain in the last couple of days. The garden is looking pretty good, as it gets dressed up in its Autumn colors.

I have 10 shots left on my 35mm after shooting the deer. I must finish that roll -- maybe Fall colors? or football practise? my photography needs lots and lots of work.

Reflecting

Fall is a good time for reflecting and gathering in the harvest as well as gathering my thoughts. Time to ruminate on all that has happened this year and measure how far I have come. It will soon be time for our trip, which I am really getting excited about. I want to have all my thoughts and things nicely in order before we go, so that I can relax and enjoy the experience to the greatest degree.

This is another one of the reflections pictures from the Can-Am weekend. This stuff is fun.

I am working on our trip to Greece for my website. There are some good shots from that trip. Our time on Crete was especially interesting.

I was out in the garden killing blackberries and clipping down the perennials yesterday and today. The compost bin is heaping full again

Sheepishly

Pat got the sheep for Irene and we are sending them these photos (one a day) about their sheep that sleeps around. I tried to load the one of the sheep under the bridge at Corpus Christi which I think is pertinent to the time of the storms. I expect that bridge is still standing as Corpus Christi and Padre Island is not in the news. At any rate, this is the sheep sleeping in the back of Brian's fishing boat on Great Slave Lake, NWT. That sheep sleeps with its eyes open. Did you notice.

I watched CNN storm broadcasts from Beaumont and another city that were close to the eye of the storm. I watched until the storm made landfall. Have not looked at CNN yet today. But the rain is probably pouring down and that whole 'bayou' area is forecasted to get flooded. New Orleans levees were swamped again.


There we are, the bridge photo loaded this time. The bridge one did not actually get sent, as we had a week's worth with the last of the series the sheep wrangler.

Hurricane Rita

On Sunday, I spent quite a bit of time trying to get reflection photos while the Guys looked at the Smart cars on the roof of the old Bay Building parkade. This is one of the ones I like the best. On Douglas Street shooting through the pillars to the reflection on the other side of the street.

I got the grass mowed and fallen apples raked up. Filled the water gardens and did a bit of weeding. The weather has been sunny and warm.

Today the news is full of warnings for the people along the Gulf of Mexico to evacuate their coastal homes as there is another powerfull tropical storm/hurricane on its way. People have left their homes and are crawling along the roads trying to head North, and are getting caught in traffic jams. The storm is expected to hit the Galveston - New Orleans area (again) on Friday. I have found a few news sources to read on the web. This one is full of information http://www.wlox.com/Global/story.asp?S=3885374 I have found another place to see web cams... the web cam for Galveston was under repair. http://www.hurricaneadvisories.com/hcancam.html

Last nite I managed to get my Gardening - May album loaded to my page. 14 MB, with 56 pictures it is one of the largest, since I reduced Long Beach in size. The Fall and Winter months won't be so large and so it should all even out. I can buy more space so this is not a big concern. http://www.mmmee.com/May

Bruce phoned this morning to thank me for the prints of the truck. He really likes them! woo hoo!! He just made my day. He said he is hanging the truck picture in his office. oh boy!!

Stuff

Dan and Irene got away on the 7:00 boat last nite. We spent some of the day looking at Smart cars on the top of the parkade of the old Bay Building. Good day. While Dan was looking for fish fly material in a store on Broad Street, I found a new Lowepro camera bag.'Topload Zoom 2, regular price $47.99, on sale for $24.00. My 35mm Canon with the lens fits with room for the spare lens, filters, film, my note book. I am just sooooo pleased with it. I could get backpack straps for it, but it is good with just the shoulder strap. Its the same size as my black purse that I am carrying my digital and stuff in now. I could get keys and cards in this bag, if I use it instead of the very heavy big bag I use now.

We exchanged CD's of our pictures. First time I used my burner, so I learned to use it this weekend.

I just finished an 8 x 10 of the above shot of the patina truck for Bruce. Pat says he wants it for his office. Hope he likes it. I had the printer print one at 1440 dpi, the other with a thinner border printed at 720 dpi. I cannot see a lot of difference. I reduced the photo size to get it to print totally on this 8 1/2 x 11 glossy photo paper.

The Patina

We returned from the Island Challenge yesterday and Dan and Irene caught the 7:00 Coho back home. Their truck was the star of the show. Its a marvelous thing. The flat deck on the back slants down and their speedster unloads off the back. We had excellent weather going up to Cowichan, on the tour, and on our way back. Hope I am over my nasty cold by next week end when we go on the Can-Am tour. The Patina Truck sits in our drive way awaiting the run next week end.

I loaded the Raven Affair series to my page and am working on May.

I added a few figs to the rum pot. Hope they taste ok.

I need to get a rhubarb root for my garden as I killed the last one. It was so wimpy and produced this watery blah rhubarb. I would like to find some lily bulbs, more crocuses for the front, and anything else that I might take a liking to. The front is a bit bare where the trees were taken out. If I put a hedge along the edge I should have room for a row or a few lilies in front of it. The lilies need good drainage.

Fall Crocus

The Fall crocus are blooming. They look far better than this in real life. The plums are finished and all falling, quite a few into the pond. I some of them out. My frog was found floating, dead, on the surface a couple of days ago. I threw it out on the garden. This morning I was a large Raven flying over. The frog is gone. Nature takes care of things naturally. I wonder what frogs die of? Or maybe it got hit by a falling plum. or the pollution of its habitat by the plums. Hard to say. Could have been hit by the terrors from next door, if they saw it out of its water.

The news stories from southern US seem to be telling of people in worse and worse plight... fires, looting, no water or food, hospitals not running, no electricity, and flooding. Dreadfull. Buses finally arrived to take the people out. A hugh disaster complicated by slow mobilization of the help from the government. So sad.

Today I downloaded the Panda EXIF reader that I read about on Photosig. This works with firefox and IE on any digital photos that retain the EXIF data. Cool. The POW of this week does not have the EXIF, of course. HA!

Watered and fed the house plants yesterday. Still only one dendrobium and the African violets in bloom. The orchids look nice and healthy and clean, though.

Climatic Changes - Pine Beetles & Fungus

The brown areas you see are dead evergreen trees killed by an infestation of pine beetles. This is Lighting Lake, in the Manning Park Lodge area of B.C.

From the Times Colonist September 1, 2005

Fungus puts B.C. pines under siege

A common fungus has turned lethal and is killing pine trees in Western Canada in what researchers describe as a “globally unprecedented” epidemic associated with recent changes in the climate.

The fungus is killing plantations of lodgepole pine in the hardest hit areas of northwestern B.C. and is also affecting mature native trees, says Alex Woods a forest pathologist with the B.C. forest service.

In a report in the journal Bio Science today, Woods and his colleagues describe how the innocuous fungus has turned into a killer, aggravating problems in B.C. forest already devasted by pine beetles.

Researchers have long warned that climate changes linked to global warming could give pathogens and pests the upper hand. B.C.’s problems with pine beetles and now fungus are being held up internationally as evidence. “It shows how unpredictable the impacts of climate change can be”, says Woods. “Its’s sobering.”

Scientists say warm winters have allowed the pine beetle to multiply and spread at an unprecedented rate, killing vast tracts of forest in central B.C. The fungus, called Dothistroma septosporum, is flourishing in northwestern B.C. where Woods and his colleagues say wet summers have favoured its spread. The wet trend, which continues this summer has favoured the fungus, out-weighing any benefit the extra precipitation may have had on tree growth, they say.

Hurricane Katrina

In Katrina’s Wake

From the Times Colonist August 31,2005

La Place,La.
After enduring a lethal hurricane that had already been labeled “America’s tsunami”, New Orleans was plunged further into crisis Tuesday when flood waters poured through a gaping breach in a storm-damaged levee, leaving 80 per cent of the sunken city under water and forcing authorities to declare a state of martial law.
The emerging catastrophe in the storied Louisiana city came as one of the worst natural disasters in American history unfolded along the country’s Gulf Coast in the wake of hurricane Katrina.
At least 80 people and possibly hundreds more have been killed in Mississippi, Alabama and Louisiana while tens of thousands have been left homeless and stranded without food or water. Officials said dead bodies discovered Tuesday were being pushed aside as rescue workers concentrated on saving thousands of residents trapped by high water and crushed buildings in cities from New Orleans to Biloxi, Miss. And Mobile, Ala. The situtation was most critical Tuesday night in New Orlenas where rescue workers plucked as many as 1,200 residents from rooftops of homes surrounded by water. With water rising perilously inside the Superdome, the 20,000 refugees now huddled there would be evacuated within 2 days. Broken toilets have made for extremely unsanitary conditions.
With temperatures soaring near 33 C emergency supplies running low and the risk of disease growing, officials were preparing a plan to evacuate all of the city’s remaining residents. The City had no running water or electricity and virtually no communication network.
Entire neighbourhoods in the cities of Biloxi and Gulfport were either under water or flattened. An estimated 30 people died when an apartment complex collapsed amid a storm surge over six meters.
Amid the destruction and chaos, wide spread looting was reported, and the police, attending to life-threatening situations, could do little to respond. In New Orleans, looters waded through the flood waters, carrying as many clothes as they could. At a flooded Walgreens store, police officers took control of the building and themselves dispensed medicine, diapers and other essentials to a small crowd of would-be looters. Those bizarre scenes came as a growing desperation descended on New Orleans. City officials were coming to the grim realization that it was going to be a closed city for at least a month and perhaps far longer.