Spring is on its way

I am slowly getting the photos tweaked for the Irish portion of our trip in 2004. This one is from our visit to the stud farm.

This will be my last post for a while as we leave tomorrow for a trip to the Southwest US. Andy and Tara will be in charge while we are gone. Thanks in advance of your care of the place and for watching over my house plants.

I have 4 orchids in bloom at the moment. The crocuses are popping up all over the garden. Hellebores, snowdrops, cyclamens are doing their part. I especially like the field of crocuses in the grass along the street. They are propagating and showing more and more flowers.

Gung Hei Fat Choi

I went down to see the lion dance and new year's parade in ChinaTown today. It was crowded, chilly, and very exhilerating. Wow, those lions can dance! I had a front row spot but the guys with the big cameras were standing right in the street. Very piggy in keeping with the new year of the Boar.

The exporsure was difficult with the contrasts in costume colors and the ever moving subjects.

In looking at the Chinese horoscope I see I am born in a year of the boar.

Chinese New Year - Pigs can fly

This is at the airport in Dublin, Ireland.

I am finished tweaking my photos of the Scotland portion of this 2004 trip. This one is the beginning of the days spent in Ireland -- upon our arrival at the airport.

Tomorrow is Seedy Saturaday at the Conference Center. Des Kennedy is one of the speakers - a very funny guy. Maybe I should go afterall. Sunday if Chinese New Year with a small lion dance and parade in Chinatown. I MUST go this year!

Across the Bay

Looking across the Bay to the Ladysmith area. Changed to monochrome and playing with drop shadows.

Polka Dot Drops

I cropped this one quite close and pumped up the saturation. Playing with water drops on the little lady slipper

Hearts

I spent a couple of hours shooting this orchid, with numerous different settings on my camera. I won't bother you with the details.

Happy valentines day!

phalenopsis

This light pink phalenopsis named Etourneau "Ponkan" Rose de Sables is now in bloom. It only has one blossum. I knocked the other one off when watering it. I now have the dark pink phal., the little yellow ladyslipper, and 'pixie' the minature catalyea in bloom. More about pixie in my next post.

We had a feast night of mussels, bagette with balsamic vinegar and olive oil, a spinach/avocado salad, a very nice white wine and lemon zest cheese to finish off the wine. Heaven!

Painted Vases

Another one for the Painted Vases series of my web page. Maybe I won't use that frame though. Its a bit much.

Painted Vases Series

This morning I was trying to shoot another 'Painted Vase' for my series. This one was very noisy. I was trying to shoot higher ISO, but should have had higher fstop number, also. But it cleaned up very nicely in Neat Image, I think. This is my light pink phalenopsis on the wine colored vase with a dark blue background. The blue is not as dark as it should be. I guess I should have removed the UV filter. ooops.

Ice Art

From the days when we had snow and ice -- shooting down from the deck at the frozen pond surface.

My fire hydrants album - Postman

I found this a couple of days ago. Another one for my album 'Fire Hydrants'. Just for fun, feel free to join me.

William Burns

I believe this is the gravestone of Robbie Burns' father. I am getting a bit more finished on my album for our 2004 trip.

Painted Vase Series

Here is another one for my 'painted vases' album. The flowers are a bit large for the size of the vase.

I was to see Dr. C. today. I am still unique and unusual. We are eliminating any diseases that we can do tests that will show whether or not I have a specific known blood disease. So far, I have no known disease. Just high blood counts. Next test is for my T cells. I don't feel that I am under stress, and I don't think I have any allergies. So, we continue testing to try to find the cause. Dr. C. says most people would be stressed out if they had what I have. But why? I could have a blood clot and die? I'm ready. I've had good innings and shall have more for as long as I live. I just don't know why its so hard to let go for most people. The only thing I don't want, is to end up a basket case. Now, that would be awful. I would like to be able to decide for myself when I am too old and decrepit to carry on, and just go out quietly with all my ducks in a row and all mental machinery working. I wonder why its a crime to decide for ourselves, how long we want to go on.

Eilean Donan Castle, Scotland

The castle from the front.

Castle Eilean Donan, Scotland

This is looking out the back window of the Eilean Donan Castle in Scotland. I am slowly getting the photos for the trip tweaked and ready to load to my page. There are going to be quite a lot of them. This time I am only going to limit the height to 550, so I am going to have some fairly large photos upload to that album. Here is a quick overview of some of the history of the castle.

I received my lens adaptor, lens hood, some filters, and a tiny table top tripod. (should be good for the macros I am trying to do recently). One of the filters is an IR which I am pretty excited about. I got a step down ring so I can attach the 52mm CS filter now without using tape. Fun!! All from LensMate and I find that their address is just across the border in Washington USA at Wig Harbor, on Whiteby Island, I think.

Water Drops

Trying to capture a macro of the water drops on the pouch of my paph. concolor orchid mentioned earlier. The closest one is a close crop of the drop. ISO 80 and set to super macro.

Blue Glass

One of a few of my blue glass collection that I shot the other day. The borders on the side are from the window display boards that the glass sits between. Ambient light.

On Friday Andrew from the Sheriff's office phoned and told me that I do not have to go to the Court House on Monday for the Jury Panel picking. Apparently the case has been resolved. All 200 of us don't have to be bothered to go stand around for nothing now. Yippee. I don't understand why juror makes $10.00 a day for the priveledge of 'serving' while lawyers make $10.00 per .5 second for defending or prosecuting a case. The law is an ass for sure.

So, now I have my appointment with Dr. C. this week and then we are free to plan our trip down south in the Dodge Lodge... New Mexico here we come.

Audree has had her operation and is doing great. Marianne is recovering after her accident. Thank heavens.

I have spent some time reworking the colors on my web page. I think it looks better without the yellow. Not a big change, but an improvement, I think.

Moss, hanging and lying

Some rainforest photos from a walk to Todd Inlet last December

Paph. Concolor

My little yellow with red spots lady slipper orchid is blooming.
This is a close crop of a larger photo for the close up.
Canon S3 IS in super macro mode. Focal Length: 6 mm, Manual focus, ISO 100, Colors set to 'vivid, 1/20 sec, F/2.7, subject distance: maybe 1/2 inch.