At the Jewish Cemetery

On March 6th I was shooting photos for the Victoria Grid Project - a group on Flickr. The Jewish Cemetery is in the March grid. As I was getting my photos ready for the grid group pool, I noticed that this flower pot is broken and the poppy does not look like a flower from the florists, or a cut flower. Oriental poppies, are difficult to keep this fresh looking and you seldom if ever seem them sold as cut flowers. When I was shooting this, I took no notice of how this flower was growing. NOW, looking at my photos, I believe this poppy is growing in the ground. It is very early for this plant to be in bloom, though. Perhaps its the warmth of all the stones in the area. The poppies in my garden have leaves about 6 - 8 inches tall, now... 3 weeks after these shots were taken. I really must go back some time and try to find this flower again.

I have finished cleaning up my light garden and find I now have one extra tray, without plants. I think I will leave it for now, as I have no plans for more plants, at the moment. Two of the cactus plants are too tall for the tiers and I might put them out for the summer and not bring them in.

Last evening we went to see Slumdog, the Millionaire. Oh boy!! this is a high impact movie.. there are parts that I could not watch. It did have a happy ending. I was happy to end up back home where its quiet, clean, and comfortable.

Victoria Grid Project, March

It has been almost 2 weeks since my last post. These are two of the photos from the Victoria Grid, taken on March 6th. The Jewish Cemetery is in the grid and I spent most of my time taking photos there. Like the Chinese Cemetery from an earlier grid, I get caught up in the history. It is not a place where I would go to shoot usually, but when there, I become engrossed in the site.

John Gray finished the painting at the end of the week. He did his usual very good work. The kitchen looks great with the bright cheery yellow. All the colors seem to balance in the kitchen. I especially like the main bath. I have started to hang pictures, but have quite a few to go yet. Wally will be here to finish the floor covering with the carpet in my room, on the 28th. Then David must finish the trim and kickplates. I am really liking how everything looks. My faux leaded glass light fixture looks great too. I like the pot lights in the kitchen. John did a good job of patching and painting the ceilings.

Trevor brought my computer back on Monday evening. . . . just when I was getting over missing being on line. I now have an automatic backup that works and space to transfer movies and anything I don't use much .. for storage. The backup has 5 copies stored so half of the drive is used up. If I ever start shooting and tweaking large photos, I may need more storage, or buy on line space.

Yesterday we went to Victoria Vacuum Cleaners to buy a Dyson ball action upright. We can away with a much lighter Eureka upright for 1/5 the cost of the Dyson. We also got Eureka's dust buster with a handle. This is going to make vacuuming and keeping up the house so much easier than dragging that horrible in the wall vacuum and its hose, around.

We need our own smileys for the new site. Cyrus has made a few that look really very good. He is trying to teach me how to do them. Well, I was up half the night last night obsessing about making these animations. I know the basics, now I just need practise. No doubt he will have them all made before I can manage a decent one. Learning curve took another steep climb and is still climbing.

The day before yesterday I decided that I needed a few more photos for my 'painted vases' album on my web page. So, I spent some time getting a few done. Now I need to tweak them, frame them and load to my page. There is no rush, but I really feel like I should at least get one album done in 2009. The last year on my Travel page is 2005 - the big album of the big Danube Cruise. I have lots of space so I can loaded bigger photos in the albums, now.

Victoria Grid Project for February

I finished loading my photos to the Victoria Grid Project for February. I was using my ND grad. filter and the colors turned out looking really rich... almost velvia. It was a bright, sunny, mid afternoon shoot. The bridge ones turned out quite nice too, but I don't think I will load them here.

Pat and I had picked up a deli sandwich at the Red Barn deli and went to the Gorge Park in the Van to have our lunch. I have some good photos from that Park, too that I want to sort for any keepers. The Red Barn deli has some very good food. The cookies are superb! Must go back and get some for a treat here.

Slow down World V

I am slowly getting the photos from my Victoria Grid shoot tweaked and loaded to Flickr. I seem to be having trouble even thinking about doing the gravestone photos from the Chinese Cemetery. I may not post them at all. Thanks to a few good friends on Flickr for their patience while I get this and few other things done, before visiting their photostreams to do more than just peek at their stuff.

I have been reading voraciously in the last week too. I read Sue Grafton's T is for Trespass in a couple of days. Scared the woo hoo outta myself reading the ending late last nite. I had to leave the lights on as I found my way to bed. I don't think I woke Pat up, though.

Its a bit of an adventure cooking meals. Some of the stuff is migrating back into the cupboards and I forget which things are back in the kitchen and which ones are in the library or the guest room. Well, we should have the corian countertops in within 4 - 5 weeks and then I will be permanently back in the kitchen. Hopefully with flooring and lighting done also. Maybe even the painting, if we are lucky.

The apples I put out for the deer were gone in a day. I must put out more for the deer before the squirrels take them all off the deck. The hummingbirds are met with frozen food in the mornings but it is thawed quickly with all the sun we have been having. Sun, but not too very high temperatures. Lots of birds at the feeders that Andy and Tara put out. I cannot seem to get a good photo of anything, though. Not enough patience or time to wait for the shot, I guess.

Slow down World IV

I managed to get six photos ready and loaded to Flickr for the Victoria Grid Project. In this photo, I was shooting into the sun and over Gonzales Bay through the monuments in the Chinese Cemetery. I played in photoshop on this one for quite a while to get it to look a bit better.

Yesterday David finished installing the cabinets and building the kitchen trolly and the curio/hutch. The design of the cabinets is simplicity itself... no grooves or lines to collect dust, just lovely flat "honey spice" cherry wood from floor to ceiling, with bronzy nobs and drawer pull handles. There are a few finishing touches to do, but before David does them, the corian counter top people will be here and so will Hourigans to install the flooring.
This morning, Rob, from Countryside, the countertop people, was here to measure and talk to us about backsplashes, types of edges and etc. We are having a lighter sandy color that will be very similiar to the floor, called Oatmeal, with a tiny red pinstripe, bullnose edges and a 4 inch backsplash... I think. They will phone us when the guy has the template ready to bring down to show us. We can request any changes at that time. We are getting a new double sink that sits down below the edge... I forget what he called it. We will use their plumber. We have yet to get taps. The outside time line on the countertops is 4 - 5 weeks. Rob, from Hourigans is coming next Wednesday morning to measure for the lino in kitchen and bathrooms, and the carpet in my room. I hope we can get Wally to install it again.
I vacuumed and planned where to put things in the new space. I like how it all looks. The trolly will take a bit of getting used to as it uses up space that we were walking through to my room, past the desk. I need to get one drawer in the cabinet by the door, moved to the middle compartment and to as close to the bottom as possible; then this compartment will be for coats and boots and the one closest to the door for the brooms. The other side, I want to move the shelves down and store my camera gear in here, including paper for printing, old 35mm and Holga photos,etc.

Slow down World III

Yesterday, I managed to get a few more photos tweaked and added to Flickr for the Victoria Grid Project. These two are my favourites. I really liked the black and white reflection in the window. The skyline photo I attempted to process in photoshop to make it appear as an old photo for the Retro group. Do you think it looks like an old 1900 kind of photo?

This morning was a trip to the pharmacy and walk home, which is good for me. Really should do more of that. Probably should eat breakfast first, though. I found a book that is 'post apocalyptic' The Road. Apparently there will be a movie made. I cannot seem to put the thing down, but had to, as I have other things that are must do.

David has the cabinets installed, except for the two extra things. The kitchen trolly and what I am calling the hutch/curio cabinet. David said that this wood is real 'quality... its very nice. Solid wood doors, some heavy duty tracks for weight bearing drawers to run on... well... there will be pictures. The corian guys from Cobble Hill come to measure for the counter tops on Thursday, when David said he would be finished. It is all looking very good. We bought a new range hood .. black.. from Home Depot. I think it will look fine. The top of the stove is black, but the rest white. David thought it should be white. It needs its light bulbs.. not included. I hope he can connect it to the vent with the same old pipe we had before. I think it should work.

We had lunch out, and supper was some of the previously prepared cabbage rolls. Yesterday was pizza. The stove and fridge are now back in place (except the range hood), so tomorrow, I suppose I can cook.

I did not get time on Flickr or time to look at tweaking any photos for the grid. I have just a few left to do, though.. 10 more days to work on them. The new site is getting stuff done and some new things added in. Oh my, this is going to be some incredible place to play!

Slow down World II

I am slowly getting the photos that I took last week tweaked and loaded to Flickr for the Victoria Grid Project group. I have quite a few taken with the long lens shooting from up by the Observatory. Its a very nice grid this month and people are loading to the pool, at last.

Tara and I got back from Sask. and the service for Flo, on Thursday. I have been feeling rather punky and was blaming it on the stink of the wood glue on the cabinetry that is sitting all around me. It seems Carol also has this flu, so we must have picked it up somewhere in our visits over Wednesday. Oh well, am getting over it. I have a few snow photos, but did not feel like shooting people.

We have all the dishes moved out of the kitchen and are ready for David to come to remove the old cabinets and put in the new. He will probably be here at the crack of dawn, of course. I have moved a lot of boxes to make space to get to my light garden and to remove the glass ones to safer area. We have 2 big boxes out on the deck yet. We are so fortunate it has not been raining.

A lot of stuff is getting done on the new site, apparently. New server and new builders. It all seems so complicate to me at this juncture.

I missed the VCCC run today as I was busy moving stuff. It was a good run, it seems, arranged by Sheas and Clarks. It was a bright and sunny day.

All the apples I put out in the deer pasture are gone, so I gave them 2 dozen more today. Also filled the humming bird feeder. The garden looks ok. I need to do some trimming of the cedar hedge. I do not see the crocuses up yet. They should be popping up soon with all the sunshine we had in the last couple of days.

Slow down World

Pat drove me out to the Victoria Grid for the month of January, on Friday. Part of the grid is along the ocean. It was a semi-sunny day, coolish and with the wind off the water my hands were very cold while trying to shoot. My camera was crying out for a battery change which it does whenever it gets too cold. I got a few ok photos, nothing spectacular.

We had to take the big old desk and the wardrobe apart to get them moved. Very heavy particle board stuff. Pat has the desk down in his room now. I think it looks better than the old table he had. His room looks really rather interesting now.

When I was out shooting for the grid on Friday, my sister who had been in a care facility, passed away. Tara and I fly back to Regina on Tuesday for the services on Wednesday and then back home on Thursday. Meanwhile, at home, Pat will be attending to the delivery of the cabinetry and his new computer stuff. Everything seems to happen at once.

Today, I took a walk to see how the water was in our river. Some areas of Greater Victoria and the Island have been having severe flooding. Our river is up to the top of its banks but nothing too alarming. We are so lucky. All of the ice and snow melted which I think, contributed to our safer water levels, as the rain water was able to run away to storm sewers or out to the river. We are to have a drier period next week.

VCCC 50th party

Found this rusty crusty chain at the Ferry slip. I shall eventually load it to Flickr for the rusty crusty group.

Yesterday 48 of us piled into a big yellow school bus and Rob took us over to Vancouver and beyond to the Vintage Car Club of Canada's 50th anniversary celebration at the home of our hosts Terry and Donna. (the address and names shall go unannounced due to the scams on the internet) Thank you to Terry and Donna and the Vancouver chapter for the terrific setting, meal, chance to view the collection of classic autos, auto memorbilia, and so much more. I particularly enjoyed getting to visit some of the folks... EVERYONE was there... was wonderful. There were 600 people served at the barbeque. I enjoyed the fashion show. Unfortunately my photos of the cars did not turn out very well at all. I have a few good fashion show photos. I did not do any of the ceremony photos. Somehow, just didn't feel like doing that. I am sure this will all be reported in their magazine.. and their website and that will be the place to go to read about it. It was rather a long day, as we caught the bus at 9:00 am and got back home just about 11:00 pm.

I have spent today viewing my photos and deleting most of them. I found a Flickr Friend's Canon S3 IS video upland to the Vimeo site. So, had to try and do a quick movie on my camera. Man that sound is excellent. The Victoria Grid Project has their web page up... looks good Mike!
I spent quite a bit of time looking at YouTube and scanning their information on how to do videos. There is some fairly sophisticated clips and some regular home/vacation videos. Not sure how to get music to use, but for now will simply use the audio on my camera which is really very good. I doubt I will ever do anything more with the video aspect. I could do screen shot tutorials and dub in the audio using that feature on my camera. But no time for that now.

I have yet to resize a few more shots for the Victoria Grid of March and then get back to my contacts photos. They have been so good about commenting my stuff.

I have been spending some time looking at some of Cyrus' new photo upload site, stuff. Man, it is looking sooooo good. That site is going to be huge. And exciting. Its going to be well worth the wait. We will be able to add YouTube videos, so this is why I was spending time on YouTube. Haven't signed up yet, but will soon.

Victoria Grid Project for March - Esquimalt

A couple of photos from my shoot for the Victoria Grid Project on Flickr. The grid is in Esquimalt this month. Slowly getting the photos resized and loaded to the group. They have the next meeting set for Saturday at about 3:00 at Serious Coffee.

I was to the lab for another test this morning and then walked home. It seemed like a long walk today. Guess I just have to do more of that. The two $12 orchids are still at the grocery store. I did not feel like carrying one home, as it was not that warm out yet... it was about 7 Celecius.

Victoria Grid for March

Yesterday we had lunch at Rickey's in Esquimalt. I had the most scrumptious won ton soup! After that we went to the end of Constance Street, so I could get a few photos for the Victoria Grid Project for March. I only took a few, as it was raining. This is a lovely little corner of old Esquimalt. The houses are little, quaint, but modernized and cling to the clifffs. I fell in love with this little area with its lovely little homes. I much prefer this to the big modern homes in the Grid of a couple of months ago on the other side of the peninsula.

Hope the sun shines tomorrow so I can get more of the Grid. I had a look at what is in the pool so far... the Olde England Inne seems to be well documented, but I wouldn't mind some photos of my own ... I don't necessarily need to add them to the pool.

Blogger space limit - 1 GB for photos.

This is a tall, leaning Garry Oak on a hill by Rithets Bog. This area is in the grid for the Victoria Grid Project for February. I am slowly getting my photos loaded to that Flickr group for February.

I have looked up the limit of space I have on Blogger. It seems we have unlimited space for text posts, but that the space of photos is 300 MB. So, I went back and edit a few posts and deleted about 5 photos today. I have no idea how close to my limit I might be. I have some really big photos on here. Its a real pain to go back and edit each post and delete, then find your way back to the month or place you were editing to manage the edits with any continuity. Oh well, I guess I will delete a few old ones when I get the time. I hate to delete though, too. I wonder if we will some day be able to buy more space on Blogger. That would be cool.
The Blogger information on space limits is here


EDIT:  January 27, 2010 - The space for photos has been increased to 1GB since I did this post.  Yeaaa  Go Google Go.  :)


Also, would the anonymous person who commented today, please comment again.  I accidentally rejected the comment, when I meant to add it.  Why do you think I should change design?  I like the simplicity of this one.  

More Victoria Grid Project

I am getting a few more of the photos from the Victoria Grid Project shoot tweaked. The grid is in Broadmead and includes Rithets Bog, so there are some very good photo opportunities. I had an excellent sunny day, too.

I have my comments on my Flickr group up to date for the minute. There are some very creative peeps in that group. Cyrus is very busy with getting his site ready to go live. ... soon.... I don't know if I will have time for Flickr then.

I went to the Royal Jubilee for my phlobotomy today.. 500 cc is 16 ounces. Then we got KFC for dinner. I spent some time with the cat this am. It is still pining away for its owners though. Not a happy kitty. I took it outside but it does not like it out there very much and ran back in the house.

Victoria Grid Project - H24 - February

This is one of the duck photos I took yesterday while shooting for the Victoria Grid Project. This month's Grid is in Broadmead including Rithets Bog. After my appointment with Dr. S. and lunch Pat dropped me off at the parking lot of the bog. It was cloudy and overcast. As I walked and did some shooting from the bog to Emily Carr drive, the sun came out. On my way back to and around the bog I now had glorious sun shine. I have had no time to do up any of the shots but this one.

Today I skimmed the RROC news letter, doing laundry, cleaning up the board from the sink of the van, etc. I must get the van packed for tomorrow we take it on its first run, to Dan and Irene's and then the four of us will go to the Puyallup Swap meet. We catch the 4:00 Coho ferry to Port Angeles tomorrow. I am getting quite excited about this trip. We will probably be boon docking at the swapmeet. There probably won't be electrical hook ups. Pat has all the tanks filled that need filling and the tanks emptied that need emptying. He has done a few other little repairs to get things into perfect order.

Day before yesterday Cyrus was showing me how to see blown out color detail in photos and what to watch for in good color transition in photos. This shows up in the histogram in photoshop. My little Canon S3 IS has a live histogram where I can see what the exposure is doing by reading this histogram. Basically, if the histogram is piled up on the right side the photo is over exposed and highlights could be clipped. If its high on the left it is under exposed and data in the shadows is lost. Cyrus says a bell shaped curve is a good histogram; as did the web site I read on this information. And so I have been paying attention, now to the histogram and watching for these blown out colors as he called them. Thank you Cyrus. I don't know where you find the time to show me all this stuff, but I appreciate it. My walking the dog photo shows a good histogram bell, but this duck and most of my photos from the sunshine, yesterday are surprisingly under exposed. I was trying to compensate for the bright light by using the exposure compensation setting. It is not always bad to 'not' have a bell curved histogram. I have to look into this aspect of the histogram and train my eyes to see the difference.

Victoria Grid Project January Ten Mile Point

I have loaded these 6 photos to Flickr's Victoria Grid project for January. The grid is at 10 mile point this month. When I was out shooting there was very bright sunshine. I was shooting south over the water. Despite those difficult shooting conditions I think the water ones turned out not too bad, after all.

Steve C. is getting his photos from his trip to China set up in a new album on his web site. Gorgeous landscapes. He is getting to be more and more well known for his photography and managing to sell a few, too.

Yesterday we went out to the place that used to be the George and Dragon. It is all newly renovated and looks really good. The food is pub style, but really quite good. So, next time we go to the Belfrey we will be able to have dinner here.

Victoria Grid December

A couple of the shots that I used in the Victoria Grid Project group on Flickr. This is Bowker Creek in Oak Bay area.

Photo.net was sold some time last spring. Josh Root is the Admin for PN and has set up a blog on blogspot to note the problems the site is having. The blog is for people to check when the site crashes, it seems. I doubt that very many people even know of the blog or of the sale to Name Media Inc. Here is the October/first post to the blog: http://photonetnews.blogspot.com/2007_10_01_archive.html
I am deleting photos on photo.net, as I no longer see any value in keeping them on that site. The forums will still have the information, I imagine. There are tons of ads there now. It sounds like an impossible task to add the new hardware and any new or changed features. PN has a newsletter that they forward to all registered members... that mailing list alone must be a real mess. The news letter is just not that exciting, either. ho hum!!

Flickr is noisy and has some terrible glitches, too. It will be nice to move to Cyrus' new site when its up and running. I think there are quite a few of us who can't wait till it is ready!

I was to see Dr.Sparanese today for my thyroid meds renewal. They told me in the morning that I could just come in as a walk in to the clinic, didn't need an appointment... well hell, I wait for an hour and then he was well past his leave the clinic time.. I wonder if he was due at the hospital ... hope not.

Yesterday we had these snowballs falling.. like hail. Its been quite cold lately and so the roads can be icey.

The Victoria Grid Project for December

I am finally getting around to tweaking my photos for the December Grid Project group on Flickr. After seeing Dr. Donna I walked and walked, again.. down Pandora to Oak Bay and over to the hospital and back on Fort Street. New stops this time. The Kokopelli characters are at Delicado's. The Elves in the window of Dig This and the door, window, mail box is at Country Comforts.

A lot has happened since I took these just a few days ago. I have been busy.. Christmas party, and out to Butchart Gardens for dinner with Sheas... we walked after dinner and saw the lights. It was magical. My photos, of course, are crap, cause I didn't take my tripod to dinner. There has been the finish of the Grow op matter. Stressful but interesting. Dinner out after the first day, at Swans, with Lloyd. After the second day I was just exhausted and went to bed and slept at 8:30. This is what stress can do. Its a real killer. Good thing I have a few weeks before my next blood tests for Dr.D. or I am sure I would be right off the charts, again.

I have made shortbread and have most everything else ready for our Christmas. No rum balls made... we should be ok with christmas pudding and rum sauce.

I really should get sending email christmas cards to friends... my email is backed up too. Oh well, tomorrow should be another good day for this.

Gardening and stuff

I have finished loading photos to the Victoria Grid Project on Flickr, for this month. Its a very scenic grid, but rather remote. Not very many people have posted yet. Hopefully there will be more.

I got the lawn mowed today. Most of the leaves that had fallen were sucked up by the mower. I left this on the vegetable garden as a winter mulch. I really should get over to Cannor and get about 8 new little trees and some tulip bulbs. I must get started on trimming back any trees and shrubs that I don't want. It froze last night, so pruning now should not really affect the trees untill the new growth in the spring. For all the attention I pay to the garden, now, it is really looking pretty good. I love lillies, but it is all clay. I may fill a couple more big pots and put lillies in them, surrounded by trees and the taller perennials in the front they could fill in some good color and interest for the summer.

Ken F. is doing an article for the Vintage Car Magazine and asked to use some of my photos. Yeaaaaa, I get more bragging rights.

We are thinking of getting a newer, wide body camper van. Pat is dealing with Pedens on a trade in on our old one. Or, if they cannot come to terms on it, we keep the old one. Its still in good shape and clean. Just has rather high mileage and is a 1995. Still has some features we like that the new ones don't have. We will see.

Yesterday we were to the Dunlop House for a scrumptious lunch with Jim and Sheila. Was good to see them. Pat has been over to show people Jim's collection but I did not go as its more a 'guy' thing, I think. We spoke of going up to the Chalet to meet the guys on their way back from Red Deer. We missed last year. But I did get some gardening done and enjoyed the time to myself.

Victoria Grid November

Yesterday we watched the Regina Roughriders win the Western final for the CFL, against our B.C Lions. Next weekend the Riders play off against Winnipeg for the Grey Cup. This should be quite a good game.

Tonite we were out to Spinnakers pub for dinner with the Grants. Very good food and on a Monday nite, we nearly had the place to our selves. Very civilized.

More Victoria Grid Project

Yesterday I went for my Phlebotomy. Pat drove me there and waited. It took about 20 minutes and then they had me wait another half hour. I don't feel any different. I guess the lab tests will show if there has been any change.

Its a grey day and I feel much like the daisy in this group of photos. I am sure I will be in a better mood tomorrow.