Macro

I took these close ups of the Bird of Paradise flower in a boquet Colleen and John had sent us during the holidays. I shall add these to the petal art group on Flickr and then try and get a some comments returned to my contacts and friends.

It was another busy day. We spent the afternoon getting a new light fixture for my room. I love the one we got... a tiffany globe with the hanging part to match the bronze knobs and pulls of the cabinetry. We also found a new tap for the kitchen sink of the bronze variety, with simple lines.
Rob from Hourigans was out to measure for the new flooring on Wednesday and this afternoon we stopped in at their place to look for something that I might want for the carpet in my room. We will have to go back with some of the vertical blind to compare colors and patterns. There is a green carpet with a very similar pattern to my long green verticals covering the patio window. We looked at roll ends but did not really find anything suitable.
The pantry is refilled and in order. I have all of the shelves above the pull out drawers, for storage. The liquor cabinet and the fruit juices are on the first shelf. I am really liking the way it is coming together. With the extra cabinets in the room, I need the simple lines to keep it from looking too crowded.

On Saturday we go to Chemanis for a play at their theatre, with lunch before, with Sheas. This should be fun. Tonite we were out to 15 50 for dinner Its a pub style restaurant with a good selection on the menue. Was good, we will be back.

A couple of days ago I put out 30 apples for the deer. They were gone within 36 hours. We did see a seagull eating them but did not see the deer. I know the squirrels are taking apples from the deck and probably from out in the deer pasture, too.

Frost

While shooting through my living room window at the glorious autumn color on my liquid amber tree I caught this unusual reflection. I believe it is reflecting the railing of the stairs. I have no idea why it went the golden color, but as I looked out at the tree I could see these four golden columns, so I snapped them of course.

The frost photo is in macro mode of the deck railing. Ken Anderson told me how to get sharper photos with my Canon S3 IS by setting the 'my colors' to a custom setting with sharpness and contrast pumped up. I think it works much better now. Thanks so much for the help, Ken.

We have had cooler weather with ice on the bird bath, the water table and the water features. My pond is beginning to fill again from the rains. I raked leaves the other day but, of course, the grass path is covered with the lovely colored leaves again.

Flower Petal Art

Eileen called today. What a wonderful treat to hear from her. They are going to be in PoCo end of Nov. and might just get over to the Island. Would be great to see them. After hearing from her I read my email from Irene. Her dearest friend has recently had some very invasive surgery. Hope you heal quickly Vicki!

Tomorrow we go look at the newer camper van with a view to upgrading. Now that we have the Passat we do not seem to need the Van for running about to fetch things so often. So, the slightly wider van should be better for camping. It looked good when we saw it last week end.

Flickr has some real characters and interesting groups. So many groups of interest. Cyrus is working like mad to get his site up and running. Its gonna be one fabulous mega photo upload site, with endless up to date features. Its quite exciting to watch this site being conceived and built.

Flower Petal Art

While out shooting for the Victoria Grid Project last week I found some flowers to try shooting in macro and super macro mode, for Chrissie's Flower Petal Art group. The kale is not allowed, since its a leaf.

I made some applesauce today. The days has been sunny and lovely, deceptively warm in appearance. Was quite cool when I went out.

The brown beetle

I found this beetle on my gardening shoe. I tried to make it stay on some colorful paper for a better shot. I zoomed it and I used the macro and the super macro settings. I have to learn to hold my camera very very still when doing these macros. I took the beetle outside to the patio table and finally to the deck from where I let it go, unharmed, but probably quite tired. It had a terrible time getting upright again when I would flip it on its back to slow it down a bit. It was not very fast, though. I think it was an old beetle. It has very long antenna and a black spot on either side, midway down its back part. It was about and inch, inch and a quarter long.

Yesterday I mowed the lawn and dumped the clippings on the garden. It is very hot. We are having a heat wave. It is suppose to last about a week. It was up to 28 yesterday, and as I type this the thermometer sits at 34 celcius. Its not too bad in the house though. We have curtains closed and fans running. That skylight sure lets in a lot of hot.

Water Iris Abstract

This is a very close up of my spectacular water iris (I have lost the name tag). I hope to eventually add this to my Flickr account. I did not get out to the garden today, so my new little plants are not planted yet. The little oxalis is a tender perennial, so I think I will just put these plants into a big pot. Their colors go very nicely together. I might add some tall marigolds at what will be the back of the planter.

I was to the lab today to give more blood samples. There were 4 tests marked on the lab requisition. I see Dr. C. in a week and the results of these tests should be in by then. Pat was wired with a gizmo to check his blood pressure. He is border line high. We were awake every hour or so when the thing would buzz and take a reading. He would have to write down on a list what he was doing at the time of the reading. So, we were both very tired today. The walk home from the lab was nice though.

I cannot seem to get into uploading my photos to the photo upload sites. Or commenting anyone. Maybe its just time to leave it alone for a while, and just do my own stuff.

inside the tree peony

Canon S3 IS on super macro shooting into the tree peony blossom a few days ago.

The vegetables seeds have germinated. We had a bit of rain over last week end so that helped them along a bit.

Yesterday I weeded the little Japanese garden area. I clipped the shrubs back a bit. I still need to weed under the deck and around the pond. I must put down more pea gravel in the dry stream. The dry stream is the corner of the pond that overflows if it gets too full. The water runs down the gravel river going under the lantern. The water at this point is not visible and simply soaks into the surrounding area. In the summer I top up the pond's water level weekly. The moss in the Japanese garden area is slowly filling in between the shrubs. The little red cut-leaf maple looks really good this year. I am finishing up the big clean up jobs just about the time I am well ready to go into maintenance mode.

The irises, the thyme, columbines, the tree peony, the lilac and the alliums are blooming. The roses, oriental poppies and campulas are just starting to bloom. Most of the spring bulbs are finished. This year, I should clip the bulb foliage back and give them all bonemeal in the Fall. I am really pleased to see the snapdragons have survived to bloom again this year. And after we had all that snow and cold. I always thought they were annuals, but these are the same plants, not a reseeded bi-annual. I wonder if I should get some more this year, so that I will have some again next year. I should try that, with a different color snapdragon, in a different spot, probably in the front garden as there really is no room at the back.

Inside the Tulip macro

This is a macro of the inside of the tulip before I got pollen on the lens. I shot this yesterday when we were out at The Horticultural Center of the Pacific; now Glendale Gardens. Its a botanical garden and training center for Master Gardeners. The place is really looking lovely. I have not been out there for quite some time. I must go again in the summer. The rhodos are not in full bloom yet. The Japanese Garden is interesting. I find there are too many 'things' in it though. The bridges and the water are excellent.

I finished my income tax forms today and they are ready to file. Since I get a refund I should send them off right away.

I tweaked a few photos of the soccer and all for Pam and sent them off this morning. Even earlier this morning I was looking out the front window and saw the little squirrel run across the front deck with a mouth full of fuzz. He ran up the tree, hopped onto the roof from the tree, ran across the roof to the wire to the pole in the front. Upon reaching the pole she disappeared into the Virginia creeper. I guess she felt safer up on the roof and wire than on the ground. I did not get a photo of her doing this. She is just too fast.

Polka Dot Drops

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

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!

African Violet macro

I rather like how this one turned out. Super macro setting on my Canon S3 IS camera, with my colors set to 'vivid'.

I loaded the album 'Homework' to my web page today. Its a presentation I did on photo.net sometime in 2002, and deleted it. It has some newer photos in it to round out the album. No serious photography there. Its just for fun.

I spent hours yesterday trying to find the icon for my IE browser after updating my Firefox to 2. So, I have been dragging around today, tired. blah. I finally just made a shortcut to it from the Iexplore exe. I did find out how to add it to the start menu thing, but cannot seem to figure out how to get it into the bottom task bar place. Oh hell with it.

Pat took us for a drive out to French Beach today, just to give the Bentley some exercise. Lovely sunny day, but coolish.

Lichen Macro

1/160 sec., f/3.5, focal length - 72.0, exposure compensation: -0.33

We had sunshine, on the 19th. For one day. It was glorious. I was really quite excited about the macros I have managed of the ice on my pond and the lichens on the plum tree that overhangs the pond! Here is one of the lichen macros. The color just blows me away. I have not saturated this, but do have 'my colors' set to vivid.

This will be the my first upload to the new VFXY. It seems they are still in beta with more good features to come. I don't understand why my ranking dropped but it doesn't matter much. I cannot find the FAQ, but imagine it will turn up again, or I will manage to find it.

close, closer

Playing in the macro mode of my Canon S3 IS. I have lots to learn about macros.