The Good, The Bad, The Just Plain Ugly

Good    Is there anything better than the twofer you get when you donate your giveaways?  I can see my workbench again, there are no more old computers decorating my garage, and two boxes of clothes are no longer stacked on top of the plastic bins holding my sweetie's rocks (don't ask). I had so much energy from not having to look at the clutter anymore that I also reorganized two storage areas.  And two local agencies benefitted from my donations!  I like to think that someone will appreciate getting our extra DVD player and barely-worn clothes at a bargain price.

Bad    Valentine candy in general and Lindor Truffles in particular.

Did you know that each one of these little gems will add a half pound to your scale the next morning? I swear.  Apparently there is no way to enjoy their delectable chocolate goodness without paying for every single calorie consumed.  Believe me, I cut down on snacks and have been power walking four mornings a week (in cold temperatures which should account for an extra couple calories alone).  The truffles are winning. 

Ugly     The number of the bathroom scale after February 14th.  Very ugly indeed.  Each succeeding morning the number has looked a little worse than the day before.  I did briefly wonder if Mardi Gras (aka Fat Tuesday) was influencing my scale.  I feel like the Lenten season might have come along at the perfect time for me.  I could give up chocolate truffles for Lent and my waistline would benefit greatly.  It's lucky that there's only one truffle left--so it will be very easy to give them up right after I crack the chocolate shell, suck out the gooey truffle filling and let the chocolate remnants melt slowly in my mouth while I savor the silky texture.

Do you know if I can order some self-control on Amazon?  I wouldn't even insist on free shipping.

Bloggity Tweaks

A new point of view is always welcome, especially when it's for free (cheap, cheap) from an expert. I've gathered a few new blogger photo tips recently, thanks to Donna at Funky Junk Interiors and have been trying to put them into practice.

I possess a simple point-and-shoot Sony Cyber-shot which I love to pieces. I wouldn't trade it for the highest end film SLR and a lifetime supply of film (does film still exist?) with free processing. Digital photography has changed how I view the world. How did we function before we could take 100 photos to get just three keepers when rolls of 36 exposures were the biggies? Or preview our photos to see if we needed to shoot more before we left the family reunion?  I now take photos of little metal plaques showing the name of the rose...

before shooting the actual rose like this one at Portland's International Rose Garden, for example.  What a great memory and organizing tool that's been on so many trips and vacations.

I admit that my old Olympus SLR was better at freezing the action (which would have come in handy with the world's most active puppy four years ago)...

but that's only because I hadn't read the owner's manual thoroughly enough to realize I could take videos.  (That's one of my life's biggest regrets--owning the world's cutest puppy and not knowing how to video Criminal!) And yes, I'd love to own a digital SLR but that's not in the budgetary cards until our major breadwinner is winning some serious bread again.  Even if I did get so lucky, I know I'd still be packing my lightweight Sony instead of hauling a bulky SLR most of the time.  So improving what comes out of my point-and-shoot is a necessity.


So I downloaded Picasa as instructed and am experimenting with various effects to improve (or at least change) my photos. I'm no whiz. In fact, I'm pretty pathetic--among other things I have no idea even how to save the photo I've improved yet. But I'm having fun playing and that's a great way to learn. (Oh my gosh, does that sound like a kindergarten teacher's philosophy or not?!)

I am very good at playing with their little slide-y buttons (note to self: find out what the little slide-y buttons are actually called to minimize your dweebiness) to increase or diminish an effect. I  admire everything about Notes From A Cottage Industry including Tracey's photos which always have a wonderful dreamy mist around her carefully planned vignettes. Then it occurred to me that Picasa has an effect called Soft Focus which, although mistier than I'd use, was similar to Tracey's photos. 

 

What if it had a button thing-y that could widen the area in focus and leave the edges soft and misty?  Picasa actually had two button thingies and I like the result:

Isn't this so much more evocative of the fragrance and romance of the rose than the original photo below?  (Ummm, I might have changed the Color Temperature a mite too before I moved on to Soft Focus. I told you I was having fun.)

The experts were right: Picasa does make a difference in photo quality and that improves Meadowsweet Cottage.  Because only my best is good enough for my readers!  Thanks, Donna, for the encouragement.

Could It Be? Finally? Yes!!!

I think I may have set a record for fumbled attempts at adding LinkWithin to my blog. I don't even want to admit how many times I've tried and fail. This time it took Firefox open in three different windows as I toggled between instructions at Blogger Buster, my html code at LinkWithin and scrolling through the template in Blogger Dashboard.  When I finally saw those magic words "You might also like" appear in Preview mode, I did the happy dance. Thank you, Blogger Buster, you're my hero!

Alas!  Although the words appeared, the thumbnails didn't.  I waited an hour (recommended), I checked back at odd times during the weekend, I double-checked my HTML.  Still no thumbnails.  I pondered the meaning of the universe and wondered what the LinkWithin techs would say when they saw my email begging for helpAGAIN!  I decided patience was a virtue and I should check my coding a third time.  Then life intervened and I got thoroughly sidetracked by a three-day weekend, Valentines Day, chocolate and a thawed-out garden filled with sunshine and fruit trees needed a good pruning.

What did I see today?  Oh frabjous day!  Callooh! Callay!  Thumbnails have begun to appear at last.  Was it my patient waiting?  Was it the chocolate truffles?  Did the stars suddenly align over my PC?  I don't know and I don't care.  Right now I'm doing the happy dance! I may be doing the happy dance all week long!

Not every post is showing the links (yet??).  But I'm still dancing around.


I suspect that my blog statistics will show a sudden spike.  That will be me checking out which posts LinkWithin recommends to my real readers.   And doing the happy dance.  Just be glad you aren't being subjected to actually watching me dance like the doggities.  They don't know what to think.

Happy dance.  Happy dance.  Happy dance.

Oh, Shoot!

Behold my rhubarb shoot!

I acquired two bareroot rhubarb plantlings recently as a gift and one of them surprised me with this energetic pink stem when I opened the bag.  I can almost taste rhubarb pie every time I look at it...yum!  I've tried, unsuccessfully, to grow rhubarb three times before (huge sigh) and swore I would never try again.  Never say never, I guess, I weakened last year when my neighbor showed me his huge first year plants and inspired me to try again.  This time I've done lots of research (acid soil, perfect sun, deep tilling, voodoo charms) and am keeping my fingers crossed that the fourth time is the charm.

I know our almost-sixty degree weather won't last. We are surrounded by snow-covered hills and mountains and little patches of snow still lurk in our yards.  I know that Old Man Winter still has at least one frigid storm up his sleeve before springtime weather arrives for good. But I'm determined to get a jump on my garden by planting in large pots that can be moved in and out of the garage depending on the weather.  Our growing season is so short here that a couple of weeks growth can make a big difference.

Behind the rhubarb are two smaller pots with five everbearing strawberry roots each. I've always grown the June berries and mostly made the robins happy with a free breakfast.  It's a running joke at our cottage that robins are red-breasted due to their diet--our strawberries, our cherries, our raspberries, our apples.  I thought maybe I'd have more of a chance with these everbearing Ft. Laramie plants.  If not, the leaves are still pretty and I do like feeding songbirds!

Oh! Canadaaaahhh!

Best Opening Ceremony. Ever.

AP Photo/Charlie Riedel

So artistic--I loved the music (Allelujah is my latest earworm) and the visual effects were magical. I was willing to suspend belief and just roll with it.  The ice floes breaking up, the leaves falling, the wheatfields.  Yum.

And it had Mounties.


Ya did good, Canada! Here's wishing you lots and lots of gold medals (I love Oh, Canada and I'm happy to listen to it again and again!

Guideposts--Week6

Love all God's creation, the whole and every grain of sand in it.  Love every leaf, every ray of God's light.  Love the animals, love the plants, love everything.

  --Dostoyevsky

Six is Sweet

I enjoy talking to five and six year olds. They're old enough to have ideas but young enough to have a warped world view that appeals to me. I love their honesty, their innocence and their enthusiasm.

Ask most six year olds what a ruffle is--they have no idea although they might make some interesting guesses. A ruffle could be a sock, for instance, or a type of tree. Plaid is another foreign concept. The words are familiar--they just don't have an image to hang on it yet. It's pretty cute.

Their little minds are kinda like Silly Putty--flexible and plastic and easy to mold. They make me realize how alike "b", "d", "p", and "q" are. And that numbers look pretty much the same whether you make them backwards or forwards. Six year olds don't think outside the box, they don't even know there is a box! If they accidentally start writing their name on the right side of the page they'll just write their whole name backwards, i.e., in mirror writing. If they begin their signature on the left, it'll be perfectly formed. Just try writing your name in mirror writing. (So sorry, but your brain is now hard-wired and you couldn't do it as fast as a kindergartner with a big pencil and his tongue out as he works on putting those lower case letters where they belong.)

I like sharing simple ideas with them. Other grownups don't care to have conversations about vegetables, SpongeBob or princesses. Last week I told a little girl that I thought broccoli looked like trees and that I called them broccoli trees. She first thought I was teasing her, then decided that maybe broccoli did grow on trees (city kids)! I couldn't let my silliness continue to confuse her so I told her that broccoli didn't grow on trees, it just looked kinda like a tree. She seriously told me that "yeah, broccoli doesn't grow on trees...money does." I laughed and whole-heartedly told her that it certainly did!

I'm  hoping to put one in my backyard this Spring.