Last year at this time, I was doing “Wordless Wednesday” every week, but I’ve gotten away from it since last fall sometime. You can check out a WW from about a year ago here. There a lot more, but this is the only one with the photos moved here. Am I not pathetic? I moved this blog in January and I still haven’t moved even half [a quarter?] of the photos from the old site.
Anyway, I thought I would rummage around on my hard drive to see if I wanted to post any of the 5,000 photos I have taken lately.
This is a sundrop. I can’t remember the name. The yellow kind are called Missouri Sundrops, but these pink ones have a different name that is escaping me right now.
Look how twisty and gnarly my crabapple tree is getting. It was so tiny when Larry gave it to me just a few years ago, but it is starting to get the characteristics I love about them already. There are a couple other posts about this tree here and here.
Look – a meeting of the Future Brussels Sprouts of America club!
A Monarda “Jacob Cline” just getting ready to open. If you get Monarda for your garden, this is a good variety because it is mildew resistant. It is also invasive, so be careful where you put it, or it will try to take over everything.
Finally, this species daylily. An un-named variety that blooms for just a short time early in the summer. I bought it before I really knew much about them and it’s planted as filler on a bank I am trying to reclaim from weeds. It’s nothing special, except that it is.
Have a great day, friends!
In the last week we have had snow peas, radishes, romaine, red leaf lettuce and broccoli. The guy who runs the store is a rather nice looking fellow, even if he does favor somewhat odd looking costumes at times [cutoff shorts, old work boots with white socks and a straw cowboy hat] and he saves all his best stuff for me. You know who I mean, right? That guy I married? The guy who decided we needed another 100 square feet added to the already huge garden, but who ran out of room anyway? The one who will plague my life later in the summer with endless buckets of vegetables that need to be put up for next winter? Anyway, this past weekend, we got the first cucumbers – these lovely burpless, or English type cukes. So, I had to make our favorite cucumber salad.
We’ll start with the dressing – the amounts are approximations rather than hard and fast amounts.
Wash 3 medium cucumbers, and cut into fairly thin slices. Cut 1 small spring onion [1/4 cup white or yellow regular onion – a sweet one like a Vidalia would be good] into thin strips, along with several inches of the green tops.
Stir gently into the dressing. Chill several hours to blend flavors. We actually like it even better the next day – the cukes really soak up the flavors from the dressing and wilt just a bit, which is very nice. To serve, put in a nice bowl and top with a bit more chopped green onion.
If you don’t have a gigantic garden in your back yard, check out your local farmer’s market or a roadside vegetable stand. You will get better, probably cheaper food and you’ll be supporting your local economy a bit as well. Enjoy!
But when I applied a texture that I threw together called “Floral Bark”, I was able to get closer to what I’d had in mind at the start. I selected and sharpened the center first, cloned out the annoying little bug I could have sworn I shooed away before taking the shot, and then applied the texture layer, set to “hard light” at about 45%. I then just brushed the most of the texture off the center, which now looks a lot sharper in comparision to the rest of the photo.
I should probably mention that I use Paint Shop Pro X2 Ultimate for my photo edits. I’ve used PSP for years – it is far less expensive that Photoshop, and with each upgrade, it improves to an incredible degree. Not having used Photoshop much, I can’t really do a side by side comparison, but for about $100, PSPX2 is far better than Photoshop Elements which runs right around the same price.
A Trolius in the shade garden, in the very later afternoon. I actually liked this series of shots really well, but I knew that with all of that negative space, it would look great with the right texture.
This is another of my own textures, called “Rusty Paint”, and I didn’t note the steps I took with it. I am pretty sure the layer was applied set to “multiply” mode, and at a fairly high opacity. I just brushed it back off the one little section that I loved the silky look of.
Every comment on any post during the month of July counts as an entry, so feel free to jabber as much as you like. Loquaciousness pays off around here.
The zombie-turtle rain gauge certainly shows that it hasn’t been sunny for a couple days now.
And even though I would much rather be out there, in the garden, otherwise known as the “Land of Unfinished Projects”, as you can see, it is more than a little damp.
But I got my copy of 
yesterday and I was instantly captivated by the ideas contained therein. So I can have a lot of good fun that is funny. Well, except for that having to work thing. And is that coffee mug not the cutest thing ever? It was part of my “Pay it Forward” prize from 
Fortunately we have a 3 day weekend coming up, with good weather forecast, so we are hoping we’ll be able to get the mildew out from between our toes and turn some unfinished projects into finished ones. I think I will paint the eyes on that rain gauge too, because it is kind of freaking me out.
