Cynthia, SO nice to finally hear from you. I was getting worried about and "that fool dog of your's". I can't even begin to contemplate how hard this must be. At least with Rex he still had 3 legs left to hop around on... and while he may've been sore for some time he could at least move around and shift position without yelping. I really would like to see a picture if you're up to shooting it and then posting it. Hang tough! I love candles in the windows of a home (pictures? look who's talkin'). The only reason I don't do it here is that there are windowboxes under the roadside window and I fill them with greens that would hide the candles. But when I was a kid we used them. And, MARTIE, we added one for every Sunday in Advent! All the decorations were left up until the Epiphany (Twelfth Night) and they came down the next day. I finished the 3 pediments this afternoon and put them up. I like them. But need to add something pale/bright to the lower edge to keeping them from "oozing" visually into the window below... . Shoulda bought more .99 lemons at Wallyworld, damnit. I have the big pediment on the dining room table right now and am about to embark on that. Boxwood is holding up, and I'm a whiz at making white pine swags now. :) (smells really good in here and the cats are having a total blast... in and out, in and out, doing their wonderful kitty routines. (thinking of Cynthia and the candles). Norma, your photographs are lovely (no "blurries" here, either)! I see a lot more color than just green grass in those shots. I love the way Mother Nature changes the palette over the course of the seasons but gives us the shimmer of rain and snow, instead. Martie, Kyle should be excited about his position. He must be having the time of his life. I'm a bit envious, frankly! :) I'm still struggling with how Mum's life ended, Martie. Not that I think I could have done more (aside from the ususal regrets you feel when someone you love dies), but there are several things I would love the opportunity to go back and "fine tune". I've thought about your question repeatedly over the past few days and still don't really have what I want to say completely figured out. It's such a huge thing to face and I still feel the full force of the wave that overtook me and hurled me onto the beach. I'm still shaking my head and trying to "collect myself"; checking again and again to make sure "everything is here". A good, family plan is the perfect place to start and having the doctor know you is KEY. IF you're able, make sure your Mom's doctor "follows" her if she ends up living with her children or enters a nursing home. That's one of the things I most regret... I loved her doctor when she was with me. He was young, hip, and all about minimizing medications and keeping her ACTIVE. I deeply regret the loss of that when Mum entered that awful place. Many, many thoughts and reminiscences today... alone with my thoughts, the animals and my final project (helmeet working AND going out with his buddy tonight). Some tears, a lot of "singing along", and the appreciation that the decorations are really ALL Mum. I learned it somewhere, afterall! Thinking of my friends tonight and still hoping for some basic pointers on how to "light" a basic TECHINICAL shot with my camera. Please? (MY tent would have a perpetually warm hot water bottle, blue cheese and pate. A cat, a good biography... want to know more about Martin Luther and Abraham Lincoln. Sparkling water with lemon, and Pinot Grigio or a nice red wine. Clementines, olives, and almonds. It would smell like evergreens, too).

Yes, I often stop down to 1 1/2 stopss too, depending on if I'm seeing a lot of light areas in the image. In fact, I don't have a whole lot of time and a big garden, so I have to be efficient. Not knowing what mood I'll be in re depth of field when I look at them later on, I'll take multiple pictures in multiple f stops and in each of those f stops, I'll usually take multiple bracketed exposures, if I explained that right. It's not unusual for me to take 200-300 pictures on a 30 minutes walk around the garden being really efficient! The problem I'm having now is that my lens is too slow and I'm getting lots of slightly blurred images. I need a faster lens, which is too expensive for the moment. Re the reds, if you use the magnetic lasso in photoshop you can isolate areas that you want to have a separate exposure. Also, there is now very exciting new technology by Nik software where you can just click on any area and change that area. I'll definitely be getting that at some point. In the meantime, if it's really a problem, I'll isolate the part of the image I need to change with the magnetic lasso or just manipulate the exposure with levels, but I don't like super saturated reds, so I'll underexpose the reds by a variety of settings to be sure that there is detail in the bloom later on. Working with the exposure should help with the color. If not, you can always manipulate the individual color tones.

Prejudice is an ugly thing to have. It clouds ones mind and shuts off the flow of imagination IMO. Prejudice for the most part occurs as a result of influence or experience, both of a negative nature. I wonder what it would look like to see someone with a prejudice towards compost/organic gardening? The people who are forced to tolerate this prejudice will be paying for a memory they had nothing to do with. This is not a good thing IMO. All who have read this entire thread should know there are more than 3 links total in my posts. The only way to not know this is to have not read the posts or paid little attention to what was said. To inject oneself into a conversation they know little of what has been said is rude to be kind, and insulting to say the least. There were 6 links total; three used as a reference, one used as an example of how to gather free information from commercial sites, one used as an example of humus potential, and one as an alternative watering technique. All were normal websites save one, that one was a "blog". To post a mans entire career, minus his tax returns for the last five years as a result of something posted on a "blog" is something I still dont understand. As well, my comments concerning "peat moss" are already registered as to how I handle matters I have no experience with. You would have had to read the posts to know this. My experience with compost tea does not lay in my future; it originates from my past. In late 02, early 03 aerobic compost tea became focused on message boards. On the "Dirt Doctor" forum and others sites aerobic compost tea was a very hot topic. Although there were many commercial machines, one of the first "do-it-yourself" models manifested on the "Dirt Doctor" website. "The Bruce Deuleys Little Texas Tea Maker" stepped up to the plate. A simple machine, made with parts purchased at Wal-Mart. When I saw it, I immediately made my list, checked it twice, and headed to the truck to go get my parts! In less than three hours I was brewing me a batch just like on the pictures, the rest is history. You cannot get better results for the money using "the little tea maker". I have gone on to make my own 55-gallon brewer with minor modifications to "The Bruce Deuleys Little Texas Tea Maker", with fantastic results. You can get the original link Here; it is found in the second "Dchall" post. I could sit here all day and type storied about what happens when you listen to "Dchall", but if you look at the lawn on the tea maker website you will get an idea of what can happen when you do. Organic gardening is more than research and experimentation, it is more than what I think; it evolved into what I feel. If you do this long enough you will feel when the pile is made right. You will feel when the bed is planted perfect IMO, the mulch thick enough, when it is time to go get those "cukes". Yes, eyes are important, and I use mine a lot just looking at my property when most around here are weeding. I dont post here to "be somebody", a big shot who knows all the answers. I came here to "become somebody", to become a member people trust and want to know what I feel/think about a question. I dont race to get my fruit ripe first; people race to get here first when the fruit is ripe. To gain trust takes time, but with it comes patience. Time will tell concerning all this, when that time comes I will be the last to say, "I told you so" Blutranes

A couple of questions about technique for photographing at night. First, a tripod I'm thinking? Long exposure or flash.....which. Depth of field seems to be pretty good, not a shallow depth. But do you set that manually? What is your camera? I guess I could look at your photo album, which usually lists the camera used, but let's get it all down here. A DSLR or a high class point/shoot? And I've tried to figure out how to do the black background so many people use with happy results. Also, with a frame which has a leaf hanging over it, not around the whole image, but just around the focal point at any angle they seem to like. Does THAT take special software, or is it somehow embedded as a technique in ordinary programs? Love the pictures, will have to begin night walks in the garden. Makes sense to me, since it is so danged hot during the day. Might catch a few more slugs having dinner as well.