well, I have been trying some things.......Jon has said cropping helps. So now I take my photos with my iPad, go to edit and change the orientation or size a bit, even though the actual photo in terms of pixels is no different (?), and then they post properly. Houzz———a bit , well, whatever......:-(

The picture I just uploaded is 1.05 MB (GSFC's 60th Anniversary picture). You do have to wait until the image goes from a pale image to a crisp/bright/sharp image. The larger the image, the longer it takes. It took a couple of minutes for my 1.05 MB image to load. (I used the "Photo" option, not the "Houzz Photo" option.) ETA: I just tried to upload a 1.4MB picture and it didn't work. So there may be a limit on the size...or maybe I just got lucky with the one above! (I tried it with both the "Photo" and "Houzz Photo" options.)

Orange pepper was a good addition, and I'm sure it was fine with just onions and no garlic. Adding spinach (which you can still do if you have leftovers) would make it more like minestrone, but I've never put sausage in my minestrone. If I were making it, I would have added a couple of chile de árbol (for heat), a couple of guajillo or pasilla chiles, and some oregano. I would not add cream cheese, but I might add some grated cheddar and some chopped cilantro (or some parsley) when serving. I made some bean soup recently (and had leftovers last night), but mine did not have sausage, although I do have sausage on hand. It sounds like a good addition!

I apologize, I never saw this. Thank you for answering.