Garden 2010--Chapter 3

It looks like I have just moved a few things around, but things are really growing (although slowly).  Maybe by next week things will look better!

Lichens are weird!

I didn't know this (or perhaps forgot it): "every lichen species is actually composed of two, possibly even three,  distinct species of  organisms".  See http://www.backyardnature.net/lichens.htm for details.  This picture was taken of a split cedar shingle roof on an old barn and while there are probably many different lichens present, you can readily identify the British Soldier Lichen (the guys with the red hats). 

They may be weeds, but they are pretty.

Dandelions apparently are found everywhere--which is not surprising considering how easy it is to spread the seeds.  I snapped this picture with a flash and tried to keep the background fuzzy but interesting (I think it worked).

More little things

While at Griffy Lake taking photos I also grabbed a few samples of the lake water to take home and examine.  This is a rather neat image of some algae (twelve photos taken at about 400X and merged with Helicon Focus).

More Kady Lynn

This is another shot from the Kady Lynn outing.   I took it because in the "photo scavenger hunt" we needed 1) a wheel; 2) rust; 3) a door; 4) an advertisement; 5) old paint; and 6) growing vegetation.  This photo pretty well covers these items and actually looks kind of neat. 

Bonus picture to celebrate World Pinhole Day!

It turns out that today (Sunday, April 25) is a terrible day for doing any outside photography--we have had 2.5" of rain in the last 24 hours.  I took two photos for Worldwide Pinhole Photography Day.  Since their maximum size is 700 pixels I submitted a 3D anaglyph.  The image below is a panorama I shot at the same time.  I reduced the length to a reasonable value for the blog.  Shot at an ISO of 1000 on my Nikon D80, here are eight 10 second  images in the panorama (stitched using Hugin).

If you click on the photo you get the 2500 x 350 image.  The resolution of course is determined by the size of the pinhole (and distance from the sensor).  It is interesting that in spite of the fuzziness, Hugin had no problems (obviously no lens corrections were needed!)

Who is that photographer?

The photo club Macro group had an outing yesterday at the Kady Lynn auction house near Elletsville. It is one strange place!  I took this photo as part of a "photo" scavenger hunt (glass was one of the eight items).  This window pane was leaning against one of the outbuildings.

It may be pretty, but...

These things are growing on my cedar tree--yuck.  They are the "Cedar-Apple Rust" fungus for those who want to know.  If you are really curious read this.

Garden 2010--Chapter 2

As you can see (or perhaps not see), a week doesn't make much difference this early in the year.  If you look closely you can see some changes (some of the spinach and kale are missing!) with a few more plants out now that the "frost free date" is here.  I did get most of the remainder tilled this week, so planting should be a bit faster next week if the weather is good.  Today's picture was taken during a light rain (about 1/2 inch last night) and the garden really needed it.  I also have quite a few seeds started in peat pots on the picnic table and they should germinate this week (I hope).

No sour grapes here!

With a little effort these guys will be delicious this fall.  I actually pruned the heck out of the grape vines and will try to keep on top of the various blights this year.  We will see if there is a follow-up picture this fall!

Blue-eyed grass?

I took this earlier this week and tried to positively identify it--to no avail.  I love the "small" things in life, including wildflowers.  The leaves are small and hug the ground and the flowers are about 3-6 mm in diameter.

The smells of spring

I guess I have to put up with my runny nose and watering eyes if I want to have bushes like this.  I will admit that almost everyone who walks down the sidewalk stops to smell the lilac in our front yard.

Shadow..

I didn't have time to find anything good, so I just took a quick photo of my shadow against the grass in the back yard and distorted it a bit with Photo Shop.  Strange!

Nature is sometimes creepy

I was out trimming in the back yard when I noticed these insect eggs on the leaves of a wild cherry tree.  I am going to try putting some in a jar to see what they turn into.  The leaves on the tree was covered with thousands of these weird things!

The flowers are great!

Went to McCormick's Creek State Park today and the weather was perfect!  The wildflowers are beautiful and I may have to go back early next week when there are fewer people running around!  I can't remember when I have seen so many Jack-in-the-pulpits.  It is also embarrassing how many flowers I recognize but can't remember their names.

Garden 2010--Chapter 1

Since I spent the past few days getting started in the garden I decided I should start an "extended time lapse" of my progress.  I will take a new picture every week or so (or when definite changes have occurred).  If you look closely you can see two tomatoes next to the "Japanese Tomato Ring", and the greens that we are still eating from last fall's planting.

More "Looking up"

Here is another example of why we should look up occasionally.  This is the Monroe County (IN) courthouse from the inside.  (Yesterday was tax day).

I may have to go back and take some more pictures here!

Beauty is everywhere

Sometimes we forget to look up. I took this one in Florida earlier this year.

Garden cages

I remembered this photo because I spent the day getting these guys ready for this years garden.  I decided to go with my "Japanese tomato ring" again this year, although I'm not convinced they really work as advertised.  This photo was taken in January.

Photosynth of a moth.

I took this photo (one of 34 actually) of a poor moth I found on the back porch.  It is not an action shot--I just painted out the pin he is mounted on.  The photos were taken in 2008 shortly after Microsoft introduced their Photosynth site.

You can see this guy on the site here. I guess they never remove anything, so who knows how long this will be there.  Here is what he looks like with the Photosynth "dot cloud".

Favorite Tombstones II

Who says you can't take it with you? Linus G. Schlachter took his favorite tractor with him (the tractor was made in Ferdinand Indiana).

Favorite Tombstones I

I don't know if Ricky Allen Sr. is still alive or not, but I really would like to know the story about his rather unique grave marker (see below for enlargement).

Amy, I still have your bicycle...

But it needs a little work.

Memory "chips" have certainly improved.

I love my junk collection!

Back in the days when I first started computing, the programs and data were stored in "core memory".  The photomicrograph above shows 70 bits (not words, not bytes, but bits!) of one of these core memories.  The small dark objects are ferrite "donuts" that could be magnetized by running current through the wires laced through them, and then read as a "0" or "1".  This image is from a 4K (4,000) byte memory from a Digital Equipment Corporation computer.  Each byte consisted of 7 data bits and an eighth bit to check for errors.  Thus the total memory was 32,000 bits!  The core was about 2" by 4" by 6".

Water Fire in Providence RI

For those who like to play with fire, this is the best job you can imagine!

The "fire dancer" was swinging two flaming pots in this photo. They have the Water Fire celebration several times during the summer.

Bryce Canyon by moonlight

I  took this photograph in about 1967 while on vacation with my wife.  This was a time exposure taken by moonlight with my 35mm camera.  As I recall it was a "one cigarette" exposure (I was a smoker back then).

I remember...

Don't you wish you could sit out in the watermelon patch with grandma and just eat the hearts out of the melons?

Old age is hard...

I saw this tree while driving down a country road and I couldn't help but remember how wonderful the large shade trees were along the dusty gravel road when we visited grandma's house.  It looks like it will be a long walk before you find any shade along this road.

Spring!

Each year our "miniature" Japanese Cherry tree explodes with blossoms for a period of about three days before a spring rain decides to eliminate the petals.  I say miniature because it is about 30' tall now.

This photo is from yesterday--today the rain started!

What's up?

I love this shot!  This is a 360 pano taken inside a covered bridge.  At the bottom you can see a picnic table at the far (?) end, and at the top is the other end of the bridge (but upside down).  This is confusing!  This was taken with the panorama head I have been putting together and the fit was actually excellent!

All together there were 47 photos taken, merged with Hugin and converted to the spherical pano using the polar coordinate distort filter in Photo Shop.

Would you like some bacon with that?

This is a photo of the "bacon rind" formation in Marengo Cave.  The lighting (theirs) is from behind and I added a wee bit of flash to fill in some of the foreground detail.  the colors are probably off, but who has ever seen this in sunlight?

I will probably have some more cave pics in the future since I ended up with over fifty that were "keepers".