Susan Ewart

Hubby and I really enjoyed this show too. David Tennant was my favorite Doctor (Doctor Who)

Then I hung out at work, mostly talking around the water cooler - talking about how warm it was and there was no snow yet. that's me at the bottom, I wore clothes to work, cause I'm thoughtful like that. Then I ate too many Halloween candies and got sick. All because the weather was warmer than usual. Otherwise I'd be at home snug like a bug in a rug.

Nice and dry here. A little chilly. First my day started with a trip the doctors. Here I am being examined. Then I just kinda hung around outside, since it was pretty warm out.

it's just the best word. Thank you. Where were you when I was in school? I would have been much smarter than I am now.

oooooh, I like that word..."ineffable". I dont know what it means, but I like it. 😁

Spectacular Corrie. Lots of techniques and I love the word art type quote. Your photo is beautiful. Such an interesting mushroom.

I love all the stories everyone posted about Halloween. they are interesting, particularly the parts where you talk about your childhood and your parents. Interesting to read that Christmas got hijacked from the Pagans. Does anyone know what the Pagan holiday would have been called?

I wanna live with you!

hahaha. Better to be known for Halloween than our crazy politics wouldnt you say? My neighbour goes all out. And i get to participate this year, it's a day I'm home early enough to hand out some goodies. I'll probably abandon the door to go hang with them.

Wow! what an experience that would be.

I'm in too. Think I'll do more cameras like I did for the magazine workshop. thankfully there's time to take some pictures before the workshop.

I would love that. we had one that was enamoured with my husband. she'd scamper along the outside walls of the house to get as close to where he was outside. She'd come and look in the dining room window for him...drove the cats crazy. I'd love to feel their little paw on my hand. What does it feel like? Delicate or scratchy because they have long nails.

What a wonderful experience. Interacting with wildlife (the kinda that doesnt kill you in one swipe of paw I'm talking about) makes you want to protect them more and more. For me it was walking amongs 100's and 100's of Canada geese on my daily walks around the tiny pond in Chilliwack where I used to live. One time my hubby and I and a stranger attempted to loosely count the geese as they took off from the pond to spend the nights in the farm fields, we stopped at 800, the pond was still 1/4 full of geese, ducks and other waterfowl. they would all come up on the grass and lay down and we'd have to step around them. I loved it.

That quote is so true. I love the colors in your layout

I admit I was expecting a Greek garden or something. this garden is magnificent. What an experience you had back in '56 when you got to walk on the rocks. I love that they are trying to keep it pristine and preserved. Better that we can see it from a vehicle on from a path than not be able to see it at all. Mother Nature never gets it wrong (something I've said for a long time). Funn thing, I was reading an article on mushrooms and a researcher said a similar thing: Nature doesnt make mistakes.

Fabulous shot! Thanks for the settings. I've never tried shooting them before.

Ann, what a beautiful thing you are doing. Such a shame these cats have to end up in a life like that. thank goodness there is sanctuaries for them. Probably not enough though.

Michele, your words paint a beautiful image. It's sounds like a wonderful place to live. When I lived on the Westcoast (British Columbia) I lived on thoroughbred breeding farm and we were on zero avenue....that was a gravel road that separated US from CANADA. There is even a marker ( 3 foot high obilisk) that says USA on one side and CANADA on the other side. it's in the shallow ditch between the two roads that you can literally straddle (which i did) with your legs. One of my legs was illegally in the USA for the time it took to take the picture (less than 30 seconds).

Oh wow, that is so kind of you to open up your home to us. It's been years since I heard an owl. And never have I heard a Gret Horned Owl. It's official, we were just finishing up with outside and me preening about making sure the birds have perches near the new winter dust bathing area and just some perches (dead branches) in the garden area because it doesnt get as much snow up against the wall. There are a number of birds (and squirrels) that cling to the 60's glass/rock walls that were so popular back then (I find them rather lethal and unforgiving when you scrape yourself on them). So I added some natural perches too. Must be bugs on the wall as they are often picking at stuff and the flicker does that to the house walls, sounds like it's pile-driving his beak through the walls. And it just started to snow as I got my herbs put inside the garage. Winter is fast upon us. Your kind of noise is nice though. I love to hear you talk about farm life, it's really interesting.

You must have crows in the city! They are the best. Corvids are so much fun to watch. If you want an appreciation for your neighbourhood city crows just sign up for June Hunters Urban Nature Enthusiast blog. June lives in Vancouver, BC (Canada), right in the city and she will show you an appreciation for city nature that you didnt know what unfolding in front of you. I do know what you mean about the night sky. I live in this city for 3 years about 40+ years ago. And we could see the northern lights and tons of stars. Now I see only the very brightest few stars and would need to go pretty far out of the city to get a starry night sky. Sue is very lucky to have crisp beautiful skies as they are meant to be. I loved living on the farms (horses) that I did live on, even if it was close to the city. Where I live it's noisy, I hear the traffic 24/7. Winter is the worst as the city does it's snow clearning all night long. This is a small city and i hear snowplows scraping the roads and back up beeps. Not conducive to a good nights sleep. I'll join you and Sue in a quiet life of the farm.....or we just go visit Sue for a week or 2 or forever. 😋 How good are you at pitching a tent? I suck at it.

Dont you find it erie (sp?) when you dont hear the birds singing. When it's dead silent. It's neat but kind of apocalyptic feeling. During Covid when we had lock downs, my job continued and I'd drive to work and there would be no other cars at all some days and some of those days the birds too, were silent and it felt like some kind of post-apocalyptic world. I work at a noisy place so I do love when the world is silent....except nature, I like to hear leaves rustling, raindrops landing on a tin roof, birds etc. Yesterday some geese flew over...I heard them honking and went outside to see. As they past over my house they stopped honking and I could hear their wings, magical.. I miss that so much. My house in Chilliwack, BC was right on the flight path to the park the geese came to every day (a 10 min walk from the house).

I didnt know this, but yes, that makes sense. And I should know this as I'm in the scripting course. The take away, is set to default first, which is funny because if I use a photo editing type tool, the first thing I do is set it to default. Where is my mind this days? This to good to know because I was doing tutorials.

Thank you Carole. this is the first time I had a weird reaction like that. I will try the ambience too. Hopefully I'll find some time today to test it out. I need to get back to Scripting too, I took too many days off. It's best to keep at it, especially until it feels natural....hmmm....how many years will that be?😩

Oh my goodness, THANK YOU for your words. I'm learning a lot with my very inexpensive set up. I am happy to be back to my first creative passion. Learning to using lighting in the studio has been challenging but I tend to lose myself it it (in a good way, like you, when you are laying on the ground photographing insects). I have learned from looking at all styles of photography and there is such fabulous photography right here in the Campus that I'm always thinking, Wow, what a great shot, what a great angle, look at that light, etc. Your words mean a lot and make me feel inspired to keep learning.

I will try these suggestions. I looked at settings and wondered if I did something without knowing it (or had in the past). I didnt even realize I didnt have the right default numbers. Good idea of restoring to default after using it. I've only done that with the brush variance palette. Never thought to do that with the other settings, but sounds good standard practice to do that for other settings too.