Ann Seeber

Trying out Bing Copilot's Designer mode, I created a birthday card for my grandson-in-law, Corey, who is married to Jackie, my zookeeper granddaughter. Corey is into horticulture in a big way. His gift to the attendees at their wedding was a small succulent in a pot to take home. Sticking with Anja's gnome theme, my efforts created this. Prompt -- A steampunk gnome in cheerful colors, his eyes hidden under his pointed cap, wishes Corey, 'HAPPY BIRTHDAY', the sun shines and there is an abundance of plants and flowers, signed Love, Nanny.

29 minutes ago, Anja Pelzer said:

I created this Gnome for @Michele with Bing Copilot Designer

 

@Anja Pelzer So how did you figure out a prompt for something this elaborate??? It is gorgeous!!

1 hour ago, Anja Pelzer said:

yes I did, here is the prompt - - You are my sunshine, my only sunshine You make me happy when skies are gray You'll never know dear, how much I love you Please don't take my sunshine away neo-impressionism expressionist style oil painting, smooth post-impressionist impasto acrylic painting, thick layers of colourful textured paint --   there are 4 pictures , this is one of them.

Anja, I tried it using your prompt and chose this one -- weee! This is fun!

32 minutes ago, Corrie Kinkel said:

Very nice background! Did you use Copilot in Bing? You must have given a very good prompt to get this result. I'll think I have to give it a try......

I agree that background is awesome!

2 hours ago, fiona cook said:

I am a bit late to join in with this but as I go walking a little bit I thought that I would photograph fields (various...wherever I am) throughout the year. One objective being to get a bit of variety somehow. I am not sure how to present them yet but just thought I's join in and can see some lovely images from you already.

Welcome, Fiona. I've been using Carole's script: cass-countingcards1-weeks. It will run a year's worth of P52 card layers, and you get to choose the font and font color. Be aware the font is just outlined, though you can change that later if you wish. 

E = Eel loach

The title font is Bauhaus, the art is all from a search by Google Images for the title "I Can See Clearly Now" by Johnny Nash - 1972. The sheet music was treated to the cass-curved image script. This song has a calypso feel to the back beat that has always made me smile. 

I found another layout I did for one of my newer Bettas. This is Comanche War Bonnet. I think this was the New Kid on the Block assigment from Boot Camp Day 2. I always had good results from this design. The background is a photo of my aquarium.

20 hours ago, Sharla said:

W = White Skirt Tetra 

Nice fish; I have a few now...

1 hour ago, Michele said:

Seahorse reproduction fascinates me. The females deposit their eggs into a pouch on the males' stomachs. The eggs are then fertilized in the pouch. A few weeks later the males give birth. 

 

Fascinating! Somehow, it makes me think of Debbie's first baby, Magic, who was born underwater in a hot tub! 😁 Northern California mothers were into weird techniques. 😉

On 7/3/2024 at 12:03 PM, Susan Ewart said:

Thank goodness for you and animal groups that take on educating people.

Thanks, Suz. As you know, I advocate for big and small wild cats and these ferals seem similar. I recall reading about the Dark Ages when the bubonic plague hit and it was blamed on the street cats. Little did they know the cats were killing the actual culprits, the rats that were arriving by ship. The plague got worse when the cat population was decimated by ignorance and fear. I get defensive about blaming cats for being cats. They were revered in Egypt in ancient times and their fortunes waned when religion used fear to control the populace. Cats seem to be the first victims of a conspiracy theory! 

28 minutes ago, Julie Magerka said:

Handsome fella!

For me he's in the category of "so ugly he's cute."

V = Vampire Pleco (Plecos are aquarium fish that stay at the bottom and clean for you)

11 minutes ago, Ann Seeber said:

I used a Quick Page from my stash but don't know where I got it from. Here's a thumbnail of the original. The name of it is QP-02

Julie, your seahorses are surely almost mythical and this beast is also, though more on the horror side, than sweet fantasy. GAIASIA was a giant, predatory salamander from the time before the dinosaurs roamed and the earth was one big soup with one continent. Hoping the text is readable in reduced form, I took a Quick Page and turned it into a layered layout using promoted selections. I had a blank brad template and added the dragonfly art to replace a ship under sail which would indicate human habitation. Information from Wikipedia.

1 hour ago, Cassel said:

Just to let everyone know, the pre-sale will start on July 9th, but I would like to TRY to get to #1 on Amazon, even if only for one day! To help out, I would ask anyone who wants to get the book to order it ONLY ON RELEASE DATE, which is July 16th!

The more sales/day will give more chances to reach #1. Sales during pre-sale counts, but would be spread over more days, so hold off until July 16th! 

Did you make significant changes to the proof copy that I have?

I was poking around to find any layouts I had done for my other Bettas. I found this Quick Page for my guy, Patriot, which is fitting for today, America's Independence Day, July 4.

P = Pump

1 hour ago, Anne Lamp said:

I am not surprised to see your Betta fish.  Do you still have one?  I had one well a few different ones in one of the two gallon tanks.  I did not have a lot of luck with them because I could not find a way to heat the small tank and I keep my house pretty cool in the winter.  I finally gave up on it because I didn't want to kill any more Bettas.

Anne, I had several over about a 2–3-year span and one way or another, through accident, ignorance or just bad luck, I lost them too soon, also. My granddaughter has had one for going on 5 years now and I don't know how she does it! It may be the genetics of the fish she bought compared to what is offered at my local Petco. 

1 hour ago, Sue Thomas said:

My goodness, there must be loads of them, if your crew is only a small one.   On average cats will kill over one hundred million  birds a year in Canada.  Domestic and feral cats aren't native to any ecosystem. Not only on birds but other native wildlife.  It has been estimated that cats in Australia kills an average of one million birds per day.  About  three hundred and seventy seven million per year. Same, for the UK.  The numbers are staggering world wide.  Although they make wonderful pets for some people, they threaten birds and other wildlife and disrupt ecosystems.  Rarely, I will get a stray tom  cat from the neighbours, as they will travel long distances.  I trap and dispose of them, cruel as that may sound to some.  At least numbers are trying to be controlled in your area.  It is a controversial issue.  Here is a shot of one of  my   Red winged Blackbird's (male) on a cattail.  I haven't noticed any fledgelings yet.

That's why, being a cat lover, I'm involved with TNR (Trap/Neuter/Return) to keep the feral population down. We're trying to avoid kill shelters so we set up a sanctuary for those ferals that can't be returned to the neighborhood or domesticated. We do foster all the kittens we rescue. My Brandy One is now in foster as she's too young to be spayed and returned. Meanwhile, I have Brandy Two who showed up for meals and will soon be trapped and sent to foster.

L = Lamprey Eel

Here's a tropical fish I had in my 5 gallon home aquarium 2 years ago. You can only house one Siamese Fighting Fish (Betta) at a time as they would tear each other apart. In this photo, he was expanding his body and flaring his gills out to meet the threat of my finger. LOL This little guy lost his life by jumping into the filter mechanism. They are very interesting and responsive pets, considering they are fish, and I became quite attached to all of them. RIP Wolfie. 😔

I took the opportunity to get out and clean off my front porch which was coated with straw from the cat cabin which I have now relocated to my patio. I brought the plant that I just acquired at the garden center, from the patio to brighten up the porch. The porch is where I've been feeding the community cats twice a day. You can see Brandy 2 in the lower left corner of this shot from my overhead porch-cam, thinking she can stalk the birds. They were having none of it! LOL

5 hours ago, Sue Thomas said:

Cool photo you took with your phone, better than I  can take. You must have a body of  water close by, as typically they like marshes, with cattails, sedges and bulrushes, nesting close to the ground. I'd be concerned for their safety from the ferel cats you feed.. They flock with the grackles during migration. 

They are very aware of threats and spook at everthing! We have cats and hawks galore and the ferals were here long before I was. There are several very large colonies in the neighborhood. My little crew of 7 or 8 is just a sampling. Here's an overhead porch-cam shot of Brandy on the lower far left trying to stalk birds. She's still too young to neuter and goes around chasing squirrels, birds and bugs but is only successful with bugs, so far! 😉 

I might as well post this for July 7 - Week 26. I saw this little girl near my patio and was impressed with the feather pattern and general attitude. Looked it up and discovered a juvenile female Red-Winged Blackbird. They DO have attitude and I have quite a few here at my feeders. The males clash with the Red-Bellied Woodpecker, who tends to think he alone owns the suet feeder. She stays mostly on the ground.