Category: Life

Random posts that have to do with my life in general. Many of these posts were written when I lived in New Hampshire.

Cats and Winter Don’t Mix

cat in christmas tree
Skittle Enjoying the Tree

The days are filled with bored house cats chasing each other and fighting. The nights bring scampering and sliding through the halls chasing mice. Winter is here! With snow and cold, my two cats don’t go outside much anymore. Skittle loves to roll in the sand all summer, but now she must be wondering how all that white stuff got here and where did her sand go? She has to find something else to occupy her tiny brain, and that something usually includes disturbing me.

When I’m trying to work, she is walking across the desk trying to mess up my typing. I have tape on a nearby windowsill trying to keep out the cold – and she eats it. This year I have an added sideshow with my daughter and her cat living here too. My cats don’t like her old man cat, which is added entertainment. One hisses, one growls, pounce, bat and off they go.

We have the big, artificial Christmas tree set up, but this year it has no lights or decorations. Last year I discovered that it was useless to try and have a nice looking tree. I only set it up this year because the kids wanted to, but it doesn’t contain a single ornament. Before we even finished putting it together, Skittle was racing up the branches with a wild look in her eyes.

I am writing this at 3am because they woke me up chasing a mouse.  I’ll bet you are thinking, “Hey, at least they are good for catching mice.”  Not quite. They run, bang into things and have fun for about 10 minutes – long enough for me to be up and wide awake wondering where the heck that mouse is going- and then they lose the mouse. Lucky for me I ordered new mouse traps last week and they will arrive tomorrow. But I’ll probably be asleep when they arrive.

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How To Remove Unwanted Background Clutter From Your Pictures

blue and white bearded iris
Original Iris Picture

Image Compare: Top right – garden hose, now removed in image below.

blue iris growing in the garden
Iris #2

Can you see a difference in these pictures? There is unwanted clutter in the first one.  The photo at the top has a garden hose on the right side of the photo, but I have removed the hose using the “clone stamp” and the results is seen in the bottom photo.

After photographing this flower I wanted to use the best pictures to make products for my online shop, but if I used this good photo of the flowers, there is a piece of an unsightly garden hose in the background.

Fortunately I have learned how to remove unwanted stuff from my photos. With a little patience, I can usually get it to look okay. If you are interested in how I removed the garden hose from my photo, read a page I wrote at Wizzley to explain ♥ how to use the clone stamp in a free graphics program called paint(dot)net.

And if you want to ♥ remove the entire background, for a transparent image, I can tell you how to do that too.  I have to do that for many of the designs I make and sell in my stores.

My Latests Posts

Is It Worth It To Blog?

Way back when I began writing this blog I lived in New Hampshire. I was new to blogging and I understand why I wondered if it was worth the effort.

I loved living in New Hampshire, but I haven’t had good fortune in this life. Instead of being able to stay where I love and putting down roots, I’ve done a lot of losing (things) and moving (so much moving). It’s understandable that my writing was sometimes depressing, especially when it seemed no one was reading anything I wrote.

My comment to this: Blogging is worth it if you enjoy doing it. Don’t pay attention to the stats too much because everything you do online takes time to pay off. In the meantime, become a better writer. Make more links – within the blog and outbound. Don’t write because you feel you have to, write when an idea pops into your head and you need to write it down.

Now, I am re-reading this post and am answering myself! Just for fun. Life is not much better (but it’s a little better in some ways) and one thing I have learned is that acceptance is very helpful. Whether or not the future (if I dare look) holds hope … or nothing good at all, I keep on breathing and therefore I must keep on going. There is no point in feeling lousy and depressed. Let those days slide on by. Onward! There is no other choice.

Responding to Myself

The “Old Me” is the original post.

Old me: Quite often when I check the blog stats I get a bit depressed. Gardening blogs are numerous. So many of us love to garden and share our backyard adventures, but at the same time gardeners know everything other gardeners know – don’t they?

New Me: Well, not always. And as a gardener, I like to see what other people are growing and doing in their yards. It’s a good way to find help (if needed) or maybe try growing something new.

tulips and forsythia
This used to be my yard! Short-lived fun.

Old Me: This blog began as a hydrangea themed blog. The only trouble is, I have hydrangeas growing in my yard for about 6 months and flowering for about three. So what to write about the rest of the time?

New Me: I think I eventually figured this out because I turned the blog into a general gardening blog. It’s a good thing too because I had to move away and go back to Florida. All my New Hampshire gardening information was suddenly irrelevant! So the blog changed, there was no choice. Grow, change, accept.

Old Me: I write this blog because I love to dig in the dirt. My grandfather did it, my father did it, and so do I. I have the chance to share what I love to do with others from around the world, even if visitor numbers are small. So it’s worth it to blog and share my photos as I plant and harvest. The stats seem to say “you are failing at this”, but I’ve decided I won’t pay attention to that. The outdoors is calling and I’m taking my camera (right after it stops raining).

New Me: Now I have an i-phone and that makes photo taking and sharing sooooo much easier!

The First of June, Weekend Gardening in The Heat

flowers zucchini
Flowering Zucchini

This is a picture of one of my zucchini plants from last years growing season.

This weekend I plan to get my zucchini planted along with the tomatoes and basil. The little pots are now a tight fit for my growing tomato seedlings and they are ready to spread out.  If I can get my big, fabric bag filled with good dirt, I will have extra space to plant the cukes and herbs too. Lack of sunny areas is my biggest problem.

First I need to order more dirt, which I will do today. This weekend will be hot, so I’ll have to get out early and then again later in the day. I think the black flies are dwindling – hooray! So I won’t have them to run me off.

I’m used to working outdoors in the heat. In Florida I had to parse my gardening time into 10 minute increments. I’d dig and weed until I had to go jump in the pool, then go back and do some more. I can certainly work in the New England heat.  But the trick to gardening in hot weather is to take it slow and cool off every now and then.  And drink lots of water – until 4pm – then switch to beer!
So my weekend gardening plans are to move dirt, plant and water. Then sit back and watch it grow!  I can almost taste those tomatoes.

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Viewing Winter’s Damage and Marks of The Deer

tree bark
Those Pesky Deer

I have ADD when it comes to Spring clean up.   Yesterday I started raking the yard, then I as I was cleaning the garage, I found the and there was wood to move.  and before I knew it I had seven projects going at once.  There is just so much to do when you first get those sunny, warm days after months of nothing but white out the window.

I only moved into this house less than two years ago, so I’ve only had one full summer here to work on the planting.  As I stroll from each garden area to the next I am reminded of how much I have already accomplished in this short amount of time, but I’m also aware of how much there is still to do. I don’t believe Continue reading “Viewing Winter’s Damage and Marks of The Deer”

I’m Not a Big Fan of Springtime

Garden with some tulips and narcissus
Garden with some tulips and narcissus (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

I am not a big fan of Spring. When I lived in Florida our “spring” was one of the best times of year. In Florida, “Spring” is really not much different than any other time of year, it’s just not as hot as summer. We knew that the heat was coming back again shortly, so we relished the last of the nicer weather while we could.
Now that I live in the northeast, I find Springtime to be one of the most dismal times of the year. Continue reading “I’m Not a Big Fan of Springtime”