Greetings from Nashville

I know what you're thinking. Nashville -- welcome to the south, the home of country and western music. True, true. But I'm not referring to that Nashville. We're visiting family in Indiana, not Tennessee. Yup, there's more than one Nashville.

This is a beautiful rural area heavily populated with wildlife. Every day we look into the backyard and see deer, sometimes several of them. A few days ago we quietly and slowly opened our bedroom window so I could quickly get some photos.

The deer sensed the window being opened and at first I thought we'd spooked them. But after pondering the situation for a moment, they went back to grazing. And eventually wandered off.

I tried the "palette knife" filter on this photo. I love how it gives a painterly impression without losing any of the realism.

Watch your step

Back in February, several of these jellyfish (Portuguese man o' war?) washed ashore in the Cocoa Beach area of Florida. Nasty if you step on one!

Test pattern

This is a test of our emergency broadcasting system. This is only a test. Do not adjust your sets. We will return to our regularly scheduled programming shortly.

Unpredictable art

For the past few days I have been thinking a lot about what I call "unpredictable art." Not art that shocks; I mean art that's unexpected. A bit of serendipity. And a bit of dumb luck too.

I love unpredictable art. It's such a pleasant surprise -- almost a reward for the times when nothing I try seems to work out the way I think it should. You can work away at something and just get frustrated, and then you find out something that you thought wouldn't work, by all rights shouldn't work, has turned out beyond your expectations.

Take this blackbird, for example. Last October, just a few days before we set sail on a cruise, I bought a new camera. Who buys a new camera just before a vacation? I do. So there I was, testing out a new camera as I also tried to take in the beautiful Caribbean island of St. Martin. I was not happy with the viewfinder and so was taking all my pictures using the LCD -- and if you have a digital camera you know how hard that can be when it's bright and sunny. As we wandered about Marigot, the capital of the French side, I spied the bird. Tried to use my viewfinder. Cursed. So I aimed the camera, zoomed in, hoped the automatic focus would do its thing, and took two pictures.

Much to my delight, both pictures turned out well. I have thoroughly enjoyed playing with both in Photoshop. And it also turned out that I somehow missed the crucial instruction in the camera's manual that you are supposed to focus the viewfinder according to your own eyesight using the small dial beside it. Ooops. The viewfinder has been peachy ever since.

Thus my love of unpredictable art. That's not the first time I have been surprised by a photograph or a collage, and it won't be the last time either. And I think that's great.

Saturday in the city

We typically are out and about on weekdays, not weekends. But today we needed to venture out to the local electronics store, so decided to also head uptown to try a bbq restaurant we read about in the local newspaper. But the traffic! Horrendous. How do people who work M-F 9-5 handle the weekend hustle and bustle?

But the trip was worth the traffic. Memphis Style Smokehouse gets top marks from us. We got to the restaurant at that awkward time you could call either a late lunch or early dinner. The place only had two other tables on the go, which I often take as a bad sign. But it was pouring rain as well as an odd time to be dining. We both had pulled pork sandwiches, which were tender and moist. Delicious! A side of baked beans were ordinary but were vastly improved with the addition of some of the barbecue sauce found on the table. The ribs I spied as they passed me on the way to another table looked (and smelled) divine. On the drive home we both agreed that we would definitely return. If you're anywhere near uptown Toronto, do check it out. Here's the link to the restaurant review that originally piqued my interest: http://www.thestar.com/living/Restaurants/article/339416

My relationship with Windows Vista is on an even keel. I'm getting quite used to the differences between it and XP. I've been spending more time playing in Photoshop and less time exploring my operating system. And that's a good thing.

I messed about with the gradient tool today. Who knew it produced so many different effects? I didn't. Here's just one of my experimentations.

My Life with Windows Vista, Chapter One

I can feel it in my bones. Windows Vista is going to be two steps forward/one step back for the next little while. Although to be fair, not all the hair-pulling is Vista's fault. Take Homestead's SiteBuilder software for example. I use it to design my web site. It used to be wonky and crashed all the time. But lately, it's worked just fine. Until yesterday, that is, when I discovered it just won't work right on this new computer. Installation was a chore, but at least I got that far. I haven't called Homestead's Help Desk yet, but their web site offered no clues, and the forums there are full of frustrated Vista users. Is it Vista's fault, or is Homestead way behind on updating the program? Given SiteBuilder's past history, I hesitate to place all the blame at Vista's feet.

On the plus side, I installed Photoshop (I currently use Elements 6, although I am contemplating the move up to CS3) this evening, and it seems to work fine. Fingers crossed on that one.

And after much cursing while mucking about in Windows Mail, I discovered I had made two typos and the reason it wouldn't work was totally my fault. My bad.

Spring is in the air

Ah, a beautiful day here in Toronto. The sunshine was strong; it was finally too warm for my leather jacket. I managed to take some pictures of the first flowers popping up in my front garden. I played around a little in Photoshop, the results of which you see here. I just love it when the crocus finally bloom!

All in all, a fun day ... lunch at Fabian's, a European bakery/cafe we sometimes visit. I tried the crepes -- new on the menu -- and had a piece of rum cake for dessert. Yum, yum, yum. We even bought a new computer. Yay! Ka-ching ka-ching though. I tried hard not to look at the bill. But it's a powerhouse. We decided last week that upgrading this old desktop was throwing good money after bad. So now I get the experience of Windows Vista. I confess, I'm hesitant. But the one good thing is that this new computer has Vista's Service Pack 1 pre-installed. Maybe I'm just being a bit of a dinosaur. Technology marches on whether we're ready or not.

Back to the blog

So, a year has past. I've been gone from this blog, but it has definitely not been forgotten. Lately, there's been a burning desire to get my web site updated, and get this blog up and running. I'd like to have a place to share -- ramblings, artwork, recipes even -- that's fast and easy to keep current. Like this photo of Terra I played with in Photoshop, trying out a brush I created from one of my doodles. I'm thinking that this blog is the way to go to accomplish all that.