Other Deck Plants

 I didn't show all the deck pots last time.  I have others that were "holding places" of perennials and self-sowers that I wanted to nurture for more permanent planting next year.

They don't look like much now, but they promise to be good additions to the meadow bed next year.  

The meadow bed has been a challenge.  Grasses grow large, but meadow flowers grow slowly.  I thing I hand to get in carefully from the edges and prune (or at least cut) the grasses.  As I understand it, meadow flowers can overcome grasses once established, but it takes a few years of help.  

On the plains, they did that themselves naturally.  Here, they have more trouble.  Grasses love this region!  I found a few grasses growing in spaces between the deck boards where a few leaves decomposed and gave them a place to start!  How grass seeds get up to the deck, I will know.

I have had a few meadow flowers grow and bloom.  They aren't impressive individually, but if I can keep some alive among the grass for a couple years while they mature, theyy will shade out the grass.  Most are 2-5' tall when a few years old and will shade out the grass (or I think) grow up faster and not be shaded by grass.

I get a few nice surprises.  Some few have overcome the grasses.

I know it is a deliberate planting, since there is a landscaping flag next to it.  But I don't want to step near it lest I step on another (slower one) that is struggling to establish itself and grow.

There have been a few blooms earlier.  One is like a black-eye daisy, but the leaves are a little different, and it flowered way earlier.

The coneflower was nice.  It's not one of mine from the other parts of the yard.  The center is much redder.  

So there is some progress.  But it sure is going to take a while.  I have 18 meadow flowers planted in a 4x8' framed bed just to help them grow stronger without grass competition.  Some show growth above ground, some don't at first.  

But I've learned enough about some of them to understand that some will grow and some won't.  Establishing a meadow bed is not a cheap or easy "hobby"...  Still, I really want one.

9-11

 I do not forget...

New Camera And Deck Pots

Well, I finally started using the new camera and took some pics of the deck pots...

I went big on Balsams and Coleus this year.  Grew the Balsams from seeds and found really good cheap Coleus at Walmart.  And there are a few Marigolds in there, too.

I also bought some small cheap orange Mums at Walmart for the front steps around Halloween, but I'll wait until they grow bigger...

The new camera gets the colors right.  Yay!  😀

Newer Camera

I bought a cheap camera 2 months ago and finally got around to trying to use it.  It was for "children and seniors".  Since the only real use I have for one is blogging and email pics, I thought that would be fine.  It isn't.   And it's too late to return it.

The buttons are monochromatic metal grey.  I can't distinguish the buttons even with my reading glasses.  It has few controls.  I took pics and couldn't upload any.  So I went back to the manual.  Apparently, on this one, you have to format the memory card.  So all the pictures I took with it were never saved!  The zoom function is display-controlled and that is a real pain.  And it allows for several shots real fast, but the control is hard to get at.  

So I did that and took some test pics.  They show up on the camera display and I can cycle through them.  But they won't upload to the computer iPhoto app.  So back to the manual.  It says "connect the provided cable, upload the pictures".  Wow, that was a lot of help.  😏.   I gave up on it.  A real loser of a camera!  Well, it was only $50...  

I'm used to researching products.  So I know that price isn't always the best determinant of quality and ease of use.  But in this case it sure was.  $50 gets you a very bad camera!

I'll give it to a neighbor kid.  They will have it working fine in a day, I'm sure.  😁

So I bought a new camera.  The same model I had.  The problem with the previous one was that it started favoring orange in indoor pics and I think the stabilization was failing.  I tried to fix that in processing in iPhoto by adjusting color adjustment with blue and other hues, but I don't seem to have a talent for that.  I routinely adjust light and color levels, and I increase "definition" in all pics, but the "hues" thing escapes me.

But I liked the old camera otherwise.  The buttons are black with white cut-ins.  I don't need many controls, but it has the ones I need (I'm not trying to do calendar-quality pictures here).  So I went with the same one I was familiar with.  At my age, "familiar" is a good thing...

It didn't take long to go through the settings.  Date and time didn't want to save because I couldn't navigate to the save function a few times but finally managed it.  I took a few test pics, but it it is late and I'll try processing those tomorrow.  But I expect it will work fine.  After all, it is the same model as the old one.

Sometimes I buy "best" and it is usually worth it (but sometimes not).  Sometimes I buy "average" and it works well enough.  I've never bought "cheap" and enjoyed the results.  I learn from that for a few years, but then finally something cheap looks too tempting and I try it.  😞

So anyway, hoping that future pictures on the blogs show up better.

Uh Oh! And More Saplings

 Felt a hair move on my wrist.  Black spot.  Then it jumped away.  Danm, a flea!  Not after me, but it means it is time to change the 8-month flea collars again.  I thought they were good for another month, but I suppose their effectiveness diminishes toward the end.  

Brought a trailerload of cut saplings to the Mulch Center, but there are many more to go.  I cut down a dozen but haven't dragged them to the trailer yet.  My neighbors are probably tired of seeing the trailer full of them.  So I'll leave them in the back yard until I have a full load.

Need to get the brush-mower fixed.  I left gas in it 2 years ago and I can't start it.  Thought I had drained the gas then but I didn't.  I tried to clean the gas lines, but gas engines aren't my best skill.  On a scale of 10; maybe a 2.

My eyeglasses went weird lately.  One lens keeps dropping out.  I keep screwing the tiny screw tight, but it won't stay tight.  I need to dab it with a toothpick drop of cement.  But to see it well enough enough I need the funny on-head magnifier and I can't seem to find it right now.   

And the frame suddenly didn't sit on my ears properly.  I had do to twist the nose rests, bend the ear holders, even twist the frame a bit.  Why it changed, I haven't a clue.  It's not like I sat on them or something.

Well, I need new ones anyway.  A weird thing (to me) is that my vision is actually getting more normal.  I've lived most of my life far-sighted.  Could see a hummingbird 150' away but couldn't focus on a book without reading glasses.  

Now I actually need less close up help.  I can still see the hummers but can't see the colors well enough to tell males from females.  A few more years and I will probably see the car dashboard better!  

Maybe I'll die with 20/20 vision, LOL!

Time For A New Keyboard

The keyboard is failing.  A few months ago, it started doubling my "h" key.  A couple of weeks ago, the "y" key.  Now it is doubling some numbers.  GRRR!

Well, I type a bit hard, so I shouldn't be surprised.   I hunt&peck (but rather well after all these years).  In fact, I don't even have to look to type some common short words.  But I do beat on a keyboard.  

And it is probably time anyway.  Some of the keyboard letters barely show the letter anymore, LOL!  I've worn it out.  I suppose replacing a keyboard once a year isn't the worst thing to have to do.

Actually the "daskeyboard" (brand name) has done pretty well.  Some others have lasted only half as long.    

I have another problem.  The Mac Mini has limited ports.  The monitor, mouse, and printer fill them.  I bought a multi-port base that fits under the Mac Mini and provides 4 more (but 1 is used to connect to the Mac Mini.  I bought another aftermarket multiport for additional ports, but even that of course uses 1 to connect.  So 4 ports per device actually means "3 and 3 and 3".  😒

I have 2 cameras (temporarily) with individual cables, an external hard drive (for backups).  And the keyboard has 2 port inputs (for reasons I do not understand).  And I'm still running out of available ports, LOL! 

New Camera

 My old digital camera got to the failure point.  It seriously favored making everything very orange.  But I only use a camera for the Mark's Mews and Cavebear blogs.  And I reduce the pics to about 300 KB anyway.  That's because I keep them on my hard drive.

So I bought a really cheap one that does flash on or off and outside shots.  I have to laugh; even that cheap one will take 30MB pics and has a serious zoom lens.  But I don't need that.  I do like the promise of improved stabilization (I have shaky hands sometimes).

But the battery died and I needed a usb cord (instead of a separate charger).  I had plenty of those of various connections) laying around so I grabbed one that fit.  

The battery wouldn't charge!  I tried a wall outlet using the provided charger.  I tried direct charging from the laptop and the desktop.  No luck "battery low"...  And I was ticked off that the cable kept coming loose when I checked the camera.

Read the manual once, read the manual twice, read the manual 3 times!  They mentioned "the cable that came with the camera".  Well of course!  Wait, I was using one I had sitting around...  Well guess what?  I thought cables were designed so no cable could fit in the wrong port.  Yeah there is.  

I don't know the identification, but there is at least one that fits easily into a wrong port.  It is smaller but fits.  So it was a "duh" moment.  It kept coming loose because it wasn't the right one!  Searching around the loose cable box, I found the right one.  Charged up the battery in 3 hours.  

I am so stupid sometimes...

Now I can use it and learn to download pics to iPhotos.  The camera display suggests the pic are true to color.  I'll set the camera to the lowest resolution it allows (about 12MB I think) which is way more than I have any use for.  

I still have some pics on the old camera that I will process.  It does natural light outdoor pics well.  But I will retire it after that.  Assuming the new camera pics process well.  I like to adjust the "definition" high, adjust the light level up or down, and straighten and crop the pics.  

But maybe the pics on both blogs will start to look better.  I'll like that and so will you. 

Yardwork

I have too many unwanted sapling trees and too many weeds.  And I have invasive periwinkle vines, wild blackberries, English Ivy, and Poison Ivy.  So I decided that yesterday would be a good day to use the hedge trimmer to go around cutting some of the smaller stuff with the hedge trimmer so that I could get at the saplings with the pruning blade of the Saws-All.  

I had the cordless hedge trimmer battery all charged up, so I expected an hour's worth of clearing small stuff.  So, of course, it immediately stopped working.  Dead.  Fini.  Kaput!

Tried the charger again, but it said the battery was charged.  So it was the trimmer itself that had failed.  Well, it is like 20 years old.  And the cutters are probably dulled.  So time to buy a new one!

Naturally, I went to Consumer Reports website.  I get the monthly print issue, but subscribe online too.  I found several top-rated models there and like 3 of them for the combination of power, battery time, and safety.  Well, one thing that sometimes annoys me about Consumer Reports is that you can never find the exact model they recommend anywhere.

Amazon never seems to offer them and they are usually not available at Home Depot or Lowe's.  I don't entirely blame Consumer Reports.  By the time they test something and get the results printed or websited, the manufactures have created a dozen new slightly different models.  

I'm not into conspiracy theories, but sometimes I suspect that any model that Consumer Reports gives a poor rating gets renumbered to confuse buyers...  *sigh*

So I spent 3 hours today (when I was hoping to work in the yard) trying to find the best 3 models of hedge trimmers, in stock, at any place I recognized as legitimate and would deliver in less than a week without ridiculous shipping chargers.  

An aside:  I once almost placed an order for a small product and barely noticed a $100 shipping charge, LOL!  

So after going back and forth between various sites selling various CR recommended models, I finally ordered one.  It will arrive in 4-6 days.  I'll be happy to receive it.  Maybe I can push in and cut down the unwanted saplings in the meantime.  

Unwanted Tree Saplings And Garden

I'm not as young as I used to be.  And parts of me don't work as well as they used to, either.  Between falling off the extension ladder and general aging problems with both knees, I get calf, thigh and rib cramps and finger clenches.  And sometimes lower back stiffness.  

Getting old isn't for sissies (as Mom often said).  So, these days I do what I can.  Aspercreme and Ibuprophen help.  As does sitting in the tub with hot shower water falling on me in the morning (to wake me up and get me more mobile).  I wish I was 60 again, LOL!

But I have gotten more active again lately.  I caught up on the veggie garden, though it has less than I used to grow.   Most of the crops I used to grow are now easy to find at the grocery store and at a decent price.  But there are still some things I can't get.  So I focus on growing them.

Heirloom tomatoes are still at the top of my list.  The grocery store does sell them (at $5 a pound) but the fools chill them for storage-life, and that kills the enzymes that produce the great flavor.  So buying those is pointless.  I have 14 heirloom tomatoes growing well.  They are behind schedule, but catching up rapidly in this warm weather and rain every few days.

Next is Italian flat beans.  I've never seen any in the grocery store or even a local farmer's market.  They have a better "deeper" taste than regular green beans.  I have 20 plants of those starting to climb the trellis.  I can find them canned sometimes, but they are very soft and usually highly-seasoned.

It is time to plant some Fall crops.  My favorite Spring and Fall crop is Snow Peas.  I've never seen those at the grocery store either.

I have trays of lettuces, celery, and bok choy on the deck.  You've never seen real red lettuce unless you grow it yourself.  And I grow red romaine lettuce too.  My green leaf lettuce is nearly lime-colored.  Makes an appealing salad.  

I grow bok choy and celery for the leaves (I don't get actual "stalks).  The bok choy leaves are great for making egg rolls.  They preventing the raw veggies inside from poking through the wrappers and add flavor.  Celery leaves are strong-tasting and add some "bite" to my salads.

But those are all planted now.

GOT to cut down all the unwanted saplings this weekend!  Job #1 now that the veggies (and flowers) are all planted.

Nothing much to see there yet, but "soon"...

New Camera

So seeing that the old camera was getting colors a bit "orangey" and "too dark" on the low-light setting but "too bright and uneven" on flash, I bought a new one in May.  And then just let it sit for 2 months...

So I decided to set it up yesterday.  Reconsidering, I shouldn't have chosen it.  I was looking for a simple camera and this one said "for kids and seniors" and it was cheap.  Since I only use a camera for blog pics, that sounded fine.  I probably should have read the specifications more carefully.

There are some oddities about it.  No "low-light" setting.  No semi-click while it focuses.  And the buttons are annoyingly monochrome silver, which makes them difficult to read.  

It takes surprisingly large pictures.  The only choices are 24/36/44 MB.  I have no use for that. I reduce everything to 200-300 KB anyway.

But all that may not matter.  I took a few test pictures around the house and outside.  I haven't tried to process any yet (I don't want 2 different series of sequentially-numbered pics in my folders).  The camera display does show them as accurate in color and single-click works (the pics show as clear.  

I'll take pictures of identical scenes with both cameras and compare them.  Flash and low-light using the old one and normal (the only choice) with the new one.  If the new one results in better pics than the old one I will start using that one.  

I save originals at full size and processed ones at 200-300 (see above).  But I'm sure not going to save originals at 24 MB!  So I would have to reduce the size of the originals too.  Actually, I'm not sure why I save originals.  I suppose because I have the space to do it.  I may have to rethink that.  

I think the new camera will produce better pictures.  We'll see...