Senecio macroglossus. HTH chris Here is a link that might be useful: Variegated German Ivy

Andrea, I shoot RAW exclusively now for the reasons you stated except occasionally flip it over to sports because it goes auto to burst (I think), and does only .jpg. I love Photoshop, has a very steep learning curve, waited years until I got a $299 upgrade with Elements to CS2. I don't just use it for my photographs, and I agree with you about some of the software that comes with cameras, read about Nikon's, refused to get in the camera wars, was really torn between Canon and Nikon, at the time I thought Canons had better noise reduction at the expense of IQ, understood that going in. I started just doing graphics learning all I could with PSP (quit upgrading at 5 because I didn't like some things), then bought Photo Impact (fun for awhile but a waste of money), but when I saw the power of PS, I was sold. I don't use all the features, no, don't jump on the upgrade bandwagon (lightbox is really cool, can't afford it), but I love their USM and ACR white balance corrections and several others such as highlight/shadows tool (because of the limited dynamic range with all digital cameras, may be better with the more expensive, super-high resolution ones), when I want to make them pop more. And a lot of it is strictly a matter of taste. There are some incredibly talented with PS; I'm not one of them. The actual conversion process doesn't take more than 30 seconds, and when I can, I batch convert using scripts. I know everything you said is true, especially you can use Nikon pics right out of the cam, sharp as a tack, same with some good P&S cameras. Have to watch oversharpening, too. For web viewing, people probably can't tell the difference about sharpening. I can see it, very occasionally I don't bother with it, depending, but do like to do my own cropping and straightening, can't stand really crooked photos unless for creative effect. Other software does that just as well. I highly respect your opinion, and it sounds like you are some kind of pro. I don't presume to know everything. Blowing blows more dust in than I get out sometimes, always do that first regardless, a couple tries, then test, but I have used the wet method only once, got it better, but just let the dustbunnies I missed be for now and try to be careful changing my lenses. The only people I'd really trust to clean my sensor filter, not the sensor on Canon, but extremely delicate, is Canon. Nobody on the Canon dslr forum I've read yet on dpreview for almost 5 years now sends theirs anywhere for sensor filter cleaning; they all clean them themselves, most very confidently (not me!) many, many use a wet method usually Copperhill or a pen. I used extra pure alcohol and qtips I got at the medical supply center, just a drop w/eyedropper. I first try the dry method with Walgreen's brand q-tips very gently. The camera store person told me some use plastic knives from McDonald's! Not for me! I don't really trust my local camera store or Best Buy technicians. With the camera store, last time I was in was tempted to butt in and tell the customer something I happened to know, while the salesman didn't seem to, held my peace. Had some photos and a painting scanned I wanted to retouch, state-of-the art, awful, ended up using my camera and tripod. The camera store wasn't set up to cater to dslr users, maybe they're more with it now. I hate cloning out dustbunnies once a bad one gets in there, most don't show at the sizes and resolution I use, but do clone quite a bit for other reasons and like the healing tool. Once a piece of fiber got in there, it drove me nuts, that I got out by blowing, need a better blower, the Hurricane one. Sorry for taking up so much "airtime". Sooner or later most dslr owners are going to have to choose how to deal with it. Then if I screw up, I screw up, and will pay the consequences. You HAVE to clean your lenses, even on P&S cameras, which I do as little as possible. I know Nikon has fine cameras and lenses; that is why the choice was so hard, and sometimes I still look back, but now I'm invested heavily in a few lenses not as many as some have, don't need them, but very expensive and wouldn't get near what I paid for them if I sold them, even though they are all in mint condition.

I made a Moon Garden 30+ years ago out of necessity! When I moved to Vermont and couldn't afford to live in town, I rented a barely winterized 'summer camp' in the Lake Champlain Islands. (Heat tape on the water supply. That was then, price-wise, sigh...) A great place to skinny-dip on sultry summer nights; my little dock was too far from the house for lights to reach. I planted lots of Dusty Miller and white Zinnias to line the path and everyone found their way safely. Wish I'd had a digital camera back then. Since that time, we're agreed that fragrance has more importance at night than during the day? Have y'all tried Mignonette? Annual, easy from seed, kinda ratty looking, but short. Easily tucked behind anything 8" tall and heavenly scented. ~Ana Who thinks luckygal captured sunset perfectly!

Glad you like these shots. It was a bit past prime time when I went out, so the Kindle Fire HDX used the flash. Sometimes it worked, other times the rendering was too cool. I was pleased overall though. I could upload direct from the garden to Flickr and when I came inside, just put together the thread. Gesila, I am in awe of what is happening to my hostas this spring. There is much humidity, much direct sunlight as I'm trying for more hours in the sun, but it is a tricky balance. The golds are the most amazing to me, nearly all of them hanging with the bright colors. If they get a lot of hours exposure to sun in the middle of the day, I water them. Like the ones against the deck and the house get full sun until about 1-2 pm, or they did--I moved them this morning, at 7am, humidity so high I was wet with sweat in five minutes. I am reworking both ends of the garden for hosta, almost have the south end set up. The north end will be raised a bit and then hosta moved into the spaces between blueberries, with a couple of big umbrellas for shade. Once the 10 foot high latticed screen/pergola is constructed around the end of June, I will have my potting operation located against that screen. It should give some shade from the summer sun I guess from 2 to 5 when it is awful....then the sun drops behind the tall pine trees across the street, and we begin to cool down. If you can cool down, that is! Luuk, I agree, Brenda's Beauty is amazing. Not sure of its heritage now, but the leaf shape is like Gold Standard. It came into its own this spring, has been lovely from the time it pipped. I work in the garden during the morning, and stop about this time of day. (2pm here now) and do my inside stuff. Then around sundown, or slightly after, I like to go to the garden with my camera. I see the solar lights (individual stakes not strings of lights) begin to flicker, like fireflies waking up testing their twinkles. It cools considerably after the watering and of course the sunset too. If we had an early dinner, I stay until the lightning bugs/fireflies start to twinkle. Some of the pictures I took were just blind luck. I could see nothing in the viewer, but I knew I was pointed in the right direction, and I held as still as I could. If the flash does not glare off a leaf, it works out fine. I did not take time to alter any of the photos, the ones I uploaded were hot off the camera. I can imagine that someone with a good camera and understanding of night photography could have some impressive photos at this time of day. The one I really was pleased with was the shot with Sagae in the foreground, the garden in the middle ground, and then like some old-fashioned sepia/monochrome lavender grainy photo, the Teahouse (my Irish cottage, actually is the inspiration) appears like a spectre in some old southern town that time forgot. My garden is many things, and like Ken says about gardening being an opportunity for adults to dig in the ground, it is also the time in life when I have the skills and the dreams to make it like the play houses and towns we'd build/create in the sandbox. No reason why we should not all make our gardens the idyllic dreamscape we admire. I'm going to recommend a book to you and also the gardens out in Bainbridge WA. Little and Lewis have moved to Mexico now, but their website is still up. I admire their concrete and hypertufa leaves and objects of art, as well as their garden. They used to come to GWeb also. I think they were on Martha Stewart as well. But, I digress. Take a look. There is even a recipe for their concrete somewhere online. (And note that I am not getting any of these posts in my email, although I had checked to do so.) Here is a link that might be useful: Little and Lewis garden INSPIRING