No Summer Flowers

Now that spring is fleeing, we returned one more time to the crocus lawn by the abandoned building. As we suspected, except for a feel rather bedraggled and droopy tulips, the spring bulbs are done. We wondered if summer flowers might emerge in due course, but it doesn't seem likely. Grass is already in the ascendancy in the flowerbed.

I don't think I have shown the  building this year, so here it is along with a lilac bush, which I think is the last blooming thing that we shall see there this year. Soon the lilacs will also fade away until next year, but if all goes well, we will visit the crocuses, squill, tulips and lilacs again next year,.

I included the lilacs in another photo, looking back to the former machine shop. You have see already this building this spring, but not from this direction.

We walked around back. This is what the little building looks like back there, assuming that you can spot it amidst the foliage.

At that point the river rages on the other side of me. I experimented with another GIF. I may be getting the hang of this GIF thing. I'll try not to overdo gifting you these GIFs but just include them occasionally.

Caturday 91: AI Reveals Kitty

Whatever one thinks of AI, it is here for better or worse. I have found it very helpful in some searches. It also assists me to so some things faster in photo editing — things that I could once do manually (or in theory I could) but I can do faster and better with AI. For example: if I want to brighten a person just a little, I can do it more efficiently with AI, which can select and mask the person, so that I can then do what I wish: ie brighten. While I, supposedly, could always do that before, selecting manually was both time-consuming but also not as accurate.

As is my wont, I got carried away with the background info in the first ↑ paragraph, so onto my little presentation for the day.

While I was lingering (not malingering) up in my den with my wonky back, Sue was attending to the planters — getting them ready for the bedding annuals that we shall soon purchase. She happened to look up into the tree where she spied a very pretty kittycat that had navigated itself to a spot where the young robins like to hang out.

Puss was partly hidden, and I wondered if AI might reveal him or her. I used the remove tool in Lightroom to get rid of the branch, and it filled in a good approximation of the rest of the cat.

I was happy with it but then thought that the new eye (left to us) could be better. I experimented with various fixes but eventually just cloned and flipped the right eye.

Trying to improve the little eye with my human brain and hands took much, much longer that it took AI to make the cat. I had to work through various processes until I eventually decided to simply clone and flip the right eye. 

The lesson, or one lesson, might be that humans and artificial intelligence work best together.

Happy Caturday! It's been awhile since Lacey left us, but we do remember.

Keyboarding in Seniordumb

In the past, I have noted and posted that I am seemingly unable to type the word, morning, correctly. It happens just about each and every time, but of course, I got it in the first try in this sentence. Of course I did. My attempted morning may, sometimes, be so off that I might flummox online spellcheck which cannot think of what in tarnation this poor fellow is trying to type.

There are other keyboarding issues. For one thing, I often get two consecutive letters in the wrong order. The word, from, is a good example. It usually comes out as form. Of course, I got also that correct this time, just when I am trying to make a point. Muts instead of must is another example. There are many more, but I am sure that you get the point.

Another common typo comes in consecutive words. Too often I put the space in the wrong place — lik ethis. It can be frustrating. 

In part, I blame my different keyboards. My current computer keyboard is not the standard PC layout: more like a hybrid Apple keyboard. Although I've been using it for almost two years, I still reach wrongly for those darn cursor keys. They are just off a little bit form (you see, I just did it again and not on purpose) the standard layout. I too often hit the down arrow when I want the left arrow and so on and so forth.

It doesn't help that my tablet keyboard is yet another creature entirely. So where does muscle and brain memory come into play?

I have thought of giving up this computer keyboard and purchasing a new standard Windows one, but that seems rather frivolous. This was supposed to be my ultimate keyboard because it even lights up. But then there is also that slightly off and provoking CAPLOCKS thing. Oops.

Although I like to blame the keyboard, there are brian (oops again, I mean brain) issues too. I just had to fix an already posted blog in which I called a plant, St Anne's Lace when it should have been Queen Anne's Lace. I had proofread that peice (piece) too. My only defence is that there is a reel called St Anne's. It's a fiddle classic.

I love the tune and could more or less (emphasis on less) play it at one time but probably definitely not at that speed.

It Hit Me

They hit me unexpectedly: the feels, I mean.

Danica is preparing to move into her own room in a townhouse in Ottawa with three other girls for her second year of university. She commuted during her freshman year, but since her car has been demolished, she has no alternative but to live close to the university. This really had been her plan all along, but there is no alternative now.

You know a milestone event is coming, but sometimes the reality just hits you out of the blue. The fact of the matter is that Danica will be leaving home.

The reality whammed me right between my metaphorical eyes. which I confess leaked, just a little. When the younguns leave, they leave, and nothing will ever be quite the same.

When Shauna left all those decades ago, it hit me more suddenly and even harder than this at the very last minute. We had taken her to get her room set up on the previous day and then brought her back home. Her friend pulled up in the driveway to take her away from home on the next morning. Suddenly, I was sobbing.

My psyche was better prepared for the second child to leave. I knew what to expect, and I dealt with it much better.

But now, Danica, my first grandchild, will be going: not until August and not far, but she will be leaving home, and nothing will ever be quite the same.

It's not the final step of her growing and going, but it is a seminal one. 

Orphan Photos

On rare 😁 occasions, I take snapshots when I am out and about. Sometimes, I don't get around to posting them because they didn't fit my musing at the time. I think these random orphans deserve their day in the sun.

This is the back of an original log house that now serves as a home for the chamber of commence. When we go downtown, we usually park behind it. Every now and then I take another photo even though I have shot the cabin many times before. I like the textures.

Abstract reflections at Riverside Park.

The sun caught a spent Queen Anne's Lace from last year. I thought it was worth a click.

Sue sitting on bench along the trial while I hunted for blossoms to photograph.

After I joined Sue on the bench, I saw that a couple was approaching with their dogs. I held the phone on my lap and waited for them to walk into the frame. I was rewarded with four smiling faces and also received some sloppy wet licks. I like this candid shot very much.

I have more orphan photos, some of which go back a little farther in time. We shall see what we shall see.

Ponds

The pond in the neighbourhood park does not usually teem with life. Why would it with a river just on the other side?

But the heron was there for our first sighting of the year. It was at a distance, but I zoomed the phone and managed to capture something.

I swear that we were being polite and considerate, but it flew off anyway.

A little later we saw a pair of mallards swimming by the reeds. Cute, eh?

Speaking of ponds, we came across another one near the lilacs last week, with a cute, little cottage on the edge. It's a very marshy area, so it would be mosquito and blackfly heaven hell in there. In fact, the blackflies just came out to harass us on the weekend. We live in town, so they are not too bad here, but they will be brutal in the countryside right about now.

Just to see what would happen, I asked Gemini to render it as an impressionistic painting.

Gemini gave me a small, low res image. I expect that the paid version would be of higher res. I think it is more interesting than the actual photo in this instance, but neither version is zackly a stunnah. The light was a little too stark on that bright day, but it will have to do because I don't plan on returning for a good light picture.

Portrait Mode at D&D

On a chilly and rainy Sunday, we drove the very short distance to Dark & Deadly where Sue used her gift card for free drinks. Grampa thanks Danica for Sue's Mother's Day gift. :)

For the first time, on this particular day, the coffee was poured for us and served in real mugs. I think they were poured because our order required an infusion of chocolate. 

Speaking of mugs, I couldn't help but play with the iPhone. Even though the shots were of mugs and not a person, I nevertheless, decided to use portrait mode to see how they would turn out. We can access interesting special light modes that way.

There was a new greeter whom I could see perfectly from my seat next to the door. I took three different photos using different light modes and combined them later.

While I wanted to show the three versions next to one another for comparison purposes, the one on white just didn't fit. So . . . 

Finally, I thought the colour version needed to be featured.

We can do interesting lighting with the iPhone that we cannot do with a camera, or not without a  lot of time and equipment.