Dull Morning

On Monday morning, we both awoke bright and early to get to the neighbourhood park for an early photo. Sue thought she might catch some morning light for her daily photo: the prompt where she is to return to the same place on the 5th of each month.

The trouble is that the sun did not rise that morning (so to speak) which resulted in dreariness. Also, the pond was pretty doggone scummy. She usually just takes a photo of the scene, but since the scene was so poor on that morning, I suggested that she put herself into the picture to add interest.

She showed me the composition that she wanted. It took me several tries, but I still didn't quite get as much sky as she wished. As much as I tried, I don't think my photobrain would allow me to distort the scene like that. It's odd because I do distort quite deliberately sometimes. Perhaps I hadn't had enough sleep, for it had been a bit of a rough night.

Here's the shot, but don't let anyone tell you that the camera doesn't lie, for it wasn't that bright. In fact, this was after dulling it down for the straight phone version was even brighter.

Sue did play with various filters, just for fun.

It was such a dull day that I didn't bother to take a single picture with my own camera. It has been that kind of summer.

In Praise of Joe Pye

O Blogger! I was so pleased to be able to comment via my iPad but failed to notice that somemcomments were being posted anonymously. And then there are the blogs that don't permit anonymous comments; they require me to log in, but then I can't.

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Joe Pye (Eutrochium purpureum) is a common and largely unloved weed. "It is native to eastern and central North America, from Ontario east to New Hampshire and south as far as Florida, Louisiana, and Oklahoma." (Wikipedia)

Lucy Maud Montgomery seemed to to dislike Joe Pye very much in Anne of Green Gables,  for she called the nasty, mean girl Josie Pye. I like Joe well enough in the wild even though I didn't care for Josie in the book(s). However, as much as I like the plant in nature, I am amazed by the Joe Pye plant in our backyard.

Several years ago, we purchased a cultivar, and I am flabbergasted by it every year, for it grows from nothing to close to 10' tall out back. It’s size suits our backyard, which does not get a ton of tender loving care these days.

Our fence is ~8' tall, and look how Joe rises above it.

We are a little concerned, however, for once it blooms, I am used to seeing bees working it diligently. This year there is nothing. In fact, I am not seeing bees out front either in the echinacea, which they usually like. Fingers crossed: maybe the bees will come yet.

A closer look. Maybe I should take a proper macro and not just a phone shot, but I probably won't.

While this post is primarily about Joe Pye, I must say in passing that we also have flower pots in the backyard, Since it is hot back there with little shade, Sue has just stuck a few decorations in the pots this year. However, one pot has a beautiful volunteer petunia from last year's planting.

It always heartens me when volunteers pop up as they have done, here and there in our backyard, for several summers now.

But how fabulous is that fabulous Joe Pye‽

Changing Video Dimensions

Consider this a PSA for those who might want to upload a video from our computers directly into Blogger. Getting it uploaded is straightforward, but the video is rendered in small size. Read on if you want to viewers to see a larger version.

When we insert a video clip directly into Blogger it defaults to this ↓ size. (Note: I  am not referring to links to other platforms, such as YouTube, but videos that we upload directly from our computers into Blogger Also note, that you have seen this clip previously, so you don't need to rerun it although in is short.)

The default size can be changed to a larger size by switching from the Compose window to the HTML screen (the pencil with a down arrow at the top left on the tool bar). Then, you look for a code such as the one below. It will be in red. Look for the numbers of the height and width dimensions, which I have coloured in yellow and green for clarity.

<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><object class="BLOG_video_class" contentid="4c3f1414d128e95d" height="266" id="BLOG_video-4c3f1414d128e95d" width="320"></object></div>

We can then change the values as I have done below. I have increased both by half.

<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><object class="BLOG_video_class" contentid="4c3f1414d128e95d" height="399" id="BLOG_video-4c3f1414d128e95d" width="480"></object></div>

This is the result  and although I don't often insert videos into my posts, this is the size that I usually use.

However, in my recent Caturday post, I doubled both the height and width.

<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><object class="BLOG_video_class" contentid="4c3f1414d128e95d" height="524" id="BLOG_video-4c3f1414d128e95d" width="640"></object></div>

This was the result.

It works for me, but some bloggers have a very narrow text window, so enlarging the video by much wouldn't suit your templates, but if you do want to present your video clips larger than the default, you now know how to do it.

One caveat is that we cannot run the actual clip before we press publish; we have to publish the post first. Right now what I see in draft mode is what you see below (screen capture). I can see a proper image for the clip if I go to the Preview window, but I still cannot run it until I press Publish.

I just thought it was worth mentioning, just in case you don't know but might want to use it in the future. I think I made it sound more complicated than it is, but it is pretty easy, and it has always worked for me.

Blogger on the iPad . . . Working Somewhat Better

My iPad was looking different after some updates, so I thought that I would try blog-reading from it once again; it has been kerfluey for a long time.. I am pleased to say that, for the most part, it worked. Of the blogs that I accessed one day recently, I could only not comment on Furry Gnome's and Karen's blogs. Curiously, they are both located in my province, and Karen lives pretty close by. I also have some difficulty with a couple of Word Press blogs because I can's seem to recall my password, which is automatic on the computer. I should be able to rectify if I can only remember to look it up for my next blog reading session.

It is nice to be able to, once again, read from the comfort of my chair.

Continuing with this tidbits post when I have little to write . . .  I took this photo some time ago, stuck it in my Blogger folder, but never posted it. This seems like a good time to do it because I don't have much else to post. I took it with Bench Monday in mind; it's a Flickr theme.

I also found this in the same folder. Make of it what you will.

Caturday 66: Sabine the Gamer

You have seen Sabine playing on the iPad once before, but that was back in May and this is July, and I think this cutie is worthy of another Caturday post. 

Sha and the kids have been away this week, but we have not been the primary cat-carers this time. However, when we were asked to fill-in for awhile one day, we were glad to oblige.

I had hardly got settled when she saw my iPad. It wasn't even open, but she knew what it was and was quite insistent on playing her game — Mouse for Cats. Shauna has an iPad and says that Sabine plays it often. Despite clawing at the screen, she doesn't seem to scratch it. Thank goodness.

Sue and I both had our phones out. Sue just took pictures, but I also shot video. I hereby present a 13 second post of pure cat-cuteness.

The Reconstruction Movement Unmasked

When I was a good evangelical, Francis Schaeffer was a Christian thought leader. In the sixties or seventies, I read at least one of Schaeffer's books: True Spirituality, for sure. 

I lost track of him, but he became a key figure in the Reconstructionist movement to return Western Society to a more biblical orientation. His son, Frank Schaeffer, worked along with him and knows all about the movement and people in it.

Frank is appalled at how the movement has regressed into such a right-wing, anti-democratic belief system, and for what it is wroth, I am pretty well convinced that it is not exactly what his father, Francis Schaeffer, had in mind.

Frank exposes much of this Christian Nationalism in this video clip, and it is more extreme than one might think and, particularly, focuses on Mike Johnson.

It's scary stuff. He does not mention Project 2025 in the video, but that is the same thing as what he discusses here, written by the perpetrators themselves. They wrote most of it down, but seem to still hid the most extreme parts of their platform. As extreme as it seems, I don't think Schaeffer is a crackpot, and I think the 900 page document proves that.

Whatever your religious or political beliefs, I doubt that an Old Testament Theocracy is what people have in mind for the USA.  I know that we quickly move from blog post to blog post, or at least I tend to do this, but I think it is worth taking 19 minutes to watch this video.

Back to that Cottage

About a week ago, I posted two photos here (actually two variations of a single  photo)  of a dilapidating cottage. Since then, I haven't taken many other photos, so, in a manner of speaking, I returned to that cottage.

We didn't physically go back to the cottage, but I did go back to the other photos that I took on our visit. I was quite disappointed with those photos at first, particularly this first photo. It was in colour and was very drab.

With no new photography to develop, I went back to the RAW cottage photos, and I decided to process this ↑ one a bit. Of course the main thing was to convert it to mono and add a bit of contrast. In the end, I liked it better than what I posted here, just about a week ago. It got attention on Flickr, and as I write this, it has had almost 4000 views.

This next one isn't as good, but it is okay. We continue to be housebound in the heat, so I have been experimenting at the computer.

Last week I showed the whole dwelling, but I did take a different full photo too. In the previous post, someone suggested that the photo needed an ominous sky instead of a blank one, so made that adjustment. Does it look a bit creepy?

This nasty heat will be sticking both with us and to us (literally) for another three or four days. Previously, it has at least cooled down sufficiently at night to open the windows and get some relief, but we have recently been leaving the AC on (which it the title of this blog but with a different meaning) for much of the night. Poor Sue does not do well in the heat; she seems to experience it 10 degrees hotter than the average person, and that is closer to 20 degrees in Fahrenheit. You might think that I am exaggerating, but she really suffers in hot weather.

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And since posting the above, I have added one more variation of the previous photo, adding some weather elements for effect.