Judy...
I suggest taking lots of digitals. I just kept a file on my desktop with sub files in it. I'd just d/l various photos into the files. Paint...shutters... window boxes.....planting.......fence...deck...etc. Then...when it came time to post is was so easy... I just plucked favorite photos from the various phases. I love going back and looking at the progress. I keeps me revved up to do more.
Good luck...and PLEASE POST AWAY! Love x 100 photos!
Cottage garden or not?
Highmtn,
One of my birthday gifts to myself this year was a Canon digital camera. It's not a big fancy, schmancy thing but it does take good pictures. I had no idea when I bought the smaller memory card, that I'd use it so much. Next time I'll get the larger one. I even use the camera instead of my old scanner (still hooked up to my old, outdated computer with no updated software available) and take pictures of pictures. I have several albums on Facebook and have done what you do, kept folders on my desktop with different categories of photos. When I need one, they're all right there.
I had posted photos of my home and its evolution from a tract house to a country cottage on another forum (Beginning Landscaping) where we were discussing using broken up concrete as "rocks" to make flower and veggie beds. I have an abundant "rock pile," the result of breaking up part of a driveway and a section of old sidewalk. I am still a newbie to gardening and am just now starting on landscaping and making real flower beds. I only have two small ones so far in front of my porch, enclosed with a low picket fence. Have tried several plants there but am not satisfied with it. I hope you guys on the forums can help.
I need to duplicate a few more photos of the progression in construction and I'll be ready to put it together here. I've been going through old photos for the past week trying to choose the ones to use. Believe me ... you will probably get tired of seeing them before I'm done. :-)
Judy
Judy, I have a Canon SD1000 and it's great with the exception of the flash blowing out right after 1 year warranty is up. It still works, just can't take photo at night. I need to get a new camera but don't know what to get next. I love all the features on my Canon.
Lili,
I have a Canon Power Shot A480 with 3.3x zoom and 10.0 mega pixels (whatever the heck that means). I got it at Best Buy. I told them I needed to take high resolution pictures and didn't want anything really fancy because I was a beginner with digital photography. This is the lower priced of two they recommended. It really takes great pics with a lot of detail, even on the zoom. Here's one I took of a rose in the early morning ... you can even see a tiny spiderweb ... I was amazed
Lili,If you are going to buy a new digital camera ,purchase the warranty ,best buy has 2 options,put it this way ,Iam on camera 3,1st camera just stopped working,soo sad loved that one,2nd a HUGE LEMMON,Iam on camera 3 now,I bought the better warranty 40 $ more ,if i drop it ,its covered too.This the only piece of electronics I will purchase a 4 yr warranty on, if you like the canon buy another one with warranty,someone told me if a camera is going to fail it will usually do so between the 1st and 2nd yr of use. Ive had my new camera almost a yr now,and use the stuff out of it.
Hugger,
I use the "stuff" out of mine too, even though I had no idea I would use it so much. I was a newspaper reporter for years and lugged my old Canon AE1 around wherever I went. I was still using it, just scanning the photos after I took them (and had them developed). The digital camera makes it so easy ... just plug the cable into the computer, download the photos and you're done! This little thing is so good it even takes amazing photos at night with the flash ... I had no idea its flash was so powerful. This was taken at 2 a.m. when I was out watering (remember our weird watering times, Lili? ... 10 p.m. to 10 a.m.?) and the moon came up over the top of the house. I ran to get my camera and ended up taking more than just the moon. This is a shot of my front porch with just the porch light on (one of those new-fangled light bulbs). The rest was done by the flash. I couldn't believe it.
Judy,your house is adorable
Hugger,
You just make my heart sing! Thank you for the compliments. Adding the front porch is probably the best investment I've made.
Judy
Slow to catch this one, but YES YES YES...that porch added a ton of inviting country charm!! I want to come over to sit there and have a cup of coffee RIGHT THERE.... *s*
I bet you have a BLAST decorating that for the holidays. I can't wait to decorate my picket fence this Christmas. I have been collecting green garland for years. My old house in ID had a large deck railing and I did it up Currier and Ives style every Christmas. The holiday lights may steal the show at night, but my house stole the show during the DAY!
I draped garland from post to post. Put big (inexpensive Dollar store red bows) on each post...and silk poinsettias in the window boxes. I'm gonna do that this year, and I'll post photos. For some reason I never took photos of that.
We expanded our porch 2 years ago, but it's NOTHING like yours! I have enjoyed decorating it for the seasons.
Judy, your porch and all the white wicker is just adorable! Highmtn, I think Judy's porch, being in the heart of the South, is the place to sip sweet tea or lemonade :-)
Love the porch with the fall decorations too!
highmtn
Love your Halloween decorations on the cute little porch. Look forward to seeing what you do with Christmas. Bet it's drop-dead gorgeous.
I didn't realize what a difference a porch makes until I added mine. You guys are all so kind with your comments, gemini_sage, hugger, all of you. The porch is where everybody eventually ends up when anyone comes to visit --- even at Christmas. Even though it's cold, they go out there to smoke, everybody else kinda follows and we have our after-dinner coffee there.
Unfortunately, every Christmas since I had the thing built, I've been down with one of those blasted health problems I mentioned and haven't felt like decorating. Had the last BC surgery this past April so hopefully I'm done. This year maybe I can do a little decorating.
Couldn't make up my mind whether to go with the traditional ladder-back rockers for the front porch or the wicker, but finally decided on the wicker and am glad I did. It's the "outdoor" kind and I just have to hose it off every spring. This is definitely a girl's house, isn't it? LOL. I am still struggling with what to do with those four beds in front of the porch (two up and two down). Maybe you guys will have some suggestions. Right now I have azaleas (hinos and encores ... very unhappy), two variegated gardenias (very slow growing and I don't like them at all ... neither has gotten big enough to bloom) two KO roses on each side (they're not as happy as they would be in full, roasting sun in the back), a baby blanket groundcover rose on each side (too moist and too shady for them but they try valiantly to bloom), and a pink perennial dianthus and two Mexican primroses on each side. The primrose is coming out as soon as I can make another place for it. It's popping up everywhere. Hate it ... except when it blooms in early spring. I didn't realize how much shade those beds got until this year. Have been filling in with annuals but they are puny too. The beds will definitely have to be re-thunk. There are actually two beds on each side ... a small raised bed next to the porch and a ground level larger bed next to the sidewalk. All are brick-lined and filled with at least 10-12 inches of a compost and topsoil mixture from Mulch & More.
You all just come on down and we'll sit on the porch, watch the "passing," and have a glass of iced tea ... with a fresh sprig of mint from the garden, of course. :-)
(The "passing" is what the old-timers used to call watching the people and buggies come and go on the road in front of the house. Of course, today, all you get is the toot of a horn and a fast wave. They're gone before you can figure out who it was!)
Judy
This message was edited Aug 19, 2009 2:49 PM