Full Moon ...

It was a full moon tonight, so Fernymoss decided he'd take a stab at getting some photos, since it was so bright outside. We haven't played around much with taking night shots (except the fireworks and that thunderstorm video), and obviously we don't have the hang of it yet! So, I apologize for the quality in advance, but knowing it was full moon should have tipped me off about undertaking any major projects! But no ... I had to go and try to get my new wireless network card in my old XP computer connected to the rest of the computers in the house ... bad decision! I just quit out of frustration a little bit ago, vowing to go out and just get an ethernet cable to connect it tomorrow because I can't get it to connect to my network through the wireless card!

Why do I want to do this, you might ask? Well, it's a long story! When I got my new computer last fall, I planned to get them all networked so we could share the internet connection, as well as do some file sharing between all the computers in the house. After consulting our "guru" BJ (a friend originally from here and now living in NYC), I learned that since Fernymoss is running Linux, that wasn't going to work for him, but I'd be able to swap back and forth between my two.

But yesterday we ran into a few kinks ... first of all, I had planned to swap the second hard drive in the XP box to my Vista computer, put in a wireless card as well, and expand my capabilities on this computer. Well, as it turned out, BJ couldn't swap the drives because the XP box uses an IDE controller and my new one only will accept the newer (next generation) SATA drives, so the huge 225 GB drive I wanted to swap has to stay put, and I have to get a SATA drive for the Vista box. But that can wait until Thanksgiving, when BJ will be back in town again from NYC. The second wrinkle was that given the compact architecture of my Vista machine, the PCI wireless card I had gotten was too big to fit the box! Another great idea nixed by circumstances of having such a new machine. No sweat, I thought, I'll just put the card in the XP box and go from there. Well, that's what I've been trying to get up and running tonight, and I wasted over three hours of time and increasing frustration on a fool's errand. Occasionally I can get the computer to show up in my network, but it can't access it, for some weird reason. So much for Linksys "Easy" installation and set up! I can see other networks in the area, but not mine, so I just gave up. Ethernet cable will be much simpler, and when I got the router all set up when I originally got it, I was able to hook up my computer and Fernymoss' Linux box with no hitches. So that's the next plan ... and then I have to figure out how to do file sharing between my two computers, which should be simpler, once they both realize they're on the same network. Basically I just want to use the old XP machine as a file server because it has most of my music on it, as well as all the photos dating back to when I first started my (now defunct) website and this blog.

I consider myself pretty computer savvy in most things, but making hardware cooperate hasn't been my forte, as tonight's adventure in frustration proved. Tomorrow's another day, and though I have to do "work work," I can't devote too much time to this, but the ethernet cable should take care of one problem, which is getting the XP box all updated, since it's been inactive since late September. All I want is an internet connection so it can download all the Windows and security updates, which will likely take a day or so! Then I can concentrate on getting the file sharing set up, so I can access that huge drive I have over there. Wish me luck, and if you have any salient tips to share, please let me know (please!).

As for the garden, well, it's August and until the last few days it has either been too hot or rainy for us to get much done out there, and in the interim, the weeds have been proliferating insanely! It's a mess out there! But we tackled it today for about three hours, working in different areas, pulling and digging weeds up to rescue our precious beauties. I worked on weeding my pathetic peppers (this is NOT a good year for peppers around here!) and the rest of the stuff behind the house ... the tomato (it had to be staked higher because it outgrew its "bush" status quickly) and the herbs as well. And once that was done, I took a break and tackled the out of control hibiscus bed in the parking (where Kopper King and Blue River reside), where the volunteer morning glories, bindweed and foxtail had overrun practically everything! I now hate morning glories, especially those horridly weedy pink ones we mistakenly planted years ago, and who refuse to go away. I filled up an entire wheelbarrow with the stuff I pulled (it took me about two hours!), but at least everything can breathe again. As for that Coreopsis I complained about earlier this summer, it was looking so crappy that I just pulled it up and threw it in with the other weeds! I've had it with that plant. I bet it will be back next year, when it will get the same treatment. If I plant it again, I'll make sure to get one of the more compact varieties, but I'm not in any big hurry. Take heart though, I had planned to do a "Bloom Day" post tonight and took plenty of various pictures for that, but it will have to wait a day or so, until work calms down a bit. Kopper King is blooming, and Blue River was having an off day today, and was heavily damaged by the recent hard rains and hail, but it's still hanging in there even though it had fallen over completely and needed much staking that is still not done. One huge section had been blown over and broken (but still blooming!) so I just severed it and we're going to try to root it to produce another plant ... more on that later.

Next project: the front boulder beds, because between the weeds and the overly enthusiastic Zebrina mallows, we have a lot of work to do out there ... Fernymoss made some progress, but after I finished the Hibiscus bed, I was wiped out and had to quit for the day. You already know what I tackled next, and that's a continuing saga that I hope a mere ethernet cable will resolve. Then comes networking the various printers I want to have up and running in my home office here. I expect that will be every bit as "fun" as what I put myself through tonight, lol! At least all these months, I've been saving paper and toner/ink cartridges, but that can't go on forever, so that's the next hurdle ... wish me luck! With any luck, after next Wednesday, I hope to have the blog back in its regular schedule, and apologies in advance for not keeping up with what I usually try to do ... though summer is waning now, alas, there's still a lot of prime growing time to chronicle for the next couple of months!

UPDATED: Sunday August 17, 2008 ...
Since I actually had to do some "work work" today for a few hours, I gave Fernymoss $20 and sent him off to Radio Shack for an ethernet cable. Once I powered up my old machine, plugged it into the router and my network immediately recognized it and established an internet connection for it. It all seems so decadent ... now two people could access the internet in this one small place I call my office! Who knows, that may well come in handy at some point ... And best of all, I looked up how to do file sharing with folders on the old machine, so now all my hundreds of discs of music are accessible from this computer, even imported into my media player library! After all that frustration, venting and general kvetching, I now pretty much have the file server I was wanting all the time. And when I can get a new SATA drive for this computer, I'll have probably close to a terabyte of storage space! Whoopee ... just what the avid photographer and music fan needs.

I'm a happy camper tonight!

Shadows and Blue Sky

I took these shots a while back (July 13, I think?) one weekend afternoon while taking a break from weeding ... on one of the last few really wonderful recent summer days in the garden with low humidity, mild temperatures and comforting breezes. Since then, however, we have lapsed into a high dew point, high temperature, thunderstorm pattern recently ... So progress in the garden has suffered as we can't spend much time outdoors of late (or when we have the time together, it's raining!). This weekend promises to be brutal as well, but we'll just have to limit the time we're actively working on stuff. Major weeding of course and just 4 more perennials to get in, so we should be able to handle that! (Or I will, lol.)

Anyway ... I was enjoying the play of the shadows from the maple on the back of the house, so I did a series of them (I should have experimented with the video ... next time), just to see what they would look like. I ended up liking this one the best, so there it is ... I think that finding things in clouds, rocks and other everyday phenomena really leads one to look differently, see differently, and these shadows of the maple swaying in the breeze provide just such an opportunity. To be honest, I tend to focus more on the 'negative spaces' between the shadow and light than the shadows themselves, which I had hoped to be the primary subject. So, see what you will, and let me know ...
Though this is a familiar shot from our back yard, I just had to try to get the spectacular, cloudless blue of the day ... here you can see a bit of the big maple, the spruce and one of the gingkos, across the street. (Fortunately, they're both males ... whew!) We may be smack dab in the middle of the older city, but we have no dearth of trees, and we like it like that. No McMansions for us (we couldn't afford it anyway!), we like being in an old established neighborhood close to downtown, but far enough to be relatively quiet most of the time. We'll have been here 10 years come September, and we've decided to stay, of course. It's an ongoing project and collaboration in dirt, so to speak.

Sometime I should post a couple of pages from my now defunct website that document how we have changed the overall look of the house from the front ... one of these days.

Some New Garden Additions

Today's post is a bit of this and that, thrown together quickly, just to show some of the new color coming to the front boulder bed soon. I've been having a lot of allergies (trees are blooming) and intense sinus headaches the past week or so, and today was not a great one, nor tonight, thus the slapped together nature of this post!

A week or so ago we went plant shopping (still a lot to get!) and these were two of our new acquisitions for the annual borders. The first was really hard to pass by without buying ... it's a Martha Washington Geranium hybrid, whose color just screamed out 'Buy Me!!' ... so I did. I have to admit I've never been a big fan of Geraniums ... I thought them mundane and boring, and frankly, they were 'little old lady' plants in my eye. (Along with Impatiens, Dusty Miller, Marigolds, Petunias and the like ...) But I've mellowed considerably over the years (though no impatiens or dusty miller ever, around here!), to the point where a friend of Fernymoss' who grows seed geraniums every year now gives us some nice brilliant reds, and as you can see here, I plunked down $6.99 of my hard earned cash for the one pictured here ... The second shot is a cropped detail of one of the petunia varieties we picked up as well.

Now, those who know us and the garden well, will be very surprised to see petunias in it for the first time ever! We decided to get some this year primarily for the hummingbirds and sphinx moths, as well as we finally found a few color varieties we actually liked ... besides, we also do enjoy the fragrance a mass of them puts out on a sultry summer day and night. Still, our primary intention was to provide a ready food source for whoever needs it ... the butterflies, hummingbirds, sphinx moths or bees ... they should have an ample source here in the summer months. And if we find any more striking varieties, we may pick some up as well.

We're by no means "Petunia People," but I do think it will be fun to have some around this year!

Riding the Big Pink Wave ...

Just a fun shot and preview of sorts for tomorrow's post ... Here's a big pink wave bordering on peachy good textures ... For an under the weather friend (aren't we all again at this point?) ... you know who you are, Olivia! Thought you might enjoy some positively pinky vibes this weekend.

Hope you shake that bug soon!

Pepa