Snow.
It makes for wonderful pictures but causes havoc to transport and health.
But whilst the 8 mile trek to work is good exercise, and not a sole about, I often think of the sausage sandwiches I once gave out to a group of homeless people during a worse time than this and wonder if they ever made it of the streets (like myself) or whether they are still out there waiting for someone else to give them a helping hand.
Even when I lived rough, I still somehow managed to appreciate the little things around - even now - and I still don`t feel the cold and there are days when I long to return to the open road, and go exploring again, but I work with people who need me and, more importantly, I need them, but for now I enjoy walks with Willow and the challenges that are ahead, but in my heart and mind when things get tough, I can switch of and go back to those days of walking and not knowing where we`ll end up or who we`ll meet.
Even now I`ll walk places many would not tread, for I don`t feel afraid, life is a journey.........
The road that is normally busy is devoid of vehicles and its tracks, only animal tracks walking down the centre down of a dark and isolated lane.
No lights show the way and moonlight is different because of its orange colour and another planet dances its way around in the foreground of the moon (below, just to left)
The air frost (or whore frost as it is properly called) makes for the brightness of the trees from green to brilliant white.
Great scenes and interesting thoughts ... combining both of these show how life can be made up of different scenes that we experience on a journey. I've recently been dealt a new experience from the ones I had last year, so I understand how you feel here because some of your thoughts are identical to mine at this moment in time.
ReplyDeleteIt seems more appropriate to reply to your question here for several reasons and It could be some time before I reply on my blog as I'm overwhelmed by the lack of time in many ways. This is a difficult and painful topic that may not be what you want to hear but bear with me as there may some small snippets that may be useful to you. I discounted many ideas at the time but had to return to them at a later date.
ReplyDeleteThe minefield of info that you are looking for is found in the comments section of my post "Taking a break until" and what I did with that information in the next post "Taking a break 2". It was a difficult experience that also cost me serious money. Everyone thought it was so easy which was so frustrating as I didn't find that at all.
Firstly I'm a mac user which is usually a bad start to everyone else ! ... never owned a computer pre 2010 & had intensive training in the Apple shop with the "One to one" programme.
Around the time I was seeking to watermark the pictures I had to upgrade my hard drive thanks to my over expanded photo library that needed sorting out, editing and re-siting onto my external drive specifically for photos (something I've dipped my toes in but still need to do urgently as I've added another 6 months of material). Unfortunately I lost my original library base for a newer rubbish one in the massive computer update ... something to do with Apple concentrating on ipads, iphones and less on iphoto. I had to purchase the seemingly complex Aperture App which is a lot simpler than photoshop. The watermark I created was from photoshop but blended into a section of Aperture ... with great difficulty at first. I tried the 30 day trial which was no where near long enough to cover this topic and become familiar with it. Next i utilised time on their computers that so happened to have photoshop. At the end of the two hour session and a lot of mistakes (the staff aren't allowed to train in non apple products) I ended up with something I was happy with at that time but needed a different size text for the portrait style photo as I was wrongly advised to type it in a rectangular format. I went with the format for a few posts until I saw a massive sale in Staples after the great flood of june 28th most of the stock was reduced including photoshop elements at a £20 discount. Some followers kept telling me buy photoshop and I constantly refused as iphoto did most things for free but unfortunately I had to bite the bullet and go for it. It's always good to compare what you would get with that sort of money elsewhere (e.g. 1 return rail ticket to ..... ). I copied the model used in the side blog of "seeing to pictures" from "Adrian's images". Something he wrote in response to the traumas I was experiencing at that time !
Several months on I still dislike using photoshop as it is a complex beast. Mainly unsubstantiated due to the corruption of the programme during the 30 day trial that was probably more to do with my overloaded computer at that time...
(On a side note, I always use jpeg and never raw pictures on blogger as the definition is lost in expansion. There is an additional technique that can be used to reduce the file size which can become grainy and unusable to others. Compromising picture quality is always a risk to your satisfaction and the eyes of your followers)
... so I always store them to the desktop in jpeg & move them elsewhere.
Coming back to something a bit more practical... my blog mentor & work colleague "Primrose Patch" said she simplified it with saying that there is an application in Picasa that sorts it out. Jean "Delightful repast" may have used this as well (but I never got to know) ... but left me with a frustrating phrase "If I can do it, anyone can " but it took me months as every commenter used something different. Other simpler sites were difficult to understand as there were no training videos on YouTube about these.
PS sorry for the long reply on here as it wouldn't accept this next bit.
ReplyDeleteLastly It would be good to see you back doing something on here in whatever format you choose. In real terms I probably follow about 30 blogs that seems to slowly decrease for varying reasons and am not seeking to find any more at the moment due to time constraints. However I find your material interesting and something similar to what I do ... you'll be a miss. Looking forward to you re-joining the path at some stage when you are ready.