A great day!

I seemed to accomplish many things on my long list of chores.  I was able to get a couple tomato plants yanked up and buckets of chicken manure compost dumped in those beds.  I am wanting to plant my delphiniums I started from seed this past spring in that spot soon. 


The yanked up plants were loaded with tomatoes still, mostly green, I did retrieve the ones turning red and have them on my kitchen counter to continue ripening, this variety is a sauce tomato.  The ones to the right are Brandywines and I am going to leave those for another week in high hopes of getting some more to ripen.  I have a lone deer coming around at night taking a bite out of any he can access so I left some on the ground for him to nibble. 

We have had our first frost, a light one but still a frost.  It did not prove fatal for my geraniums or even my Angels Trumpet.



I need to move that one to my mom’s sunroom to overwinter, I just do not have anywhere that gets enough light to keep it healthy. 

I still have a few Casablanca lilies trying to bloom.  What a lovely way to end my growing season, one last hurrah, a beautifully scented one.  I may have to cut it and bring it in the house. 



I whipped out my D40 for dummies book again, I learned some new things on the information panel, like how to get the battery life info and how many photos the SD card will hold.  The one I have now says 2000 photos, not bad at all.  I also learned how to manipulate settings with one button instead of having to go into the menu area.  The more I am learning the more I get the feeling I should’ve done this long ago!

I took some photos of my Japanese Maples. 



The one above I do not know the name of, but the one below is Cherokee Red.



Then Spring Delight. This one stays this delightful bright green all season long. 



I started working on the shawl I mentioned in my last post.  Here is the first half of a motif.  It is an intermediate in difficulty pattern but not bad, you just have to pay attention, once I get the pattern down it will move faster but I am already liking it.
I did get stuck on one unfamiliar stitch.  I Googled it and up pops a great site called “Learn A Stitch A Day” and it had a step by step video that was perfect.  I never would’ve figured it out on my own.

I love the internet!

Unfortunately the color of the yarn is not coming thru true in the photo but you get the drift.



I think I will go work on it now.  A nice way to unwind after a busy day! 
Enjoy your evening!



Learning my Nikon D40 in 10 minutes a Day

How is that for a long winded title.  I have drooled over the Nikon D7000 for awhile now. Costco had the kit (body and lens together) for a killer price this past year.  I do not know if they still do, you know with Costco it is usually grab it when you spot it as next time it won’t be there.

But since it is a superfluous purchase and definitely not in the budget I have determined to learn to use my Nikon D40 more fully.


It has features and buttons that I have never fully explored or utilized and it is time I did. 

I use my camera daily but I never seem to have the time to explore all it can really do and it is a great camera.  I just have found some of it’s limitations in areas I would like a bit more flexibility. 

I take lots and lots of photos of my garden, the flower photos get me thru the long months of being buried in white (aka: snow).  I also use it for my blog post, website and custom sign photos. 

In my previous post I showed you a photo of my Luna Pink Swirl trying to bloom.



The next morning it opened.  (I am just sad that I only was able to enjoy it one day, we may get a freeze tonight and it rained all yesterday and today. Glad I took the photo when I did!)



Though the photos do not look bad I do know I can improve them once I learn my camera better.

All that being said I have whipped out my Nikon D40 for Dummies book, dusted it off and learned the first thing that may help in getting sharper photos.  

Did you know you can adjust your viewfinder focus? 

 I did not and doesn’t it make sense that as we mature and our vision begins to blur that looking thru that viewfinder can trick us into thinking we are getting a clear shot when in reality it only looks that way to us?

So I followed the directions and sure enough my viewfinder was one click off and it was easy enough to adjust. 

It took me longer to read the instructions than to actually make the adjustment.

I also learned that a faster SD card will improve my continuous shooting mode.  That is one thing I found disappointing in this camera, it is rather sluggish in continuous shooting.  Any improvement will be appreciated.  Now to price a faster card. 

So my goal is to take at least 10 minutes a day to learn the next feature, trick or anything about my camera.  They say if you tell someone else about what you’ve learned then you remember it better.  Repetition for retention. 

So you get to hear about what I learned.  Now we will see how well I stick with the daily 10 minute plan.

On another note, let’s see if you can guess what this is going to be.  It shouldn’t be too hard.  I have wanted to do one way too long and am now just getting around to it.





I will leave you with that and now I shall go relax with some crocheting.