I write this in the waning hours of February 29th . . . but it will go out on March 1st.
This is the clean-up, the round-up, the let’s-close-out-the-February-Photos post.
First up, we have the remnants of the snow. This is a continuation, and a requiem for the clumps of snow documented in the Ice Man Leaveth post. These were shot six days ago as the temperatures climbed into the 50’s (Fahrenheit). I’ll caption what I see in the pictures, but please, feel free to make up your own stuff.
Our brains are geared to seeing the familiar, and recognize shapes as familiar things. The way we describe things to each other is by giving examples of familiar things.
So, for instance, were you to meet a person, and later try to describe them to a friend, you will typically describe them as looking like someone familiar to both you and your friend, as in “She had Judy’s nose, but did not look down it like Judy does, and her hair was a bit like Alicia’s after a night of drinking, and she dressed like Susan, only the clothes fit a little better than Susan’s. Ugly shoes, like Marcia tends to wear“.
Based on that, your friend will have a mental picture that is nothing like what you saw, because she does not see Judy, Alicia, and Susan like you do. By the way, know that your friend probably thinks you wear too much make-up, waddle when you walk, and could stand to lose a few pounds if you really planned to wear that outfit.
Do women really think like that? I don’t know; I’m a guy. Women are like bras to me. I get the general idea, but don’t see why they have to be so complicated. Have you ever seen one come out of the wash?
But women do like flowers, and so do I, so there is at least something in common there. And these flowers are persevering; now over a month old, they still look great.
Yes, these are the same flowers from the original PATH post about them.
And, about seven days ago I spotted two new buds on the Christmas Cactus. Yes, they are flowering again.
I am never happy when I try to capture small details, but it does not keep me from trying.
The original two flowers are gone now, but there was a third one already blooming, and it is now in full flowering mode . . . this is what it looked like a few days ago.
I tried something new with this bud . . . a bit of back-lighting. Not much, but I liked it.
I had 53 visitors yesterday, and only three people clicked on any of the pictures to visit the SmugMug gallery, and I know two of the people who did. The third was probably one of them visiting it again.
Given that poor track record, I should probably not even mention this, but for future generations of viewers, I must. The ice photos gallery is HERE (or click on the ice photos), and the flowers gallery is HERE (or click on the flower photos).
As usual, thanks for visiting and looking at my stuff.
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About awards: Blogger Awards About “likes”: Of “Likes”, Subscriptions, and Stuff
Note: to those who may click on “like”, or rate the post; if you do not personally hear from me, know that I am sincerely appreciative, and I thank you for noticing what I do.
. . . my FP ward . . . chieken shit.
My favorite close up is not here but there! I like the close up of the, if I remember correctly, pistol opening. Beautiful. Everyone really should go to your SmugMug albums.
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Thanks. And yes, they should, but it’s like talking to a wall.
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Your photos are outstanding. Beautiful!! Just for my opinion, the last ice sculpture looks like a crab to me.
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Thanks.
Yeah, crab is the easy guess . . . I was trying to be weird.
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Person opening an umbrella against a stiff wind atop a tropical fish being watched by a sitting dog. Rabid dog looks like a wild boar. I see the kid and cat. And the last one is a rhino with a goose atop his head straining to look at the duckling balanced atop the ears of a flying donkey. It would be a boring world if we would all see the same way.
And the gorgeous flowers (and shots) are even better in SmugMug! The back-lit cactus really pops.
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I was going to go into describing multiple overlaid images, but was running short on time (nearly 1:00am last night by the time I finished the post).
I see different things whenever I look at those, but then I am purposefully letting my mind search for fitting images to match to the shapes.
I was fairly pleased with the cactus flowers; they seldom come out like I want them to, but these show a fair amount of what the flowers look like both in texture and colors.
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Anyone who is not going to SmugMug is a fool. GO!
Beautiful photos. I thumbs-upped my faves at SmugMug.
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Uh-oh . . . you hit on one of the few things I don’t like with SmugMug. I mean, I don’t hate it, but it’s annoying.
The Thumbs-up (or down) is more for Smug than for me. Meaning, I can’t see it. It’s used to choose the “most popular photos” for both my homepage and for the smugmug site as a whole.
The only way to “rate” individual photos so that I can see (and that others can see it) is to leave a comment. When you leave a comment you have the option to choose if it’s for the gallery in general or for the individual photo you are looking at. As part of leaving a comment you can also leave a star-rating. Unfortunately, you cannot add a star rating without writing something. All it needs is one letter, and then you can post the rating.
I’ll have to make a note of that in future blog posts.
Anyway, thanks for visiting SmugMug. I like knowing people (some people) beside me and my sister get the full benefit of my efforts to beautify pictures.
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I wanted to comment on the individual photos but the interface looked like it was for the full gallery. I will bear that in mind in the future. I’m mad you don’t know what I “favorited.”
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For future reference, you can make a comment to the gallery, and list the number of the photos (their position) you like.
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After reading the above about leaving a comment in SmugMug I returned there and looked at the photos again. I posted a comment there but want to copy it here as well since I was really moved by this second visit to the gallery:
“As I look at the texture and vibrant colors of these glorious flowers I feel a strong connection to Beauty. They hold my attention and draw me into a peaceful state of being. It may last only a few seconds but I am the better for it. I am most appreciative to the subjects and their photographer.”
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I get notices of the comments both here and Smugmug, so I has seen the comment.
Let me know if you want any of them, and I’ll either e-mail you the files or send you prints in case you want to paint them.
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That backlit photo is fantastic!
What I see in the ice:
1) Bearded sea serpent’s head and neck rising from sea to catch leaping fish
2) I concur with the rabid dog.
3) I also agree with the weird-haired kid, but I think he’s either throwing up or yelling down a loud speaker. (My favorite of the ice shots.)
4) A crab that’s lost three legs on the one exposed side.
Jealous of your Christmas cactus — the couple I’ve had have died before blooming. Oh, and as a woman, I can’t say I use that method of comparison often, but then I do try to limit my interaction with other human beings.
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This cactus was on it’s last legs for a long while because of over-watering. I now give it a small amount of water once a week (always less than I think it should have), and it seems to be doing great, although half of it is still struggling (don’t know if that half will recover). Before that, as now, it seemed to flower often . . . I read all sorts of complicated things to try to make them flower, but this gets treated the same way year round.
Interesting . . . only one comment about my writing. I thought it was pretty clever (and humorous) myself, but then I’m by far my biggest fan.
Thanks for the rundown.
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Fantastic pictures of your cactus flowers! I really love them. I know my mother always had these and it seems that the more they ‘suffer’ the more easily they will bloom… at least that’s what I’ve heard…
Anyway I find them absolutely gorgeous.
And for the ice-update: I can see most of the things you described, although with a little bit of imagination we can see completely different things, only the kid kissing a cat…I would say: little princess kissing a frog, but then again, I am a romantic fool every now and then 🙂
And what women think? I think we don’t know for ourselves sometimes…
But then again; we don’t understand you guys either most of the time!
And you saying what friends might think of you: wearing too much make-up, wrong outfit and stuff…I think my REAL friends don’t think that… a random passenger might.
My REAL friends will tell me in the face so I can do something about it.
Although I wear minimum make-up and always wear the most fantastic outfits haha
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Because of what I saw of men when I was growing up and as an adult, I am not overly impressed with the males of the species. I know some who are good, decent, honorable people, but the vast majority of men are people I would not want a daughter, if I had one, to meet, and let alone marry.
As for friends . . . I can’t speak to that. People toss the word “friend” around so much that it no longer even resembles what I consider a friend to be. Certainly I don’t have the kind of friend you speak of, the REAL friend, in any great number.
Even if I did, being near-perfect, they would have little to tell me. The few things they could give me a heads up on I already know (ugly, old, obnoxious, know-it-all, etc etc), and are part of what makes me so endearing to the population at large.
As for what real friends think about each other . . . I think human nature is universal; judgmental thoughts are likely to cross one’s mind regardless of friendship, but where friendship does come into play is in a person’s ability to disregard those thoughts, not focusing on them, and letting them dissolve into background noise.
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Amen!
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Would that be “Ah . . . men”, all whimsical-like, or “Ha! Men!”, as in those-bastards-like?
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More like: I rest my case.
your last sentences… there is little more to add, I think it’s so true…
Fortunately I have a couple of very dear friends who mean an awful lot to me… even some male specimens… believe it or not.
And everything can be said amongst us and to me that’s so valuable. I think everybody should have a friend with whom you can share just everything….. but then again that’s how I feel about it.
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I do have exactly one friend with which I can share everything . . . I married her.
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In other words, “Take what you like and leave the rest.”
And it’s a good idea to put a reminder in each of your posts about visiting SmugMug . . . a treasure to be discovered by those inspired to follow the trail.
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Yeah, but the vast, huge, ginormous, majority of visitors ignore it. Still, I’ll always mention it.
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Yes, but WE, THE FOLLOWERS, will not!
And while we’re on the subject, since clicking on the photos does not always open another tab for me but changes it to SmugMug and then I have to go back to your email to get back to your post, perhaps you could include the “click here” SmugMug link (as you often do) as a standard feature in your posts. I’ve noticed that it always opens a new tab so I can easily switch back and forth between the two. Or maybe it’s just my PC.
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All of the links are inserted with the code to open in a new window or tab. Unfortunately WordPress appears to remove them sometimes. I periodically go back and check to make sure they work, and fix the ones that do, but I can’t be doing that all the time.
That applies to all links, so if the SmugMug links has always worked for you, that’s just plain chance.
WordPress won’t admit there is a problem, insisting I must be doing it wrong (they can be excused for not knowing about my anal retentiveness, but not for multiple rejections to admitting I might be reporting a real problem.)
One of the things you can get in the habit of doing (and I do regularly), is to always right-click and choose open a new tab. I do that for all the links everywhere I surf.
In that Firefox has one up on Chrome (and I might be switching back to them soon because Chrome is getting buggier by the minute). In firefox you can choose what clicking on a link will do, and I have all my options set to open a new tab.
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I had forgotten about that so thanks for the reminder.
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Beautiful photos, Emilio…as always…my favorite thing about the whole post was this – “Women are like bras to me. I get the general idea, but don’t see why they have to be so complicated. Have you ever seen one come out of the wash?” So says the engineer…. 🙂
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Thanks Scott . . . and it’s “so says the human male” . . .
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You’re welcome…and yes, it certainly is….
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Revisiting three years later (from the link in your “What has gone before…” post 10March2015), I’m still enchanted with the ice sculptures and the splendid color of the Christmas Cactus.
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Love the Christmas Cactus and also the ice shots…which are winter’s version of summer’s clouds in the sky. your imagination is boundless, and lots of fun to see.
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Thank you, Sandra. Glad you enjoyed the post.
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It’s years later, but revisiting this post can turn into a tradition! Always a joy to see these plants/flowers! Lovely, lovely.
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