Gardening and Observing Life in SW Washington 

Thanks for endulging and/or contributing to my rant. I feel better now.

Karen: Five and Dime -- that's Dollar Store now, I think. Remember the old 88 Cent Stores? They actually had some good quality stuff. Layered clothing is out for me. I don't even both with a jacket until it's below 55 degrees.

Bogon: Thanks for clearing up my HTML misunderstanding.

Thanks to Sandi and Pros and SP, I now know that there are Geezer Stores out there. I'll have to check them out.

Ggrrl: Kelso does have small JCPenney and Sears stores, but their selection is no better. I already own the 3 blouses and 2 pairs of slacks that Target carries.

Maybe I'll have to reevaluate shopping in the big city.

Ylee: My DH caught himself calling a man in his late 50s old the other day. Then he realized, hey, I'm older than that guy! I think you've got a ways to go yet -- you're just middle-aged and I'm sure you've got a lot of money invested in the spare tire.

Rob: Glad you got a kick out of my shopping rant. I was hoping I'd make someone laugh. I like your wardrobe list. What I can't seem to find is the female equivalent of the Columbia shirts.

BF: Good to see you! I'll bet you could grow tulips in Oklahoma, unless the gophers would get them.

SP: When I went out to refill the bird feeders last evening, I almost got hit during a 3-way rufous strafing run. The little guys were at their aggressive best, so I grabbed the camera. I took over 40 shots just to get those 2.

I just uploaded the female Rufous hummer for the third time. Both previous times, it got approved and the title was still there, but the picture was invisible. Maybe somebody put pointy brackets around it. ;-)

LCal: Thanks for that link. I used to have the ASCII codes memorized until they quit working in anything. I don't think I'll be memorizing that list, but at least I can look up what I want now.

Ylee and Ggrrl: If I want better hummer pics, I'm going to have to set up the tripod and take another 100 shots. These little fellows rarely stay still for more than about 6 nanoseconds. One of these days...

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I went to visit my parents yesterday. On the way south, I stopped at my favorite horticultural supply store in search of some gardening tools that I can use. I found a new Fiskar's grass clipper and a telescoping weeder!


I delivered tomato, pepper, basil, and cucumber starts to my mother. No flower starts this year, as I wasn't able to get out to the greenhouse and was limited to what would fit under my single grow-light.

We went out to a nice lunch and then on to Jackson Bottom Wetlands Preserve in Hillsboro. We walked perhaps half a mile of the trails there and, though we didn't get close to any wildlife, we had an enjoyable time of it just enjoying the setting and the beautiful day.

One of the highlights at this preserve is a real bald eagle's nest. The nest measures 8 feet high by 6 feet wide. The total weight of nest and 12-foot tree section is 1500 pounds. There's nothing quite like seeing the real thing close up and this was a rare opportunity.


Even though I feed dozens of voracious rufous hummingbirds during nesting season every year, I have yet to find a rufous nest. They had one under glass in the interpretive center, so at least now, I know what one looks like.

Sandi: I have tried "sports" mode. There's also a feature that takes several exposures with one press of the button and keeps the best four. GGrrl's method seems to be the best: take 100 shots as fast as you can, delete 98 of them. According to All About Birds: The feistiest hummingbird in North America. The brilliant orange male and the green-and-orange female Rufous Hummingbird are relentless attackers at flowers and feeders. They are pugnacious birds that tirelessly chase away other hummingbirds, even in places they’re only visiting on migration.

I wonder: My camera can take short videos. Is there any way to grab one frame out of a video and save it as a .JPG photo? Sure would be nice.

Ylee: Now that you mention it, it does look like a corn cob pipe. How do they glue pieces of lichen onto the nest like that?

SP: The only software that came with my camera is a photo viewer and a RAW file editor/converter, so I guess stealing a frame from a video is out.

Karen: I'm somewhat embarrassed, but also proud to say that most of my clothes are over 5 years old and some are approaching 20. I'm so frugal, I can't bear to toss anything until it gets stained, ripped, or thread-bare.

Ylee: Yes, my camera does have a manual mode, but then I'd need someone to explain what the manual say about manual mode. I'm afraid my eyes roll back in my head when I start reading about ISO, F-stop, shutter and aperture priority, etc. I have figured out how to get into the settings menu and return everything to default after I've got the camera hopelessly messed up. 8~}

I may not be a mother, but it sometimes feels that I have five 2-year-olds (supposedly, that's a cat's IQ) around here.

Thanks for the roses, Ylee and Pros. WTS, you know I love that hedgehog cactus when it's in bloom -- and yes, look but don't touch.

Sandi: You're shattered?!? I hope it's just that you're speaking the Queen's English again. Here, if you're shattered, it means a horrible emotional upset. Synonyms: devastated, shocked, stunned, crushed, upset, overwhelmed, traumatized. In the context of what you were saying, I hope it means that you were exhausted and not that your project went horribly wrong. What fun we have with our language differences.

Ggrrl: Since we have the same camera, thanks for the tip on the EXR setting. I haven't tried that yet. And Costco is fun. When I was in business, I had a membership that did pay for itself on the office supplies and computer equipment. Of course, I did buy groceries there, too. Saturdays were always fun, because I could get a free lunch from all the free food samples being handed out. After I sold the business, it no longer paid to go there, mostly because I couldn't get out of the store for less than $100. It's too easy to just go nuts there. Best solution: just go with SIL once in awhile.

Sandi: I hadn't yet discovered the world of WUblogging in 2007, so I very much enjoyed reading your re-post.

You Brits must be very fragile to shatter so easily. ;-) Isn't our shared language fun?

Pros: You're worse than me, if that's possible -- play around with something until you do something really nice, then can't remember how you did it. Not just with photo editors, either. I've lost track of the times I came up with a really tasty dish for dinner that I was never able to duplicate.

Ggrrl: You have a talent for painting fun and vivid pictures with your words. I'm grinning just thinking of lunatic bumblebees attacking image dots. Too much fun!

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I just heard that Johnston Ridge Observatory on Mt. St. Helens has reopened. The sun is shining. The sky is mostly blue, with a few high clouds, but judging from the VolcanoCam, it's clear on the mountain. I haven't been up there since 2003. Time for another visit. And, in a day or two, you'll see what I see today....

Ylee and Sandi: whew! I was really "shattered" when we got home yesterday. Only drove 104 miles total, but spent over 7 hours getting in and out of the car, walking here and there, snapping lots of photos. I ached in more places than I care to mention this morning, but at least I've got the photos up now. The blog will follow, probably tomorrow.