Arty Crafty

Was having a play around at the weekend with Microsoft’s montage program which I had forgotten about since buying the new laptop. James’s mum Annie reminded me about it when she brought along to the club, some photos of her and her sisters that she had run through the program over the weekend. I first came across it when James used it to make a montage of photos of him and Julia for a song CD case that he was preparing for Julia. He used the trial version which leaves a watermark over the final image but for the princely sum of £18 you can buy the full version which is what I ended up doing. It’s a bit tricky to get used to in that you don’t have a lot of control over the final montage apart from ranking the top two images, selecting the level of overlap and the number of images used, the program decides what goes where based on its or your ranking. However it produces pretty neat results and if you try out face detection (there is a manual option too where you can draw a box around a face or faces) it will then try not to overlap faces or important details. I know that as an avid user of Photoshop it shouldn’t be too hard to create my own montages but as with all things, it’s easier said than done and this little program does it a lot quicker. You can save which ever creations it makes or just keep selecting “Create” again to get another combination.

I also got carried away making some arty pictures out of a few photos I took of some ice patterns that were on Julia's car the other morning. The car had a leaf-like pattern of ice crystals all over the black roof which looked quite interesting so I grabbed my trusty Panasonic and took a few snaps before the sun started to melt it. Of course the final images bear no resemblance to the original shots as is usually the case when I get carried away in Photoshop but I think they look good nevertheless.

Looking Back...

As I was walking home last night I passed a young girl "scootering" home from school with her Mum and a baby brother or sister in tow. Her uniform told me she was in Horsted school so at least no older than Junior level and it got me thinking back to my time when I was her age. Life was idyllic, we didn't even have homework then like they do now, life was one long round of playtime and endless fun. No worries or responsibilities, just lots of time out playing in the fresh air and making the most of being a kid. Long holidays that stretched out before us like a lifetime and plenty of them. We'd spend Saturdays at Nan & Grandad's and Sundays out with my other Nan and Mum & Dad. All sorts of special people there to make us feel warm and safe. Life fit for a child just as it should be. Would I want to go back to then if I could? Maybe, sometimes, just for a short while, see those special people again who are no longer here and leave life feeling a little more empty now. Forget for a little while the worries of work, paying bills and the rest of the baggage that we generally carry round as adults. Maybe thats why retirement seems such an attractive place to be? It's kind of a second childhood for grown-ups, time (and hopefully money) to do as we please again, the only downside being older, not necessarily wiser and wondering if our health will still be good enough to allow us to do all the things we put off "till we retire".

Winter Back Again?

Getting well fed up by now waking to fog every day so far this week, it's not too cold really but cooler than it has been of late. Where's all the sunshine gone? We've been spoiled of late with bright, sunny, Spring days and now it feels as though we've been plunged back into Winter :-( Mind at least we've not got snow, they were forecasting it for Scotland over the weekend. Thought we were supposed to have a week of drizzle so with that in mind the fog is a better option as far as I'm concerned, I don't get wet in the fog!
Still the daffs are slowly beginning to come out, we have loads planted on a road island opposite the old Mid-Kent College site, the crocuses have been there a while already but the daffs flowering is a sure sign that Spring is on its way! Bought some tulips the other weekend at Asda when we went to get some flowers to take up the crematorium for my Nan's birthday. They were really nice indoors, flowered for the best part of a week and cheered the place up a bit. I'm not known for my green fingers when it comes to plants so we don't have any live ones indoors, strictly dried or silk only.
The downside to Spring and hence Summer coming of course is the garden... It means I shall be forced to go outside and initially tidy up after the Winter and then keep it tidy over the coming months, not my most favourite of chores let me tell you. Still it does leave one with a sense of achievement when you come indoors after a session and see the lawns looking tidy and less weeds lurking among the plants in the side beds. In my line of work I don't produce anything tangible so to be able to so obviously see the fruits of my labours is a pleasure even if I do balk at going outside in the first place ;-)

Retired Piercing

Its been almost 3 weeks now since I retired my nose piercing and in that time not one single person has remarked on the fact that its no longer there! I guess it shows just how little notice we take of the appearance of someone we know well.

Anyhow it has healed well with no obvious signs of scarring so that's good.

Visit to see William (11/03/11)

Here we all are at my brother's place when we went up to see baby William.
(Back row, l-r) Dad, George, William, Jo, Darren
(Front row, l-r) Margaret, moi, Julia

We've had a good visit, can't believe how much William sleeps, he could sleep for England! George has had a good time playing with his Grandad and we've stuffed loads of good food whilst we've been here. The Appleby Inn Hotel that we've stayed in is real nice, rooms are comfortable and tastefully decorated, plenty of food in the bar and for breakfast and free wi-fi hence this posting! Anyway after getting up early this morning to be ready in time for brekkies I am suitably knackered so it's time to sign off the laptop and go get ready for bed...

Quotations...

Sat this lunchtime and watched some AV's that I got from a photographic couple who visited our camera club one time. Some of the quotations in one were really good;

“If you can spend a perfectly useless afternoon in a perfectly useless manner, you have learned how to live.”

"Don 't hurry. Don't worry. You're only here for a short visit. So take time to stop and smell the flowers."

"Whilst others strive for brief power and ambition, I will be stretched out in the shade relaxing"

They remind me that life's too short to spend it rushing about, fussing over things that in the end dont really matter.

Family, good health, good friends, those are the things that are important when all's said and done.