What weird weather we're having #4

Yep, Kris - our fall and spring seasons are shorter than NC, I suspect.

You'd probably be more 8a if you were not in the foothills and closer to the sound. At some point you should make a day-trip over to Ballard in North Seattle. It's distinctly different there. That is where Dunn Gardens (an old turn-of-the-century estate) is. I'm told that the original owners put lots of trees from the east coast in there to remind him of home. They are now 100 years old and bigger than they would be in their native habitat because they aren't stressed by the extremes of heat and cold there.

You have to schedule ahead of time, but it's a pretty cool tour.

http://www.dunngardens.org/

Looks like I missed the fall foliage festival. That would have been awesome this year!!

Hey Kris, Have you made a trip out to the Kitsap Pennsula? This is almost like most the pics Red and Zinum has, my only problem is I have no time to drive around and take pics I see wonderful shots driving to work, but can't stop, have a ferry to catch. Off in am will see what I can find in my own yard I have 90% evergreens LOL ( with new camers) might find something. can't go off driving, have one day off and lots of fall stuff to do.

Red, in the 4 pics you just showed, my number 1 choice is #1 I love the Hell in the leaves. But I still love them all, hard choise.

Portland, Why did you pack your camera away? I would of had it so every close to me. LOL

What a gorgeous tree Zhinusmom. I really think the colors are more vivid this year. Maybe it's like katie said, it's the sugar, I've heard that before. I leave some of the leaves in the back for a while. I like the blanket look. But out front I need to keep them off the street, we have so many walkers and I don't want them slipping on my leaves. Raked up 3 barrels yesterday and pruned a couple of trees. My neighbor was heading for the compost with his truck so he just threw mine in with his. Sweet guy, always dashes over to help. He and another neighbor moved my porch swing today (for the last time I hope) it's so heavy and I didn't want to drag it on the new stain. We all go for pizza on Wednesdays, so I'll buy them a pitcher of beer and keep them happy!!

Really nice day today, finished staining YEAH and put a varnish coat on my porch bear, he was looking a little dull. Supposed to be warmer tomorrow, so we're going to try and get some things cleaned up for storage. I want to put the deck back in order, but have to be patient, the stain is taking a long time to dry.

Hey Katie, I definitely think that you're right. I was thinking along the same lines. I wasn't really sure it it was from being dry the last few weeks or if it was more of the longer term of: hot, cool rain, hot, cold, warm, frost, and now warm. Or.... something like that anyhow lol.

ZM, that tree is awesome.

Ladybug, glad to have you here! And definitely via the long route. At least you were used to a somewhat similar zone and not something like zone 11. If you read back through pages 1-3 (mainly 1 and 2) of this thread (maybe a little more about weather, but this is fun) you find that it does get hot, but the heat waves are shorter and the nights cool off (usually). It's not uncommon, for my area, in July to jump from 90 for 3 days, 60 two days, 95 three days, 70, etc.etc. you get the idea. This year i had snow in late April (latest date recorded) and 2 or 3 weeks later it reached 100+ for 2days. I actually had/have heat damage to the new growth on plants!
Definitely lots of yellows for fall colors, however if you plant the reds they grow great, as Katie said!


Tilly, I'm so glad you're still on the ball with the pictures. I'm trying to decide if I want to consider some others taken the last few days. You know, just the make things more confusing :-p here's a couple from today that I like all right.

this one just reminds me of the sun when I look at it! I think I'll keep it on my computer desktop and open it on grey days.

Sorry guys, I haven't had a chance to do much driving around to see anything other than the Dr. for kiddo's arm. I will put them on my list of places recommended to visit and we'll start working on seeing the area this spring as a family.

Red, I did check in and read the weather threads starting in May when my DH decided to take the job offer here. It has been an ongoing conversation piece for us as a family. Everyone has been very helpful with climate information. It allowed us to chart on the map your locations and weather reports to see the differences locally. It was great conversation for Zonal differences and planting considerations as we prepared for our move. Great educational opportunity to discuss with kids.

I will be adding 'red' trees in places to my little patch of paradise. I have several beautiful yellows to contrast nicely with the green when the clouds lift here. I can't complain, it's all beautiful. I'm just wishing for a couple more weeks of good weather so I can get the major outside projects completed that we've scheduled for this year. There will always be projects as we don't know how to live any other way.

Kris - Japanese Maples do tremendously well here. Flowerworld is a great place to go to get them small and less expensively.

Lady, don't we all wish for a bit more good weather, though I'd take warmer and rainy to cold and sunny.

Was out playing with the new camera, got a lot to learn LOL

This is my big maple, I so love it, but we are going to have to take it down. If we get a bad storm it will do some very bad damage. all ready one limb has already done that.

This was nice, my little bench in the woods and my friend LOL

I love the bench and friend Tilly, that's so cute and inviting!

Some leaves on the ground.
Testing Testing LOL

I go out and set with her with my coffee in the morning, and decide what the plan is for the day. Funny

My DH has been working on the creek, when we get heavy rain fall, it has been cutting the bank real bad. There is a big White Cedar close to the bank I don't want it to fall. So he has bulit a wall. Like I said he loves to play in the water. Kid at heart LOL

Sassy checking it out

I just found a button on my keyboard not to touch LOL It went to sleep on me.

Sassy having a drink.

This is one Dal I might not get to see open.

This is 'Vancouver'

Red, how are the pics?

The pics are great! I looks like you're having fun with it. And Sassy too!

I really like the bench and the one with sassy standing in the middle of the creek on the little wall crossing!

I think your pics came out great, I really like the leaves on the ground.

I just took some more. and I was wondering about the Picasaweb you where talking about? how does it work ? I would like you to see them all without having to post one at a time.

I just so love this shot of 'Ratso' but don't know if I want to change my pet entrees.
Was messing with the settings.

And this one. for insects

And I like this one, better than the first one I sent.

So happy with it,

Tilly I really love these last two shots of the cat and the spider.......they are great!!!
Laura is suppose to help me get set up on the Picassaweb, she could probably talk you through it too......we spend a lot of time on the computer and phone at the same time because I am not much of a computer person...she is always having to talk me through things!

This message was edited Oct 27, 2008 3:50 PM

Tilly, do you have picasa as a photo editor? that might be the easiest way, even if you actually use a different photo editor and then use picasa to upload them, that would still be easy. But, I do believe that there is another way to do it without having picasa on your computer, but it adds another step or two in the process.

I'm with you on that. LOL some things I am not very good at and the computer is one. Like I never knew it had a sleep button till I hit it. removing a cat hair......

I so love this camera, even without the book, I'm not sure of the settings. take a bunch and let my software do the rest or delete it. I wish I so had this last year.
These are tiny rocks in a pot.

No I have HP image Zone. How can I get Picasa?

wow, you really made rocks in a pot look good! The other way that you might already have a connection with picasa, even if you don't have it as a photo editor, is if you already have a gmail account. For me, I really like picasa for pictures because it's not as convoluted as photoshop is, but 99% of anything that i've ever wanted to do with a photo, I can do with Picasa. I use photoshop at work and I still prefer picasa at home. Anyhow, I did some looking and it doesn't look like you can use picasaweb without downloading picasa photo editor on your computer. even if you still use photoshop or something like that, picasa doesn't use much space if you added it to you computer just to use picasaweb. If you want I'll post the link that you need to get started. Ratso looks great! is he missing an ear, or is it hidden from view in that picture?

ok.... here's the link. the overview is pretty decent if you want to click on "learn more about picasaweb albums", but since you've already seen some of it, you can just click on "download picasa 3" when you go to eventually upload your photos to a web album, it will walk you through the process of setting up an account, it's really easy.

the link
https://www.google.com/accounts/ServiceLogin?hl=en_US&continue=http%3A%2F%2Fpicasaweb.google.com%2Flh%2Flogin%3Fcontinue%3Dhttp%253A%252F%252Fpicasaweb.google.com%252F&service=lh2<mpl=gp&passive=true

I forgot to add that if you have a gmail account, once you are logged into you gmail account, there's a tiny little link up at the top of the page that says photo's or pictures, or something like that. click on it and it will get you going on the same process in a slightly different way.

This message was edited Oct 27, 2008 4:26 PM

No his other ear is in the shadow, he does have both LOL.
Please send me the link, I will check into it.

This turn out cool to.

Sending you a dmail

that is really cool, what kind of grass is that? It looks great there. I'm glad that you are getting around to using your camera and having fun with it! ohhh you have dmail.

This is getting funny, we over laped.
That is silver Lirope (spelling)

Tilly, the bench is great. The leaf picture I think would be great cropped, like this. Cropping is your friend. The Ratso picture is great. I love the spider!

All of you know so much about photography - I am still looking for the battery charger for my camera. I know I will find it when I get everything unpacked. I just had to be outside today since it was so beautiful. I pulled all the dead leaves off of the iris bed and planted 3 peonies and a bunch of bulbs. I am not accustomed to all this gardening (my working life was spent at a desk or on a plane crossing the pond to London) and I am sore everywhere and tired. I stayed up until 2:30 am to watch a movie about the Cuban Missile Crisis, which I remember well because my Dad was in the Airforce and we were living in Germany at the time. It was scary.
I wish there were bulbs that were dormant in spring and summer and bloomed in fall and winter - how cool would that be!
Ladybuggfan welcome. I am relatively new to DG and everyone on this thread has been so welcoming! I hope you enjoy the Pacific Northwest.

Did this work, got the bugs out I think .......
http://picasaweb.google.com/tillysrat/Blooms?authkey=VFItNUulYhg#5261995823740953202

that didn't
http://picasaweb.google.com/tillysrat/Blooms?authkey=VFItNUulYhg#5261995823740953202

you have a photo up

Help not working.

yes

Try again. by be got it....
http://picasaweb.google.com/tillysrat/Blooms?authkey=VFItNUulYhg#5261995823740953202

I give up. LOL