Battle of the Sun and Fog

                                                     There was blue sky before 9am.

                       It takes some serious sun to make such shadows.

                                         The daisies were dazzling in the light.

I am grateful that I ran out into the sun and even took a few pictures of it before the fog descended and the sunshine disappeared, it  didn't even make it to the 10 o'clock hour,but I know it is out there...I have seen it and I know, it exists, it is out there shining.  This evening I learned, watching the news, that it was 107 degrees somewhere in Oklahoma, and in Redding, that's right here in  California, it was 101 degrees F.   So we had a cool foggy day; it is  actually very okay with me, but it is kind of pretty when the sun shines, isn't it?

Golden Flowers on a Foggy Shore

I can see these flowers, bobbing in the breeze beyond the ferns on yonder path outside my door.  They are taller than I am - and I am  5' 6 .75 "- unless I have shrunk, which is of course possible.   They bloom in July which is very good of them because the Central Coast of California tends to not see much sun midsummer.  Of course when the sun does break though it is a dazzle beyond what tongue can tell, but  days can pass without a glimmer of the golden glow.

When I first became responsible for these flowers I was told that they are Frittillaria 
and I loved the name how it just rolled around in my mouth and reminded of good things to eat and sounded so exotic.  Then I found out that in fact they are Lilium.  Well Fritti or Lilium, I did know they were Lilies and due to the spots I knew someone must call them Tiger Lily.

Not only is it foggy but the breeze has been constant and me with my hand held camera in the breeze...I present to you Lilium  columbianum...

I suppose it is possible that it will be August before I am, God willing, back here sharing...never my intention to be gone so long...and I suppose I could surprise my self and hurry back sooner having typed up the ink scribble offerings I have been cloistering or write the book review that belongs on Write Purpose... time might tell.  In the meantime, I  wish you the best in these last few days of this July.  

Distant Views & Close Ups...Megabytes Reduced!

See the little spots of red below the windmill my dad made years ago, those are poppies.

I took these pictures in our garden in May.  They, like the other photos I had been uploading  without reducing them, were huge.   Thanks to everyone who commented on my questions about paying for photos.  It gave me the energy to explore my options.  I knew how to reduce in other  photo programs and  now have learned that on a Mac I needed to export them out of i-photo to work with sizing.                        

Here they are,  the lovely poppies, up close, a few days before a gopher ate them.  If I had my dad's device set up as he designed it....the pole of the windmill, which he called a clacker,  is to set inside a metal pipe in the ground with room to wiggle so it clangs and clacks and disturbs the peace of the tunneling nibblers.... maybe the flowers might not have been on Mr. Gopher's menu.  Ah well, when St. Paul was reminding the people of Corinth not to bother others about what they chose to eat he  quoted Psalm 24 : "The earth is the Lord's and everything in it..."

I saw the actual gopher one day when he popped out and had a brief skirmish with Miss Phoebe the cat which skirmish both survived.  Phoebe follows me in the garden, sometimes playing quite the overseer.  Her quiet company is a great blessing to me...friendliness...showing up...coming alongside...checking in... and she often makes me smile and laugh.

 So a little snap of the view like this photo above is over 7 MB... that's megabytes...and  reduced the photo is down into the kb size....that's lots smaller.  I must continue to make time to learn about the technologies I allow in my life.
                                           

 This is the rose named for Julia Childs...who was very good with a spoon.

So, as time and energy permit, I hope to be back soon to share  "of this and that " with you who find and follow and enjoy my wandering missives.  I have enjoyed taking a few quiet moments to share this morning, so I thank you.

Pay for Pictures on my Blog?

I know I haven't posted for over a month.... What happened? Well one thing that happened, the one thing that I am going to tell you about, not the other (x+y) 24 things that happened that I won't bother you with is that I was doing a  post  ready to share beautiful images with you and I  got a notice that I needed to buy some room  for my photos....

                   ( Generally by now I would have already draped a lovely scene in  here for you to gaze at, but bear with me.)

Well, it was late and so I bailed and then the next day  I poked through my blog and took out a few photos here and there and started reading back in my archives and was amazed out how much is here to read, if one chooses and can find their way through it .  So at that point I was not only  wondering what  to do about photos, and yes, some I should have made smaller before I uploaded them, and I could rectify that, but we are talking time and patience and that is more costly than money....anyway...I started thinking about organization and layout.  Those pesky labels, do I have just a few  generic ones or do I name drop and make a cloud big enough for a deluge?

In the meantime, if you are new here, I hope you will read my first entry on this blog from January 2009 found here: Non- Zero Compliance , and then another short piece  written in February of 2009 that talks, in part,  about how I chose the name Bread on the Water for my web log: Bread, Money, Energy .  And wander around, whenever and where ever you like of course...

I thank those of you who do stop by and read and if you take the time and go through the process of leaving a comment, you are doubly thanked.    Now it's time to pick labels for this posts...hm mm...can't get away from this organizational categorizing stuff, can I?

And do vist my other blog where I did actually post just yesterday...Write Purpose.

And if you know how to organize blog labels in a really effective way...or have any other good advice for me...let's hear it. Thanks!