Echoes In Time

I haven't posted for awhile because I've been busy working on a new site for myself. Since I've been taking and posting so many pictures, I decided to open a site to keep my pictures on, so I can just provide a link rather than posting so much on the sites I post to, and on my blog. I will still post a few pictures here, but will leave most on the site. Here is the link, if anyone's interested:

Echoes In Time

I've had quite a lot of fun fiddling with the site, although I will admit it's been a lot of work putting the pictures up. First they have to be re-sized, then uploaded, then individually inserted into the photo albums and labeled. It didn't help that the largest album had to be re-done not once, but twice! Ah well, I learned a few things from those bloopers! Even in spite of that, I have been very much enjoying myself. I used one of their templates, as I liked it and I figured it would be much less work. I decided it would be enough work just getting the pictures up!

Of course, as soon as I get one batch of pictures up, Judy and I make another cemetery trip and I have a whole new batch to work on! Case in point - we just went to the old cemetery again yesterday evening. I was going to work on getting those pictures up tonight, but I think I'll give it a rest until tomorrow. I'm quite tired and am enjoying just lazing around. So you'll have to wait to see them! Mind you, I doubt anyone else is as excited about them as I am! LOL!

I have really been enjoying these cemetery jaunts. They are so peaceful, and it's very refreshing to be out wandering around all the wonderful old trees and gravestones in the crisp autumn air. Although when I was laying on the ground getting macro shots of a certain interesting mushroom it was a bit more than crisp, I can tell you! You'll see which mushroom I'm talking about when the Old Cemetery III section goes up in the next day or two.

I've also been playing with Paint Shop Pro more lately. Mostly it's just to re-size the pictures, with the occasional minor cropping job. However, due to the cloudiness in the last couple of visits a few otherwise lovely shots were a little washed out, and I discovered that the saturation tool works wonders. It boosts the colour just a touch to have the picture looking just as I saw the scene with my eyes, but doesn't alter anything like fiddling with the brightness and contrast does.

The only major artistic fiddling I've been doing in Paint Shop Pro is to render some shots in black and white, and some in sepia, for those who enjoy that. I do like the effect, but I prefer the pictures in colour, as that is how I saw them. I will be posting sections for the black and white and sepia in the next few days.

All of this picture-taking has led to me realize that I have to upgrade the old computer. There is simply not enough space on the hard drive. It's a 9.53G drive, which was top of the line when I bought the computer. Putting Windows XP on the computer ate most of that up, and it's very frustrating having to keep transferring pictures to CD in order to free up a bit of space. Of course I need them all archived on CD anyhow, but I would prefer to also be able to leave them all on the computer. Fortunately adding a hard drive and a bit of extra memory isn't overly expensive these days. Since I don't have an extra bay for another hard drive, I will likely go with an external one. I've been doing some hunting around, and today a tech friend of mine told me about the place where she gets all her stuff. I was quite impressed with their selection and their prices. It's also close to home, so I will likely pop in and have a chat with them one of these days.

The only other bit of news I have at the moment concerns the girls. Lady gave me the biggest scare she has ever given me to date. About a week ago I woke up to her having what I thought was a seizure. I jumped out of bed, and she would not respond to me at all, even though her eyes were open. I was afraid she was dead until I noticed that she was breathing, so I just sat there, petting her and talking to her. She suddenly started wagging her tail and licking my face, and behaved like nothing had happened. Until she got up and noticed she had peed, then she got feeling a bit guilty. The vet's office made me an appointment for later that morning, and off we went - Lady behaving as though all was normal, me with swollen eyes from bawling all morning, and very shattered nerves.

The vet questioned me about what had happened, and immediately assured me that it had not been a seizure, but was a cardiac arrhythmia (she also calls it a "heart faint"), where her heart actually stopped beating for a short time. The brain panicked because there was no blood flow, and the panic caused the seizure-like behaviour. She became unconscious, which was her brain and body's way of giving the heart time to re-start. The vet ran some blood tests and took some x-rays, and these confirmed her diagnosis, and showed that Lady's heart is a bit enlarged. So Lady is now on heart medication, and is doing quite well. She's actually quite a bit perkier since being on the medication. She just went for her one week check up on Tuesday evening, and the vet was very happy with her progress. Which made ME very happy too!

Another issue has been that Lady occasionally pees on the bed during the day when I'm at work. I figured she was sleeping more deeply because she's older, and just wasn't waking up when she had to go. I asked the vet about it, without telling her what I thought, and what she said confirmed what I had been thinking. She said it was because she slept more deeply and simply did not wake up. However, she threw a surprising twist into things. She told me that the reason this happens is because older female dogs often have a large drop in estrogen. So next week I will have to start adding a bit of tofu to Lady's food, as the vet said that often raises the estrogen levels. If that doesn't work, then she will consider putting her on synthetic estrogen pills. I'm not big on synthetic medications, for humans or animals, as our bodies are not made to process them properly. So we'll have to do some chatting about that. Hopefully the tofu will do the trick, and that discussion will not have to take place. I have to say, though, tofu would NEVER cross my doorstep for any other reason but this!

At any rate, that episode of arrhythmia was very terrifying, and I hope to never have to go through that again. The news was good in some ways, but of course Lady will have to be closely monitored from here on in, and will be on the heart medication for the rest of her life. For the moment, all is well, and that's the main thing.

I think I'm done babbling for now. I've been very tired this week, and I'm just relaxing and getting ready for bed. I've just made some herbal tea, so I will do a bit of surfing while I drink that, then hopefully get an early night. Take care everyone!

Grave Thoughts

There are two old cemeteries here that Judy and I have been wanting to visit for a long time. They are both huge, and appear to be one very large cemetery, as they each lie on either side of a very busy street. I drive by, or rather between them every weekday morning on my way to work, and I've always thought they looked lovely. Judy and I finally went to one of them, and I'm here to tell you that it is by far one of most gorgeous cemeteries I've had the pleasure of visiting.

We wandered over there on Thursday evening, but after a couple of delays en route we ended up not having enough light left to get the pictures we wanted. We still enjoyed strolling around, but we opted to forego our shopping plans for the next afternoon and head back to the cemetery. I am so glad we did. It was a perfect afternoon - very warm, but with a cool breeze, and lots of shade from all the old trees in the cemetery. The cemetery itself is extremely peaceful and has a wonderful energy.

We explored the oldest section, which is nothing short of stunning. The monuments and gravestones are works of art, and many of them are quite old. There are several stones that are so eroded the inscriptions can no longer be read, and a good number of the stones and monuments have quite nice collections of lichen growing on them. Not that that's necessarily good for the stones, but it does look lovely. Of course, due to the age of that section, there are a lot of children's graves, infant and child mortality being what it was. Those are always sad to see, and some of the inscriptions are just heartbreaking.

Speaking of heartbreaking, at one point in time some vandals spent one night doing a ton of damage in both of the cemeteries. From the article I read, it sounds like the focused on the old sections. They broke many gravestones and monuments, and while they were repaired, it is still easy to see the damage. It made me extremely angry and sad to see all that desecration. Some stones have been patched together, but others are still in pieces. I think they may have been repaired at one time, but fell apart again. I felt compelled to take pictures of many of the damaged stones - it just seemed like someone needed to acknowledge them and pay respect to them, and that was my way of doing so.

Two were particularly heartbreaking for me. One was a beautiful work of art on the grave of a four-year-old boy. While it does not show clearly in the picture, this little guy is holding teddy bears in his arm, and flowers in his hand. Due to erosion over the years, it's hard to make out the teddy bears unless you are standing right by the stone. Here is the picture of that stone:



Broken Hearted


As you can see, repairs were attempted, but were not overly successful. Pieces are missing, and the little guy's body has not been set back in proper position over the feet. Still, at least a good bit of the statue remains, and it was not destroyed entirely.

The other heartbreaker for me can be found in the PhotoBucket link that will follow at the end of this blog entry. It is a picture of all that remains of an old gravestone, and that is simply the base. The entire upper portion of the stone is gone, so there is no name, date, or anything else to mark the grave of the individual whose body lies there. I keep wishing I had a fair bit of money, then I could call the cemetery, find out who is buried there, and have a new stone made for him or her.

It really angers me when people do that kind of senseless damage. It is so horribly disrespectful, both to those who are buried there and to their families who are still alive. I can only imagine how people felt when they discovered that their relatives' graves had been vandalized. It would be very traumatic, to say the least. On top of that, works of art have been badly damaged, and in some cases destroyed. These old monuments and gravestones are wonderful pieces of art, and were made with care, respect, and great crafstmanship. If some vandal were to take a knife to the Mona Lisa he or she would be prosecuted quite strongly. I honestly feel that the same should happen with those who vandalize cemeteries like this - not only are they destroying works of art, they are grossly disrespecting the resting places of those who have passed on - or at least of their remains. I know they are not there in spirit, but their remains still deserve respect.

I could rant about this for quite some time, but I suppose I'd best let it go for the moment. At any rate, Judy and I had a wonderful time wandering around the cemetery, and we got some lovely pictures too. I took 185, and while Judy didn't take that many I know she took quite a few as well. Actually I took 185 yesterday afternoon - the night before I took 107! Although some of those were full moon shots that I took after we'd come home. Still, I have a whack of cemetery pictures! I've put less than half of them on PhotoBucket at this point in time. I may add more later, but for now I've put up most of my favourite shots.

If you'd like, you can check them out in the following link:

Click Here To View Cemetery Pictures

I'm also posting a few of my favourites below:



Broken Cross


Old Graves
I was asked if these five graves were from the same family. I honestly don't know. I just loved the way they looked in their little group, and had to get a shot.


Autumn Leaves
This is one of my favourite shots. It was a picture that I thought would not turn out well, so I was all prepared to delete it after downloading the pictures. I was shocked when I opened it - I absolutely love the way it turned out.


Serenity
See? How could anyone not want to hang out in this gorgeous place?


You can see larger versions of the above pictures in the PhotoBucket link, as well as many others shots of some wonderful old stones and some lovely views of the cemetery. One of my favourite spots in the cemetery is an old crypt. I was fascinated with it the minute we walked in the cemetery on Thursday evening, and I'm still fascinated with it now. You can see a couple of pictures of it in the link.

I'm going to shut up now, and let you all get to looking at the pictures, if you so desire. I hope you enjoy them as much as I enjoyed taking them. I can't wait to get back there and take some more!

Have a wonderful night, everyone!

EDIT: Judy posted her pictures already - I didn't think she was doing it until tomorrow. So make sure to head over to Showers and Sunflowers and check Judy's pictures out!

Vacation!

Woo-hoo! I am officially on vacation! It feels kind of weird, as it's been awhile since I've had time off - other than being so sick earlier in the year, but I'm talking enjoyable time off.

I worked late last night and got everything all caught up, so all I'll have to go back to is whatever mess people at work leave for me. So that felt good. A friend was visiting my sister, and they invited me to join them, so I had a nice visit after I finally got home. Not to mention a yummy dinner that they provided. Very nice way to start my vacation!

I got up this morning and debated how to spend my day. I knew I had to go out at one point to get my brother-in-law's birthday present, as well as pick up a card for him. But I wasn't quite sure what I wanted to do with the rest of my day. I was thinking of doing some more cleaning, but then I decided that since it was the first day of vacation, I was going to simply be lazy and do sweet tweet.

Once that decision was made, I decided to treat myself on my first morning off. I made a lovely pot of perked coffee, then made pancakes and eggs for breakfast, with a glass of orange juice on the side. Then I fiddled around on the computer for awhile, and had a brief chat online with a couple of friends. I was debating what I might want to do next when my eyes decided it was time to slam shut, so I ended up whiling away the afternoon with a nice long nap. Ahhhhh, vacations are good!

So now I've been to the store and am spending a nice, quiet evening at home. I have some spooky shows to watch tonight - Most Haunted, Rescue Mediums, Psychic Detectives, Ghostly Encounters - but since most of them are re-runs I will likely spend most of the evening in front of the computer and doing a bit of reading. As well as plotting what I want to do on the rest of my vacation!

My sister and I are planning on visiting a huge cemetery in the city. It's actually two cemeteries, one on either side of the road. They are both very large, and quite old, so I'm thinking there should be some lovely old tombstones and hopefully a few interesting energies. I drive by, or rather, between, these cemeteries every day on may way to work, and I just love them.

There are a couple of stores I want to get to. One is my favourite witch store. I was there a couple of weeks ago, but they had run out of the stuff I'd gone to purchase, so I have to go back for it. There is a metaphysical store not far from there that I used to love - they actually used to be in the quarters that the witch store is in now. Since they moved, I'm not as fond of going there - the staff are all part-timers, and aren't all very knowledgeable. Plus, the energies in the store just aren't the same - it seems to be more about making money now, and less about the products and the spirituality. Still, I do like checking out the new stuff - I've gotten some lovely items from that store. So I'd like to go there and peek around, then head to the witch store for my stuff, and for a dose of wonderful energy.

I wouldn't mind doing a run to Wal-Mart, as the Hallowe'en decorations should be coming out by now. It's always fun to browse through them, and I usually find something that's reasonably priced to add to my collection.

There are several other things I'd like to do too, but I only have a week, and I also want to get some good lazing-around time in! So I'll just play things by ear, and see what develops. Speaking of developing, that brings to mind a few pictures I took this morning!


The Girls!


Lady


Misty

I found another web this morning when I took the girls out, and just had to try and get pictures of it. It was very close to where the other web I'd posted had been, but this one was in an even more awkward position. I'm wondering if it's the same spider, since it is so close to the old web. I don't like this picture as much as the previous one, but I still thought it turned out well enough to post!


Charlotte's New Web


I think that's about it for me tonight! Have a good night, everyone, and a wonderful weekend!