Touching up the odd photograph

If you are particularly observant, or interested in such things, you will have seen that I have been taking part in Kim Klassen's Photoshop SkinnyMini eCourse and finding myself becoming addicted to adding all sorts of delightful things to very ordinary photos.  And 'layers' are no longer a great mystery to me....

 I can get myself into such a confusing situation that Photoshop just throws up its hands in horror and quits, right there on the spot.  But on the whole I seem to have absorbed a fair bit of information about textures and filters and levels and other manipulative tricks.

The photo in my heading is a picture we took of some mountain sheep, feeding by the side of the road and looking for a clear spot in the traffic to cross to the creek for water.  Charles spotted them first, - as he usually does with his keen eye and quick wit.  I, of course, caught just a glimpse of them as we sped by, but being the darling that he is Charles found a turn-around spot and we went back to get pictures.  I have fancied them up a bit, and perhaps made them look as if they survived the winter in better shape than they did., but still they were pretty agile and alert.

Two or three years ago a local photographer trekked the hills with his video camera around Olalla  (where this flock hangs out).  He produced a really fascinating and enjoyable film of the sheep in the autumn, at mating time, and some splendid pictures of the competitive rams.  I am beyond trekking the hills, so am content with watching this DVD and thrilled  when the opportunity arises to see even part of the flock up close.

Yesterday morning Charles and the family down the hill were in the right place at the right time and were awed at the sight of a small flock of Trumpeter Swans circling low over the pasture and then heading to the river.  I, alas, heard them conversing but missed seeing them.  I understand they are lingering in this area, between Keremeos and Okanagan Falls, so perhaps there will be another opportunity.

Nobody had a camera handy so this picture is courtesy of Charles Brandt and was taken in the Comox Valley.  They are such a magnificent, graceful and elegant bird and it is encouraging to see their numbers increasing.  I'm sure if my pictures were well organized I could find amongst them pictures of trumpeter swans taken on the Meadow where Dave and Nicky and Vince live.

I picked my first bouquet from the garden this morning to comfort someone who had lost a dear friend, - just a few a white hellebores, a couple of deep purple ones and a bit of flowering forsythia, - a small start but the beginning of the generosity the garden abounds in from daffodils in the spring to chrysanthemums in the fall.

It was a cruel April day today, - a gusting wind, cold with showers, and so the bees were home doing whatever they do in their hives, but yesterday they were out buzzing and gathering honey wherever it was available.

Here is a picture I have been toying with, and I am off to spend the evening hours doing more!