Garden Update No 789

 I mentioned previously the latest makeover of some of the garden beds out front.  Succulents never seem to stop growing or spreading. I guess it is good for the curbside herbivores, as there is quite a pile of large succulents ready to be taken. They are getting a good thumbing thru. One lady says to hubby no not that one, let me see, there that one.   So the beds have been trimmed down of plants and new stonework placed, as well as some new plantings.  I also wandered across the road for a beach cleanup after the warmer weekend.  There were two new things I haven't picked up before, like a paddle and a nail. A complete false nail no doubt she is cursing about it. There were the usual minutiae, butts, bottle tops, lolly pops and two nicely wrapped bags of dog poop.

Someone must be stuck up the creek

Curbside plant stand

Well bedded

That's the one

April 27°

That was one of the warmer April days although one of those phone popup messages told Debbie there was a 30° April day fours years ago which is the first month we had spent here. The three Summers since then have been a bit cooler.  Debbie has been sculpting garden beds for the last two days, hefting bags of dirt, spreading garden stones and generally loosing some weight.  We went beaching in the afternoon. It is also controlled fire season but fortunately the smoke did not get in our eyes.  Overall it was a pleasant afternoon and not so busy for a Sunday.  As we were walking thru the water Debbie had the pleasure of stepping on a ray.  When I have disturbed them they have shot off but this time he hung around  like  "What are you doing disturbing my rest?" but then sauntered off in a circular path. Are there any more 27° days left for this April? 

Hidden Ray 

Slide Conversion

 Having found a second scanner I went to try it on a another computer.  This one is also old, probably turn of the century, but it has Windows 7 which the CD says is compatible with the scanning software.  The first problem was that the CD player door was stuck and I had to force it without breaking anything.  Eventually the drivers and programs all installed ok and better still I have captured the digital versions as well. I played around with the settings to maximise the detail being recorded. The first slide archive that was sent out 12 yar ago had a sizing of 256kb per photo file. I am recording these at between 10,000Kb and 12,000Kb per photo file. So the quality of the image is way better this time around.  

There were two envelopes of around 80 slides that I did yesterday. I cannot see these in the original archive so this is the first time they have been digitised. I believe they missed out because they were separated out of the rotary holders for some other reason.  Because I can now increase the quality I will redo the entire 1200 slides over the next few months and compile it again onto a new USB drive for distribution. As well there are descriptions and dating info that will be incorporated into the file details. There are two examples here.

Williamstown - Linda, Neil, Brian, John and Wayne foreground
PS John Taylor lives about 10 doors down from Daniel & Bianca

Brian and Neil cowboys at Port Arlington Xmas 1960. Interestingly the Clancy's were in this same campground at the same time. And during this particular Summer, a two year old Debbie wandered off causing her father to call into every tent over the next few hours. So we would have met a worried Pat Clancy way earlier than I thought 11 years later.

Scanners

 I was looking for the old slide scanner and asking around as well, then I found it buried with other boxes of older stuff. It is 12 years old but still had everything you needed including the software CD.  I still have some old computers but not that old.  I went to the oldest that had a CD player and installed everything OK but I could not get the scanner to work properly. I spent two hours on it.  The web site they recommend was no longer around as well. All I got was a black image when I tried to see the slide. So I have given up on it. When I was putting it back in the pile there is a second scanner also in it's box sitting on the shelf. Here we go again. Why are there two? Maybe because I have forgotten that one was broken!!

The old software may work with both if they are TWAIN compliant

Swim Record

 Three swims this week and I am trying to remember if I swam it in April previously.  It was warmer today at 21° and the Sun helps although the start was a bit murky.  No run ins with rays today.  After yesterdays council prompting they rang me back quick smart. It seems these type of dog requests are grouped together in some periodical community conflab. We had an afternoon cheese board session with one of the neighbours named Jill.  She used to work with the army down at the fort in Queenscliff. I remember having a dress up session there years ago where you could imitate different army officers.  It's the first Friday of the month so the weight update this morning is 91.4Kg. At this rate next month will only be a 500g reduction if the trend is the same.

Two Swims & Dog Submission

I am on a roll this week having had a swim this morning for the second time this week.  The water temperatures are still ok. I am more likely to not swim because of the wind and also the depth. Today I startled a ray which was covered in sand and sleeping so I did not easily spy it. We would have both wet ourselves if we weren't already.  I have not had any reply on my "get dogs on a leash during the day" idea.  The council sent me a "have your say email" with a feedback button at the bottom, so I asked them if there was any progress.  I get the feeling they are not keen. The submission number is P1817650. It took me ages to find it, so now I am going to tag it in the title linw above.

Red Hot

J & J

Mowing Day

 We have an afternoon drinks session on the go for tomorrow so I have spent two hours this morning edging and mowing and I threw in some weed poisoning as well. Jill got us over to her house for drinks about two weeks ago and we are returning the favour.  I have turned on the robot to clean up inside while I was cleaning up outside. I have also unloaded yesterdays ray video featured below. I went back in the afternoon for a beach clean. This time I found a dog leash as well as underwear, wooden spikes and many butts and bottle tops.

Clouds were rolling from the West

But City clear in the east

Rubbish Haul