I liked the heart-shaped leaf behind this one...
Bamboo doesn't care that it's fal. I liked the way the wind rustled the leaves when I snapped the picture and made them blurry in spots
The Silk Tree
The front of our house is dominated by a Silk Tree (Mimosa) planted in the front courtyard
When we planted it many years ago, it was a sad little twiggy thing that needed to be protected in the winter.
Over the years it grew big and strong, and entertained us with it's beautiful pink and white flowers, and it's funny little leaves that close up at night. We're pretty fond of the tree.
Over the years it has also insisted on leaning TOWARDS the house, which is odd, because that means it's leaning AWAY from the sun, and I would expect it to do just the opposite. But it has been growing up over our sunporch walkway, shading it and causing moss to grow there, dropping leaves on the roof, and leaning on the gutters. We hate to intervene, but it was time.
So Dave bravely climbed up on the roof
He cut back the branches with a sawzall, until nothing was hanging over the roof, and then he cleaned up all the moss, scrubbing and brushing until the roof as as clean as he could get it by hand.
Then he cleverly used a ladder to scale the steep garage roof so he could reach over the top and fix a vent that had blown off earlier this summer.
When he was done, the front deck was covered in a HUGE pile of silk tree branches,
And our pretty silk tree really looks none the worse for it's 'trim'.
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Learning to use Photoshop - and Fetching Photos
Original
After a couple hours in Photoshop, the fences are gone, the electric wires overhead are gone, and the horses are a darker sillhouette against the sunset. Not bad for a first try! I can see why this Photoshop thing is so addictive!
Also, notice the watermark, made by my brilliant friends at HappyPupDesign. This is going to be the name of my photo studio. 'Fetching Photos by Stephanie'. I'm working on setting up the website now.
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