The Farm

I pass this farm every day during my new commute and immediately recognized its photogenic quality. It is, for me, an interesting subject and I enjoy seeing it daily, watching how light, weather, time of day and the seasons keep it from seeming static. The field in front often has cows and calves in it who seem mildly annoyed and surprised when I pop over to take a picture.

I abuptly stopped when I rounded the corner and saw the clouds piling up in the Mohawk Valley beyond the silos. A lot of detail is lost in this picture but in the original the clouds and trees evoke paintings of English landscapes and the Hudson River school. I reduced and moved my logo because it seemed a shame to obscure the most interesting section of the picture.

I've got Magnolias on my mind

I have a post on the topic of Magnolias on Cold Climate Gardening. It's like deja vu.

Here's a little history on Magnolias I stole gleaned from Monrovia Nursery, of all places:

The genus Magnolia was conferred by Linnaeus who named it after Pierre Magnol, (1638-1715) a botanist of Montpellier, France. There are over 35 species and countless hybrids and this one falls into a group known generally as Magnolia x soulangeana produced from two distinct species. One parent is the white flowered Magnolia denudata, introduced from China by Banks in 1789 where it is locally known as Yulan magnolia and classified for a time as M. yulan. The other parent, red flowered Magnolia lilliflora was introduced from Japan by Carl Thunberg in 1790. This cross and its subsequent varieties and hybrids began 1820 and were named for Chevalier Soulange-Bodin who raised the first hybrid in France.

The number of species listed, 35, is way too low, but the rest of the information is interesting. The Frenchmen sure lent us some beautiful names to remember them by.

Here's the original of the picture I used for April's header and my post on Cold Climate Gardening:


I really liked the flowers but the background was distracting and uninteresting, so I erased it. It's my first time doing that to a picture and it turned out ok. Not good enough by any means for a graphics professional but at least a "c". I thought the different colored backgrounds I added were appropriate and worked well with the color schemes on each blog.

Header Tutorial

I was never satisfied with the stock writing and pictures for headers that come with most blog templates. There are a millions, if not jillions, of blogs out there and I decided to create my own headers to differentiate myself and stand away from the crowd. Interesting photographs of my area, gardens, and what is going on in my life were what I wanted to incorporate into my design. But I also wanted continuity and a sense of familiarity to be part of it too. The results are what you see every time you visit. I’ve added variety by changing them monthly and keeping them seasonal in subject. I have a lot of fun creating them and want to share them with you.

I use a graphic editing program that supports layers to create my headers. Supporting layers is the key. If you are familiar with glass painting, where layers of paint are built up to create an image on the reverse side, then you will begin to understand the usefulness of layers when creating an image. I use Photoshop Elements 1.x because I am familiar with its capabilities and it was the bundled software that came with my scanner. PS Elements has gone through many iterations, currently at 5.x, since I purchased mine but it is adequate for the work I want to achieve and my ability level. Any image-editing program that supports layers will work.

The other reason I like to use PSE is because of its proprietary format for saving files, using the file extension PSD. This file format, like RAW, TIFF, and others, saves files with no or little loss in image quality. This is very useful when creating images and allows a great deal of manipulation. The files created are large so I convert them to condensed files like JPEG, GIF, ICO (for icons), or PNG (the new Vista standard for icons) when I am finished and ready to upload them to the Internet. Other programs will also do file conversions but I have found PSE to be the best for me in retaining the sharpness of the original.

Thanks to Kathy for suggesting this post a long time ago. I had no inkling it would take such a long time to write plus make the screen captures.

This tutorial is going to be long and very graphic intensive so another window will open after you Click Here To Go To Header Tutorial..

March Header

March is the beginning of Spring in many parts of the U.S. Areas in the South and West are reaching their last frost dates and gardeners everywhere are thinking of planting and growing again. Daffodils are one of the first of the spring bulbs to bloom and we've always grown them. Long-lived and wildlife resistant, Daffodils, oops Narcissus, have had a place in all our gardens.

The variety in the picture is 'February Gold', part of the cyclamineus section of Narcissus. Named cyclamineus in part because the petals are slightly swept back suggesting their namesakes, this section has always been the first of the Daffodils to flower for us. This picture was taken during the third week of January when we grew them in Watsonville but we won't see them until the end of April in New York. To work up a little plant envy, Paperwhites bloom in November in the Bay Area. Although you can't tell from the picture, these flowers are growing in gallon pots set close together. I had to contort my position quite a lot to keep the pots from showing in the picture.

February Header

A new month and a new header. This is a picture of the gate to an area we call the horse run, previously mentioned in this post. We call it the horse run because the previous owners fenced it in, providing additional grazing for their horse. It bisects two fallow corn fields and is bordered with trees on each of the long sides. The road is to the immediate left and the runoff creek is behind the photographer, running parallel to the run. There is a gravel wash at the far end several hundred feet away, allowing creek access for watering the livestock.

This has become one of our favorite areas for visiting and walking, although we didn't realize its potential our first few years here. We were still overwhelmed by the spaces encompassing us and finding a balance to living here and it wasn't an area that received much focus. We recognized its beauty after a neighbor brush-hogged it and have been keeping it mowed ever since. Unlike the mowed meadow around our house, the turf in the run is mostly grass, creating a park-like setting. With the large trees protecting it and the creek running along its flank, it is a special place for birding and exploring.

Click 'read more' to see the full picture.

horse run gate in winter

I like when the gate poles are crowned with spheres of snow. I don't know why they are uneven in length but it makes for a more interesting visual. The shorter post is covered with Parthenocissus quinquifolia (Virginia creeper), providing brilliant red fall color and another contrasting element. Two Larix (Larch) are visible with an apple tree between them. I had a devil of a time cropping this into a header, as I wanted to include the gate but needed to eliminate too much of the picture's relevance.

New Year, New Header

To bounce this blog into the New Year, I have decided to change the header graphic. This is a picture of a road just south of us. If you were driving, you would have just left the tiny hamlet of South Valley heading west and facing a slight incline. The road veers sharply left at the crest, past what I think is the finest stand of evergreens in the area. Predominantly Norway Spruce, the trees are large, shapely, and well-spaced. They are also the landmark guardians of a cemetary at their base. The hill on the right continues higher and is the ridgeline that separates our home nestled in its little valley from here. A light carpeting of snow during the night, a mostly cloudless morning, and little traffic on the roads made for picture-perfect conditions. Thanksgiving morning, 2002.

December Header

When we first moved here, every road driven was a new experience. One day we decided to look for a local apple orchard and headed out on this road. Part of the enjoyment of living here is the opportunity for some fantastic vistas. And when we rounded a bend and the landscape opened up this is what we saw. A barn and horses backed by an expansive view across the Mohawk Valley and, on a clear day, the foothills of the Adirondacks. There isn't another setting for a picture like this near us but here. I knew I would be photographing it but thought it would look even better with snow. And then it happened and it was. Thanksgiving morning, 2002.

I originally created this header with a blue transparent strip and blue lettering but didn't like it as much as the final version.

November Header

Early October is when the fall leaves are at their most colorful with the penultimate period being the second weekend in October. It is hard to escape the orange of Sugar Maples but the brilliantly red Parthenocissus quinquefolia (Virgina Creeper) along with the scarlet shot with pink and orange of Rhus typhina (Staghorn Sumac) are hard to overlook. What you see in the picture are the Rhus along with a few Parthenocissus, Monarda (bee balm), and a Physocarpus (ninebark). These were collected on a coolish and wet day in early October (thanks Lisa). This was my first attempt at scanning leaves and I was pleased with the result. I think the golden lettering added the right seasonal touch.

Here are some additional pictures. I created the header from the first one and liked the look of the second one but didn't think it lent itself as easily to creating a header.