Grilled Corn

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Canton, Texas

Photoshop Class

Yesterday I started an online class with Kim Klassen to learn how to use Photoshop Elements.  I purchased the program about eight months ago and have been too intimidated to even install it on my computer but with some prodding from Rebecca at The Dusty Cellar Shoots, I enrolled in Kim's Skinny-Mini course, which just happens to be free.  You are probably familiar with Kim as the creator of some fabulous textures (many of which are also free) that will make your photos really dreamy.  I zipped through the first day's lesson and then on the second day when it came time to duplicate some of the things I supposedly learned the day before I discovered I couldn't remember how to do any of them!  Plus I was having some Internet issues because my connection is via satellite and I more frequently than not have trouble watching any kind of video.  I couldn't get any of the videos to play on any of the three browsers I use so I was just about ready to throw in the towel.  But I tried again today and the Internet issues seemed to have cleared up a bit so I went back through the first lesson, took some notes, typed them up, and then did a couple of practice takes.  Above is my first image edited in Photoshop.  Now, granted, it really wasn't "edited."  All I did was practice learning how to use the crop tool!  So what you have is a picture of a shrimp-colored canna lily SOOC cropped to an 8 x 10.  Of course, it took me half an hour to do it and I could have done it in ten seconds in Picnik or Picasa.  But, hey, I guess progress comes in baby steps!  Now tomorrow I have to relisten to lesson two, make some notes, type them up, and hopefully learn about levels, layers, and adjustments.  Sounds pretty intimidating, don't you think?  I figure if I announce to the world (also known as my bloggie friends) that I'm taking this course, I would be really humiliated to admit that I dropped out of it, so wish me luck and hopefully I'll continue to show you the fruits (or flowers, as the case may be) of my learning experience.

K is for Kiss ~ ABC Wednesday

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ABC Wednesday

Rusk Footbridge

The Rusk Footbridge at 546 feet in length is said to be the longest footbridge in the country.  It was first built in 1861 as a means for residents who lived in the eastern part of the community to be able to get to town and to the courthouse when the creek became swollen and the roads were impassable from one side of town to the other.  It was rebuilt in 1889 by Engineer T.H. Barnes and was restored in the late 1960s from plans left by Engineer Barnes.

The House on Sycamore Street

Photographed at Rusk, Texas

Many small towns in East Texas have fortunately preserved the small mosaic tile street name designations along the curbs in their downtown areas and older neighborhoods.  Who wouldn't want to live in this beautiful Southern plantation style home on Sycamore Street!  Rusk is a quaint little town 50 miles west of where I live.  Having a population of approximately 5,000, it is the home to the Texas State Railroad (which still operates a ride on a steam engine through the pine forests of East Texas as well as the longest footbridge in the nation, which was originally constructed in 1861.

J is for Jail ~ ABC Wednesday

The old San Augustine County Jail in San Augustine, Texas, is now the home of the county Sheriff's Department.  The building was named some years back for a rather famous local sheriff, N.L. Tindall.  If you look closely, this photo is NOT PROCESSED AS BLACK AND WHITE but is rather in full color and the color is absolutely representative of the building.

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ABC WEDNESDAY

Living in the Past

Photographed in Sacul, Texas 

Charlton Heston?  After thinking about it for a minute, Heston is a hero to those people who support the National Rifle Association.  Can't say I'm one of those but living in Texas that's a hard thing to admit.  It's almost like coming out of the closet!

Redneck James Bond?

Wal-Mart Parking Lot

Nacogdoches, Texas

I is for Icicles ~ ABC Wednesday

We don't see too many icicles in this part of Texas, but one frosty morning last winter we awoke to a smattering of snow and a few icicles hanging from the gate to the barn.  You can imagine with that golden sun rising in the background that neither snow nor icicles lasted long.

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ABC WEDNESDAY

Nicknames

My backlog of pictures has been dwindling.  The heat of the summer and some back problems which have kept me close to home recently have contributed to that.  I'm so looking forward to cooler weather so I can get out and about.  In the meantime, this is a picture of a sign I took this summer at a scooter rental facility when my daughter and I visited Jerome, Arizona.  She quickly brought the sign to my attention and thought that I should take a picture of it.  Why?  All my relatives and my childhood friends call me Scooter!  It was a cute nickname when I was a girl but it seems a little ridiculous for a gray-haired grandma.  But nicknames tend to stick and now that I've returned to live in Texas I find myself introducing myself to new friends by my nickname!  Do you have a nickname that your friends and family, or perhaps everyone, calls you?

Squirreling Away for the Winter

Rooms with a View

H is for Hollyhocks ~ ABC Wednesday

Hollyhocks in the gardens of the Surgeon's House Bed and Breakfast

Jerome, Arizona

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ABC WEDNESDAY

Good Grief!

Even though I work as a proofreader of legal transcripts, I think it's okay to misspell a word now and then for literary effect.  I particularly like dontcha, wanna, etc.  But puhleese, woodnya think that a big New York publishing house which publishes one of the year's best-selling novels that is rated four and a half stars on amazon.com would pay enough to hire a decent copy editor/proofreader?  Evidently not!

Just as I get settled in to Crooked Letter, Crooked Letter by Tom Franklin I run across this monster misspelling within the first few pages!  I've been finding more and more typographical errors in books I read lately.  Have copy editors gone by the wayside?  Can't spell check be programmed to include homonyms?  And as I sit looking at this, by the way, when did "keep em in" replace "keep 'em in"?  After all, Em is my grandson, and I don't like seeing his name in print in lower case.  Good spelling, good punctuation, and good grammar are quickly becoming the dinosaurs of the English language.  So William Morrow and Company and Amazon (distributor of Kindle) , shape up! 

Bookstore Bonanza

On a recent trip to Longview to take Truck to the salon (car dealership) for a little bit of pampering (oil and filter change) and a pedicure (tire rotation), I took a small side trip to Gladewater, a little town of about 6200 people in East Texas.  According to current local legend, Gladewater actually increased its population between 2000 and 2010, which is virtually unheard of in these parts.  Gladewater is best known as being Elvis' base during his early career and the town in which Johnny Cash wrote Walk the Line.  It's also been dubbed the Antique Capital of East Texas.  I sought it out because my dental hygienist had told me about a wonderful bookstore and an Italian restaurant that served up delectable delights located there.  I arrived midafternoon and soon spotted the two establishments on the same block.  I had to forgo the restaurant this trip but upon entering the bookstore, I traversed into a reader's delight.

 

Everything was meticulously arranged with sections for both hardbound volumes and paperbacks.  The selection was immense.  I spent quite a bit of time talking with the proprietor and we traded facts about East Texas between us.  The nooks and crannies of the store contain reading lamps, easy chairs and sofas.  The best thing of all was the price:  paperbacks for $1 and hard-cover books for $2.  The price of certain specialty books was negotiable.

Located in an old building, Gladewater Books contains the original stamped tin ceiling dating back to before the turn of the century (the one before this one, that is), which I just had to take a photo of!  I'm making a list of the books I want when I return.