Let me introduce myself ...

[Lesley Cox]

Lovely pictures Olga, let's have lots more please. And feel free to start a new thread for Russian gardens - or anything else that takes your fancy.

Cliff, I've just noticed your profile name of Ranunculus (why doesn't that surprise me?) Do you know your Gilbert and Sullivan? -

"I'm called little buttercup, dear little buttercup, though I can never tell why,
But still I'm called buttercup, dear little buttercup, sweet little buttercup I." or words to that effect.

[Lesley Cox]

Something bizarre happens which I am at a complete loss to explain. When I open pictures to enlarge, I click on the pic and it enlarges. That's OK. But if I click on the file name UNDER the pic, it opens in Ulead Instant Viewer which I have on my computer and again, there it is enlarged, OK.

What is odd though, is that if I idly roll the mouse knob as if to scroll up or down - which I don't need to do to see the whole pic - I get more and more pics, totally unrelated to the one I clicked on. I get some pics from my own files, but also some from many different threads on the Forum, both this and the old Forum, also some pics I've never seen anywhere in my life before and quite unrelated to plants (the pic of Jonathon Lemalu the other day)  and all sorts of other stuff, cookery recipes, cars, scenery, cartoons etc etc. What on earth is happening and HOW? No-one else uses my computer.

[Maggi Young]

Goodness me, Lesley, I have no idea!  I did once get a pic open and then get others, but it was a one off... now if I click  on the file name I get a window that asks me if i want to open the file in ASee DC, which is the photo system we use. In the beginning, all of two weeks ago, I just got the pic enlarged, just like clicking on it!
All a mystery to me, like so much in life!  Ho, Humm!!

[mark smyth]

a late hello from what is supposed to be the Emerald Isle. With all the rain we have had we should be under water

[John Forrest]

It's a bit late to say welcome Olga because you have already made yourself a part of the SRGC family. Keep posting your super pictures. Best wishes from the not so bright but very breezy Blackpool.
Lesley, your problem is common to these packages. They have a set routine to display images and have a stock of their images, which they generate after the one you open. NO invaders, so don't worry that the 'thought police' are tapping in.

[Thomas Huber]

Lesley, I think your picture viewer shows the "Temporary Internet Files" Folder,
which saves all the pictures from any webpages you visited in the past.
As John states below - no need to worry!

[Martin Baxendale]

Lesley, I just tried it and my picture viewer does the same sort of thing. Thomas is right; it's showing pictures from earlier web pages visited, stored in Temporary Internet Files - not neccessarily what you've clicked on but any bits and bobs of illustrations, heading logos, etc., maybe even links to other sites and pages. If you're seeing stuff from long ago and stuff you don't remember, you may have a very full Temporary Internet Files folder.

It's a good idea to clean out all those temporary internet files regularly (daily) to get rid of all that clutter on your hard disc, and especially as viruses picked up when web browsing can hide there ad keep reinfecting your computer even if your anti-virus thinks it has removed them.

You should have a disc clean-up facility on your computer that will do this. Or, click Tools or Settings on your browser toolbar, and look for 'internet' options. That should bring up a window in which you can click to remove temporary internet files, remove cookies etc.

[Martin Baxendale]

Lesley, also if your temporary internet files hve not been cleared out for a very long time, you may even have pic files in there that were downloaded without your knowledge if you've picke up a downloader trojan type virus that uses your computer to download and send out spam. Your anti-virus could have got rid of the trojan horse programme but downloaded pics could still be on your hard disc, I think. So that may be why you see pics you've never seen before - maybe spam ads for web sites. Seriously, I'd get those files cleared out.

[Martin Baxendale]

And while we're on the subject of wierd computer behaviour, is anyone else having problems with forum email notifications being treated as spam by their anti-spam software? My BT-Yahoo anti-spam keeps putting most of my forum emails into my spam box, even when I keep marking them as 'not spam'. Been going on for a few days now.

[Thomas Huber]

Martin you are right, telling us to clear the "Temporary Internet Files" folder regularly, but
I don't agree with your recommendation to do that daily!!! This folder allows you to reduce
the download time of all regular visited pages. You will not have to download it when
you visit a website again, because Internet Explorer will take the picture from your
computer. If you delete the files, you will have to wait for downloading it again!

[Martin Baxendale]

Hi Thomas. Okay, maybe daily clearing of temporary internet files might be a little on the cautious side for some people, especially if they're using a slow dail-up connection or if they only visit a few safe web sites each day like this forum (although I'm sure even the SRGC site could be hacked and infected) and if they tend to visit the same few sites very regularly, like several times a day.

I do clean my hard-disc of internet files, cookies etc at the end of every day (when I remember!). But then I am on a reasonably fast broadband connection and don't have a problem with re-downloading pages. When you're on broadband you do tend to forget that a lot of people are still on dail-up.

But, as you say, regular purging of the temporary internet files cache is certainly highly advisable, especially if you do a lot of web surfing to a lot of sites. I'd suggest anyone in doubt tries clearing their temp internet files then sees if they have problems with slow page loading afterwards - in which case maybe clear the files less frequently but still on a regular basis (maybe once a week).

[Martin Baxendale]

Thomas, I forgot to mention that I also have a 13-year-old son who uses my computers daily to go onto internet games sites, swapping stuff with friends, and things like that. Hence my caution re internet temporary files purging!

[Thomas Huber]

OK, I understand, Martin!
In this case you are completely right!!!

[Tim Murphy]

My name is Tim Murphy. I am 32 years old and for the past 8 years I have been growing hellebores and cyclamen. In 2003 I moved to a 1930’s house with a ¼ acre rear garden and set up a part-time nursery which is generally devoted to the study and cultivation of wild species hellebores. I started to travel out to the Balkans in 2001 to study hellebores in the wild and have been back every year since (twice in 2004 and three times in 2006).

I am fond of cyclamen too and have three glasshouses full of stock plants. Most of the plants are my own with the rest belonging to The Cyclamen Society. My favourite species is C. purpurascens, probably because I see it often in the wild when I’m out in the Balkans studying hellebores.

I’m not really all that interested in any other plants, which is a good job as the hellebores and cyclamen take up all of my spare time. If I had to pick another plant to grow here, I suppose crocus would probably be next on the list, but so far I have resisted…

[Maggi Young]

A warm welcome, Tim!  I admire your dedication to Hellebores and Cyclamen but I should warn you, resistance to the myriad charms of the little plants that so captivate us here on this forum is futile.... you have been warned