July 2015 in the Southern Hemisphere

[Jupiter]

Hi Maggi, I am not criticising the tool in general, I guess I hoped that it might be an easy tweak that could be made to improve the quality a touch. Like you said it's easy enough for me to resize the photos myself and post them in the usual way. I really meant it as constructive critisism but if it can't be changed it's really not that bad.

I take your point about uploading images to the forum rather than hosting off site. I'll try to do that more often, it's just that since I use flickr it's convenient for me to link to the images there rather than do a separate resize. That's just me being lazy which is easily remedied.

[Anthony Darby]

Those are lovely too Anthony. It flowers quite a bit later for me, Sept/October. Of course Bill and you live in the banana belt - and avocado and mango and pawpaw etc. Lucky people.

Not seen any mangoes.

[Maggi Young]

Not seen any mangoes.

Thanks for trying to make us feel a BIT better, Anthony! 

[Maggi Young]

Hi Maggi, I am not criticising the tool in general, I guess I hoped that it might be an easy tweak that could be made to improve the quality a touch. Like you said it's easy enough for me to resize the photos myself and post them in the usual way. I really meant it as constructive critisism but if it can't be changed it's really not that bad.

I take your point about uploading images to the forum rather than hosting off site. I'll try to do that more often, it's just that since I use flickr it's convenient for me to link to the images there rather than do a separate resize. That's just me being lazy which is easily remedied.

Thank you Jamus.  It may be that some other adjustment can be made to the automatic function but that remains to be seen.   Your initial comment that " the new image resizing tool destroyed (my) pics " was a rather alarming statement!

[johnralphcarpenter]

To be honest, I couldn't see the difference between Jamus' pictures, but then my eyes aren't what they use to be - I keep running into pubs.

[Maggi Young]

To be honest, I couldn't see the difference between Jamus' pictures, but then my eyes aren't what they use to be - I keep running into pubs.

 
 Brings to mind the comment by the President that we are a drinking club with a plant problem - I THINK she was kidding!

[Anthony Darby]

Thanks for trying to make us feel a BIT better, Anthony! 

I won't spoil it by telling you one of our neighbours had to remove his clump of bananas as they were taking over one corner of his garden!

[Maggi Young]

Good grief!



We've got cold rain - again......

[Jupiter]

John, if you squint you might see the difference between these three versions of the same image. Jpeg averages the image in blocks of 8 pixels by 8 pixels, creating a mathematical representation of the colour and gradation within each of these blocks. The lower the quality setting the rougher the approximation, and the smaller the file size. The resulting artifacts around the blocks of 8 are known in graphics as "jaggies", because they make smooth lines appear jagged.

As you can see this whole collage of three with varying qualities is only 95kb.

[Lesley Cox]

The best of my current Galanthus is G. elwesii  'EmeraldHughes', a super form from the Blue Mountain nursery of Denis and his late father Stanley Hughes, about an hour south of here. I should have taken the picture while lying on my tum, in order to see the markings but will try that as soon as the sun comes out again, or I could lift it up of course. I'll get them into the garden for next year.

Then a few Eranthis hiemalis in a pot. These are the ones a bird has dug up and left lying on top. The main bunch are still not quite up yet.

And finally 2 of the XOS model daffodil, Narcissus asturiensis, seed collected from the Picos de Europa, (seed a gift from Maggi who had it from Brian Duncan) The stem is just 1 cm high and the surrounding gravel is about .5 of a cm or a little larger. The "face" of the little daff is gently lying against the rock in one of my large wash-tub troughs. It has grown to almost twice its height since first noticed on July 25th! Several more are to come.

[Maggi Young]

Smart snowdrop, Lesley - which  for some daft reason I have firmly in my head as "Emerald Hughes" ( I think it's a confusion with Emerald Cunard   - I can't help the connections my brain makes!!) Lovely shape it has.

I am sure no-one could resist the tiny N. asturiensis - what a charming little thing it is! Makes a standard garden "daff" look a great gallumphing brute by comparison!

[Lesley Cox]

You are right Maggi, it should be 'Emerald Hughes' as I did manage to name the file. I'm not sure why but when it was first selected out (I thought recently but it was ages ago when Stanley was alive and gardening. He was older than my mother and died many years ago now) I believe it was the reverse but because there is also an 'Emerald' in the UK and Europe, the Hughes was added afterwards in an attempt to avoid confusion between the two, so Denis later sold it as EH - which leave many people TOTALLY confused. No matter, it's the best snowdrop I have.

I think I've referred to it previously on the Forum as 'Hughes' Emerald' which won't have helped.

[Anthony Darby]

Paddy posted a photo labelled G. "Hughes Emerald" back in 2010 http://www.srgc.net/forum/index.php?topic=4674.495

[Maggi Young]

Interestingly - the internet search results suggest that  while it seems to be referred to a 'Hughes Emerald' on this side o f the pond, in New Zealand and Australia they seem to favour 'Emerald Hughes' !!

The "galanthomanie.de" site says exactly the opposite  - that the  NZ plant 'Hughes Emerald' is also known in England a 'Emerald Hughes' 

Confused, who wouldn't be?

However, Blue Mountain Nursery - the nursery of the Hughes family, calls it  'Emerald Hughes' so that's good enough for me.  I am surprised but  rather pleased to discover that my instinct was correct!!

http://www.bmn.co.nz/product/giant-snowdrop-2/

This citation for Denis Hughes as FRNZIH  may also be of interest :
 Denis_Hughes_Biography.95162230.doc (29 kB - downloaded 73 times.)

[Jupiter]

Having a shot at the new, tweaked photo resizing tool.




verdict: it looks great. I'm very happy with the quality. See it was worth speaking out.