Majestic Palms
May 18, 2013
Showing posts with label skywatching. Show all posts
Showing posts with label skywatching. Show all posts
Wednesday, July 03, 2013
Thursday, May 03, 2012
Double Rainbow
Double Rainbow
April 26, 2012
Southwestern Ontario has been experiencing some rather bizarre weather. We had virtually no real winter and certainly not any kind of cold snap where the air is brittle and the snow crunches under foot. We experienced a little over two weeks in March that was so warm folks were wearing shots and walking around barefoot. Our furnace was off for the entire time! Then April hit and frost came a lot later than the predicted ADLF date of April 15. It is destined to be a bad year for fruit production given the fruit trees were blossoming only to be hit by late and heavy frosts. Farmers are already complaining. Then the storms hit. These storms are rather strange as well with very high and damaging winds yet little precipitation. Last week we had a horrid storm with very high winds and driving rain that seriously came down in sheets. The sun came out, shining brightly amidst the driving rain giving a beautiful fully arched, double rainbow. Had the rain let up, I could have got a few pictures of the full arch. It was gorgeous!
Garden Gnome
©2006-2012
Thursday, October 27, 2011
Sunset at Our New House
Sunset at Our New House
October 16, 2011
I'm a skywatcher, always have been. Over the past decade we have enjoyed some of the most beautiful sunsets while boating and living on the water. While we can still enjoy the gorgeous sunsets on the water while boating, we are no longer living on the water so I was concerned that we would be missing out on sunsets. Pictured is the sunset I took a picture of through our bedroom window. It was quite pretty. I will have to get used to the fact that the windows have screens on both the outside that gives a grid when I have become used to taking pictures through a clear pane of glass. Surprisingly my digital camera does that quite nicely.
We have a fair amount of open space around our new home giving a minimal of obstructions for skywatching. I was surprised to be able to get a nice shot of that sunset. I will be able to get even better pictures from the pool deck and not bad pictures from the main deck. What is really nice is even though we have a glow from our new urban setting I can still use the telescope for a bit of star gazing!
Garden Gnome
©2006-2011
Wednesday, October 26, 2011
Wednesday, December 29, 2010
Monday, December 20, 2010
Total Eclipse of the Moon
Evening Moon
September 19, 2010
There is going to be a total eclipse of the moon early tomorrow (Dec. 21) morning. It will begin at 2:41 AM EST and last about 3 hours. The moon will be totally covered for about an hour during the eclipse. This will be an amazing sight worth missing a little sleep for. I'm planning on watching it so may have to have a little nap this afternoon just so I can stay awake throughout the eclipse.
Garden Gnome
©2006-2010
Wednesday, November 17, 2010
Monday, August 23, 2010
Half Moon
Half Moon
August 18, 2010
We haven't had the boat out much this year. There have been a lot of storms in the area, all around us but few actually hitting us. This had made it rather iffy for taking the boat out. Last week we took advantage of a clear evening to do a bit of boating. After we got back from an wonderful ride I sat on the dock enjoying the darkness as it fell upon the water. The moon was rather bright making a lovely twinkling path across the water. It was a perfect ending to a gorgeous day!
Garden Gnome
©2006-2010
Wednesday, August 18, 2010
Wednesday, August 11, 2010
Wednesday, August 04, 2010
Thursday, July 29, 2010
Evening on the Boat
Evening Sky
July 26, 2010
A couple of nights ago I packed a simple picnic dinner for us to enjoy on the boat. We boated upstream for awhile then turned the motor off and drifted while enjoying our dinner. It was a peaceful, relaxing dinner. As we headed back to the marina I took a few pictures of the sky that will still laden with storm cloud remnants. The storms have certainly provided several photo oppurtunities!
Garden Gnome
©2006-2010
Wednesday, June 16, 2010
Tuesday, January 12, 2010
Sun in Snow Storm
Sun in Snow Storm
January 8, 2010
I have been a skywatcher for as long as I can remember. There is just something about turning your eyes to the sky not only for the beauty but as a weather predictor. Friday morning we woke to the starts of a heavier snow storm, the first one of the season for us this year! The morning sky was so pretty with the sun trying to peak through the clouds and falling snow. It managed to turn the snow into a million diamond sparkles for about 15 minutes mid-morning. By early afternoon we had gone from just a hint of snow on the green grass to about 7 cm of snow! It was the start of hibernating for the weekend :)
Garden Gnome
©2006-2009
Wednesday, September 23, 2009
Wednesday, September 09, 2009
Saturday, July 18, 2009
Storms A Brewing
Turning LeavesJuly 16, 2009
Skywatchers know that when the leaves turn a storm is a brewing! Thursday afternoon the leaves once again turned and that night we were hit with yet another storm. A prudent person pays attention to the signs of storms brewing whether it be weather or in some other aspect of their lives and acts accordingly. The young and/or foolish person does not. The biggest news in the blogosphere is the 'sale' of Entrecard to ZipRunner Inc. Now technically this wasn't a sale it was an acquisition due to a default note despite what former owner Graham Langdon says. Storms have been brewing at Entrecard for quite some time!
It definitely was time for Graham to leave Entrecard! Like a comedy of errors combined with an immature egotistical joke of the day, ex-members and members alike tuned in just to see what stupid thing he could come up with next. I honestly don't think he realized what a joke he had become in the blogosphere! He even bragged about being homeless and how much he enjoyed sleeping on a park bench. Now tell me what founder of a business they are trying to sell for a million dollars would even make mention of that? Then and one of his biggest downfalls was he played in Photoshop® changing his ad using filters. A EC member made a comment on Twitter regarding Graham's hat along with calling him an 'asshat'. Now Twitter has nothing to do with EC yet Graham went into overdrive, banned the member and put out a new rule that EC members could not say anything negative about EC on any forum, social network or blog or else they would be banned earning him the reputation of being a Nazi. This censorship did not sit well with members who either made it known vocally or quietly left. As if he had the right to tell others what they could say outside of EC. Well, from there it went from bad to worse!
He was making very poor business decisions that drove away a lot of good bloggers by running unauthorized paid ads on blogs and dictating where the widget had to be placed on blogs. Mind you as long as the content agrees with the TOS of your ISP and blog host, no one has the right to tell you what to put on your blog or where you should put it. In the past three months under Graham's guidance Entrecard lost one third of its traffic. That is a fairly large chunk of traffic to lose! There has been some speculation that some of these bloggers might return now that Graham no longer owns entrecard however with his announcement that he is staying on as advisor (possibly untrue) I doubt many will return. In fact on the July 17 Entrecard blog post by Andrew Te of ZipRunner he politely thanks Graham and while he specifically acknowledges that Phirate with stay on with Entrecard makes absolutely no mention of Graham remaining as an advisor. What I find interesting is Graham doesn't even have an EC widget on his new blog! It is more likely Graham blowing a bit of smoke than a reality that he will be staying as an advisor. What investor who gets a company through a default note would keep the person responsible on as an advisor? If Andrew does keep Graham as part of the management team it will be Graham's continued association with EC that will hurt the new ownership. ZipRunner would be well advised to cut all ties with Graham. The reality is the very bloggers that Entrecard depends on for its success want Graham gone! At any rate they have an awful lot of damage control and damage repair to do. Any signs of being wishy washy, showing lack of respect for their members, making rule changes without notice, excessive censorship or any of the other nonsense that has been going on in the past will show Andrew Te to be no better than Graham so EC will continue its rapid downward spiral. Don't forget under Graham's management EC has lost 1/3 of its traffic over the last 3 months. Now ZipRunner will have to earn that traffic back. Time will tell at how successful they are at that. I wish Andrew the best and hope that they can turn EC into what it was meant to be.
In the meantime there are many questions regarding the credits members have earned. It has already been noted that new members and those who did not sign-up for the cashout prior to the acquistion by Zip Runner will not be eligible for cashout. This is bound to tick-off a lot of people who have spent hours and I do mean hours dropping cards to build up points to cash out. These are people that went into a que under Graham's system and have been sitting for weeks waiting for approval for cashout eligibility. At the same time members are still complaining as late as today of unapproved paid ads running on their blogs. This is not a good way for the new ownership to start off!
Would I put my 5 blogs back into the Entrecard system? I was with Entrecard from almost the start. I saw its downward spiral. At my peak usage I was dropping 450+ per day spending upwards of 4 hr daily spread throughout the day depending on my connection speed. When I left Entrecard (reason here) I suddenly felt very relieved despite the fact they continued to spam me and refused to remove my blogs I found I enjoyed blogging more. There is a life outside of Entrecard! More importantly my traffic has increased while my bounce rate has decreased. It has taken me less than 3 months to build up a higher quality of traffic than Entrecard was providing and that's across all 5 blogs. So unless Entrecard dramatically changes under the new management and there is no association with Graham Langdon, no I would not return to Entrecard. See the way Entrecard is currently designed all that dropping takes away from adding precious content to your blog. Without content you don't get traffic. Without traffic you don't get readers.
For those interested in who ZipRunner Inc. is, here are the details:
ZipRunner Inc company information:
Company name : ZipRunner Inc
Number : C2322843
Date Filed : 12/12/2000
Status : Active
Jurisdiction : California
Address : 2168 S Atlantic BLVD #232, Monterey Park, CA 91754
Agent for Service of Process : ANDREW H TE, 2168 S Atlantic BLVD #232,
Monterey Park, CA 91754
Garden Gnome
©2006-2009
Thursday, June 25, 2009
Unsettled Weather
Evening BeautyJune 23, 2009
After such a cool, wet spring the weather as turned very hot and humid. We are very fortunate that due to our location we have not had to turn our our AC yet! Others have had theirs on for the last couple of weeks or more. The hot, humid weather always means the potential for severe thunderstorms. Yesterday we experienced several short power outages as the storms went through. There was amazing ground to cloud lighting. As I quickly type this another line of thunderstorms are almost ready to hit. It's already dark and very still with just a hint of thunder getting closer and closer. This series is quick moving as my husband called me less than 10 minutes ago with the warning. It was clear then! As the storms clear it makes for great photo opportunities. This was Tuesday night's sunset. Isn't it gorgeous?
Ok, time for me to power down.
Garden Gnome
©2006-2009
Wednesday, March 04, 2009
Tuesday, October 02, 2007
A Rainbow Spotted on Our Road Trip
Rainbow
September 28, 2007
We left the house late Friday afternoon heading in an easterly direction towards our daughter and son-in-law's home. Safely tucked in the trunk was shredded barbeque pork for dinner and the turkey for Saturday's early Thanksgiving feast. The Canadian Thanksgiving is traditionally celebrated the second Monday in October. We had tentative plans for that weekend so an earlier date fit everyone's schedule and it meant that at least two of our married kid's would not have to eat two Thanksgiving dinners in one weekend.
We travelled north then directly east, made a couple of jiggs finally arriving at Hwy 401. Continuing on our journey, I spotted a rainbow. I took several pictures as the car was speeding towards its destination. My theory is the posted speed limit is the speed to be going but my husband's idea is as long as you are within 20 km of the speed limit, it's ok. Anyway, there were no signs of rain and the rainbow just seemed to appear out of nowhere. Somehow it just seemed so fitting. Here we were heading towards a family get together with the promise of a wonderful time. The rainbow echoed that promise.
The weekend was amazing. We enjoyed being with our kids and grandbaby. We even took a trip to a neat apple orchard, did a bit of grocery shopping but more importantly we spent the time with our family. On the way home I realized one of the dishes I brought needed to be used up so called my daughter. Then when we arrived home she called to say she got the message and they will be home this Friday for the weekend. So we are going to be having a second Thanksgiving dinner but lower scaled.
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