in the woods

Spring walks at Maudslay State Park bring pops of bright colors in the form of blooming rhododendron and azalea. While much of the peak color appears to be gone there are still many bright patches.

door, covered

With renovations complete I had one remaining item, adding blinds to the sliding glass door in the living room. The old blinds were not in great shape so I opted to discard them at the start of the renovation. I thought about leaving the door uncovered since there is open land behind my place. No one walks back there except neighbors walking between units so there isn't really a privacy issue.

Even knowing that no one is standing at the door looking in, sitting in the living room with the lights on when it is dark outside drove my decision to add the option of a covered door.

I knew I wanted vertical blinds, and I knew I wanted something simple that would not draw attention away from the photos that live on the walls. I started by looking at sample books from two blind manufacturers at Home Depot, finding nothing that met my needs. That seemed odd to me since I was looking for simple and white. Hmm... I continued my search online.

I chose blinds from Stoneside Blinds & Shades. The company has sales offices across the country with a manufacturing facility in Denver. Abby, one of their design consultants, brought samples to my house. I selected at blind that has a pattern to it where the pattern is embossed but entirely white. Abby measured the door but before the blinds were ordered the installer, Andrew, came and measured again. Just over three weeks after measurement, Andrew returned to install the blinds.

During the installation we discovered that the door wasn't quite straight. With the blind mounting hardware completely level the look to my eyes (and Andrew's too) showed the blind as sloping a little bit to the right. It took several adjustments before the lines looked right to me. Before declaring the installation complete Andrew took the time to patch the holes from the initial tries.

The blinds are exactly what I needed to finish the renovation.

I'm happy!

garden color

A garden delights the eyes with pops of color. Peonies in pink stand in front of purple iris and leaves wearing different shades of green.

iris

Yesterday's visit to the garden featured flowers wearing water droplets. I love this iris showing wonderful colors.

morning munch

A rabbit sat outside of my door this morning happily munching on grass and clover.

dreamy

A peony tips towards the ground creating a dreamy look.

sunshine and fog

It felt like a good day for a walk along the coast. I headed to Odiorne Point State Park to wander a small part of the New Hampshire seashore.

When I arrived the sun was shining, white clouds decorated a blue sky. I followed a trail to the coast, then walked across mounds of moving rocks, some rounded, some jagged. As the ocean waves approached the shore the rounded rocks rolled in the surf, create an ocean song. I followed the coastline to Frost Point where a stone jetty extends into Little Harbor, then took inland trails back.

As I emerged on the coast again I saw fog approaching from the ocean. By the time I reached my starting point the fog had taken over.

More photos from today's coastal walk can be seen in the gallery New Hampshire coast :: 2016 starting with this photo and ending here.

a splash of color

It was only three days ago when I last visited the gardens at the Stevens-Coolidge Place. The iris were blooming but the peonies still hadn't shown their color. Today the garden was a riot of peonies and iris, a splash of color.

peony, faded

When I visited Long Hill just over a week ago the peonies were in full bloom. Today, most had faded.

It seemed odd (to me) that the peonies at the close-to-me garden haven't bloomed yet while those at Long Hill are past their prime. I think the peonies at Long Hill are tree peonies and those that live at Stevens-Coolidge Place are herbaceous peonies. Based on the information I've been able to find the two species bloom at different times.

product review :: new SmugMug gallery header

Yesterday a change was rolled out to all SmugMug sites allowing the use of a cover image at the top of galleries using specified layouts. Most of the galleries on my site use the Collage Landscape style, one of the styles including this new change.

My first view of the change was accompanied by shock. There were two changes implemented, a change in format for the breadcrumb wherever it is used, and the addition of a cover image for specified galley styles. By default in existing galleries, the cover image was off. The breadcrumb change was universal though; for my purposes it needed a little tweaking.

The breadcrumb is the line starting with an icon representing home followed by the names of folders and the gallery that is being displayed. The change to the breadcrumb involved breaking it into two lines with the folder structure shown on the first line and the gallery title shown larger and on a second line. The default gallery title size and the size of the slideshow and buy buttons was too large for my taste, drawing my eyes to the header instead of the photos. A bit of CSS was needed and available to change the size.

My next step was to enable the cover image in some galleries. I was quite surprised that with the cover image enabled the original size of the title wasn't as glaring. Even so, I prefer a slightly smaller size so I left the size-changing CSS in place. That was even more important to me since folders and journal-style galleries don't support use of the cover image - I needed a consistent size that made me happy in both types of displays.

Some photos aren't suited to be cover images since too much pattern obscures the text from the gallery description; others are perfect. With the right cover image there is a bit of polish added to the display.

I like it!

To see a gallery that uses a cover image, click to the gallery Long Hill :: 2016.