Hybrid Black American Duck at Bluffer's Park

Well, one of the first nice weekend days we've had in months last weekend, we went out for a planned hike/photo taking venture. It's not quite the same as the areas we grew to love in Whitby but it still is enjoyable to get out for a healthy walk and see what there is to see.

 We had wanted to explore the Doris McCarthy path and chose that. I lasted all of about 10mins as I kind of suspected may happen. We were walking down the incline, lots of devastation and clean up has occurred since the ice storm one can tell. We get about 10 mins down the path when there bounding down a hill up a head is a large, scary black dog :-( I went cold, terrified, and I turned. All I saw to protect me was trees, less wide than I am. I braced myself accepting that it may run at me, it may or may not be a stray, it may be nice (hopefully) and its owner ahead somewhere. It disappeared off somewhere. John never saw it. However, there was NO Way I was continuing. I'm outta here. I felt like I was going to die, faint, gawd knows what else feelings, I was shaking and terrified, but I walked back and I never looked back. Not sure if there are black coyotes but I was even hoping John was right, it may have been one, because it'd run Away from us, not at us like people's off leash Shepherds, etc. that I have but do Not want to run into on hikes anymore. One reason I will never set foot in Greenwood ever again. People treat that Conservation park like the whole park is off leash, not just the very top north west corner which is the Actual legal off leash area. Being terrified of dogs, it's just not possible for me to go to places where one is pretty sure to run into many off leash all over, even in the parking lot. I know if I owned a dog, I'd not have it running through a forested area. Years ago, an acquaintance I know lost their dog when it flayed itself open on a sharp branch on a fallen tree trunk, chasing some small animal it spotted and by the time she carried it back to her home, it was gone :-( I feel it is not safe to allow dogs to run through forested areas, never mind that it is not respectful to others who use the area and do not expect to encounter them, families with little kids, or who are terrified of dogs (like I am as are many others) because I cannot force myself to take for granted that a dog is safe just because its owner has it off leash around people.

 I may need to steel myself to try to handle the possibility if I ever want to go to the Doris McCarthy path. And I do because down by the lake, where it leads to, there are rocks with fossils in them and I really really want to see those. Not sure what the solution is, I guess to have some faith that if we do encounter another loose running, terrifying dog, that it is harmless because I would have no defense against it if it wasn't. C'est la vie eh?! lol! So, we ended up going back to Bluffer's Park. Kind of cool because we saw an American Black Duck which was actually probably a hybrid mix with a Mallard. We walked along the shoreline and it was enjoyable. Saw lots of cool things. You definitely know it is spring when you spot pussy willows :-)

Doris McCarthy trail

My Silly Dream

One day, my dream, my goal, is to work part time not too far from home and to make part of my income again come from my art. It is almost unattainable a goal but it doesn't hurt to strive for it. As a 55+ year old I can't see myself still transiting it on the decrepit RT, then subway and treking to a full time job down town every day. One thing I know, as a quite realistic thinker is that art is rarely if ever able to be counted on as a predictable, stable full time income. As a matter of fact, I was told years ago and know it is true,less than 1% of educated artists end up successful financially in their field and making a good income solely from art, especially fine art. Talent as well, often is not the only factor. The practical choice for anyone in the arts is to have another career or job. For many it is teaching, though I suspect many shouldn't be. My opinion (and hind sight is 20/20) is be smart, don't close doors, look after yourself, enable yourself to always be able to be financially independant even if in a relationship, and do not take fluff courses in overpriced art colleges, take something that cn be applied in the commercial world if going into the arts. Taht way, a good financial basis will always allow you to pursue art, even if jsut for your own personal enjoyment :-)

Hummingbird Nest Live Cam - So Amazing!

Bye Bye Forever to Microsoft Picture It

Now that Windows XP is finally going to be put to rest, no more support, after April 7, I have to upgrade to Windows 7. On top of this, I have been looking through old CDs of images (a big no no, storing images on CD, bad idea) with the hopes I would be able to locate some of my old images of sold small paintings from 2004 through 2008 mainly through a couple auction sites, back when the US exchange rate made it worth listing artwork that often ended up selling for a steal (to the buyer) because I'd get 1.50 or so for every 1.00 it was won for. I usually started small pieces around 180.00 US so I'd end up at least making 340.00 or so Canadian. The paintings I did and offered via eBay were often 4-8 hr paintings, realistic yet small, 6x8 up to about 12x16. Well, those days are long gone, as is really the heyday of eBay, where I sold many pieces. eBay is a buyers' market now and the abuse on there I was beginning to experience near the end by non paying bidders, too low prices, high listing fees, etc. just made it no longer worth selling on their. I'll leave the eBay rant alone however, since it'd take all night to write all the intricacies of the negatives lol!

Needless to say, a few years ago I had my website redone (when I had one and took on commissions) and the person who designed it put all my old hosted images from Yahoo onto a CD. One day, in 2010, I could no longer locate said CD. I tore the house apart, to no avail. There were many many painting images on there that I had no where else. Alas, I will never see images of those paintings again. Many I loved a lot. recently, I went through some image CDs (which I know one day will deteriorate so should be put on a hard drive), and I realized that many images on them are what is known as a .mix file. This image file was exclusive to saving an image in Microsoft Picture It. So, I have always kept it on my comp although I don't work in it anymore. It was an amazing program, very user friendly. Well, those images cannot be viewed in any other program. Since we won't be loading Picture It on after upgrading to Windows 7 I would have no way of looking at those images I have saved in that format. There are hundreds of them.

We found a solution. There is an old program that once you had to buy, but it is quite old so now it is free to download. It is called Polyview. It is a program that converts .mix image files to .jpg image files. You can convert more than one image at a time as well. It also allows viewing of many different file types and conversion, not just Picture It files. We downloaded it and I will be able to run and convert my .mix files as I have time (yeah right lol!) or as needed at least. Sometimes I have to go back into those images to find something for the kids, myself, etc.

POLYVIEW - here is a link to the site

A quick note on Picture It. It was a very awesome program. It is no longer offered or supported through Microsoft. It was bought by Microsoft as far as I know, not designed by them. One of the main people who developed Picture It went on to establish Pixar, which tells you the talent that was behind Picture It. I loved that program.