A Better Morning

 Another of my photographs that I deliberately changed to make it look like a painting.

I am feeling much better today. I have been feeling–well, perhaps "not normal" is the best description — for the last two days. I have not wanted to make bread or go for a walk or do anything that I enjoy. This morning I feel different. I have energy and as soon as I take the first load out of the washing machine and put the second load in, I am going for a walk.

I have been having several little pangs of loss these days when something comes up that reminds me of my sister and that I will never see her again. She was a vegetarian and  because of that, whenever I was eating out by myself, I always checked the menu for vegetarian offers with the idea that I would {or would not} bring her to this place next time she came to visit. I did that when I went to the mall the other day and as I ate my slice of vegetarian mushroom pizza I was hit with a sudden wave of sadness. This feeling doesn’t last long and I don’t actually cry, but there it is–a pain-in-the-mind kind of feeling. I suppose, like everything else that it will pass in time.

Ok, on to more cheerful subjects. The flowering plant  is one Fred gave me a couple of summers ago. I took the picture and then played around with layers in Paint Shop Pro until I got the effect I was after. This kind of thing is something I really enjoy doing. I would love to become proficient in Photoshop but that is an expensive piece of software to buy for someone who is just a hobbyist as I am. I once watched a professional clean up a picture of a waitress with Photoshop. He eliminated her freckles, made her skin look flawless, whitened her teeth and even fixed the crooked bow tie she was wearing! Paint Shop Pro isn’t cheap but it is at least under $100 and can do everything I want it to do. My most used feature is, I think,  the ability to straighten verticals and horizontals. I have taken several pictures of Lake Champlain where the horizon line is not horizontal!

The timer has just buzzed so I am off to move the first load into the dryer and put the second load into the washer. When Fred gets up, I will put in the sheets and that will be the last load.

In case you are wondering about the number of steps on the pedometer in the last few days, since I hadn’t walked at all {except around the apartment} the number was so small that it was embarrassing to put down! I will do better today!

Until later..