Spring And A Young Frog's Fancy...

More Frog Sex
Originally uploaded by PhoebeJ.

turns to thoughts of love.

Here is a graphic depiction of frog sex. You can see the eggs being extruded by the female. When they first emerge there are in a black cluster with white spots. Over the course of the next hour or so the cluster loses the white spots and starts to look like the cluster on the right.

Here's a better view of the eggs "before and after".

The crocuses are up. There are never enough of them. They are such a treat after a long winter that you want to have hundreds of them. Remind me in the fall. And remind me again after I've planted a couple of hundred!

Photoshop Elements Experiment

Sophie (retouched)
Originally uploaded by PhoebeJ.

I scanned this photo of my aunt Sophie, taken in about 1905, and experimented with Photoshop Elements. I'm still pretty much a beginner at this, but the results are not bad. I got rid of most of the scratches and worn spots on the background. I can see that for people who like to do small, detailed work this might be addictive. You keep finding smaller and smaller defects that need to be corrected.

Now I have to learn more of the things you can do with Photoshop Elements. I can understand why people might take a class in this since there are so many things you can do with the program.

The photo shows Sophie as a very little girl, I'm guessing about age 3. Notice the short haircut. Sophie was always intolerant of people with lots of hair--either on the head or the face. Maybe this opinion started here!

I love the lace on her dress and the sparkle in her eyes.