Thursday, 20 July 2023

Raindrops on roses


A view up my back passage.

Having been battered by gales under thick grey clouds for what seems like weeks, today is going to be a lovely summer day in London.

Shame I'll be trapped in the office instead of enjoying the scent of lilies wafting through the air and watching the bees and hoverflies making merry...

...hey ho. Here's a random discovery courtesy of the lovely Liza Tarbuck's show on Radio 2 - a most peculiar cover of an appropriate song for today:

Another one to add to our music library of oddities here at Dolores Delargo Towers, methinks.

17 comments:

  1. Well I think your back passage looks lovely and not too battered considering all that it's been through.

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    1. My back passage has always had loads of compliments, thank you. Jx

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  2. And very pretty it looks too!
    Yes, so warm I even took my socks off!
    Sx

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    1. How very louche! Baring an ankle at the gentlemen... Jx

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  3. Replies
    1. As it matures, it only gets more ripe... Jx

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  4. Your Back Passage is so lush and inviting. Those lilies are rather spectacular - and the Phlox are looking lovely. Is that Cobea scandens going up the drain pipe? The freezing temperatures earlier this year finally finished off my three (it took both bouts of prolongued sub-zero temps to do so!), but I grew some from last year's seeds and gave them to my sister and her neighbour.

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    1. Those lilies are indeed at their very best - one only has to open the back door, and the scent is amazing! The phlox have a lovely night-time perfume, too, but they cannot compete.

      Yeas, that is this year's Cobea from seed - heading for the stars, as always... Jx

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  5. I can't even SEE a drainpipe! Never mind what's up it!Well I know what Cobea
    a can do so there must be a pipe in there...somewhere...
    The lilies...OHHHH!

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    1. That's the intention - to create an illusion of a jungle. Of course, since you actually live in one, I doubt it cuts the mustard in reality. Jx

      PS if you right-click the image and select "open in new tab", you can zoom in to see more detail.

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  6. Jon, my sweet, do you resize your photos before uploading them? And do you upload them directly from your computer, or via Google photos? I am asking because the one thing that’s stopping me moving back to Blogger is image quality - my pictures lose resolution on Blogger, but not on WordPress. I’ve noticed that your pictures are very sharp - how have you done this?!! Is it down to the camera? I am going to try from my Canon camera, but my iPhone is usually pretty good. Advice needed! Many thanks!
    Sx

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    1. No problem, Ms Scarlet - happy to help!

      I always upload photos direct from the PC, "Original size".

      However, I use the "HTML view" to upload them and, because I taught myself via Google how to do it (it's not really very scary at all), I edit the code to set their size, alignment, and to open in "a new tab" [although because I tweaked the Settings menu, this actually opens them in something called "Image lightbox" which overlays them on top of the post - with thumbnails so you can track through all the pics in one go].

      Madam Arcati uses "Compose view", which shows the photos exactly as they appear on the page, and Blogger has options to change the size and position in this view from a menu. He finds that easier then editing code (understandably), and the results are similar.

      However, by editing the HTML I can make precise changes to size and layout - in order to, say, align one landscape and two portrait pics, or four portrait pics, into a "block" (which I do quite often).

      I should really post a tutorial 🙃. Jx

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  7. Thank you, Jon!
    I have my new blog HERE
    The blog theme has a Home page with a feature image from the one post I have published, and this picture is as clear as a bell - but the post image is slightly off - and nothing like what you have on this post!
    I have now tinkered with the height and width in HTML so at least the three pictures are in line with one another as they were out of line on my iPad. Thankfully I remember having to do this type of tinkering with YouTubes - nothing worse than a YouTube crashing into a blog roll!
    A tutorial would be good!!
    Sx

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    1. I think I get it! You're a star!!
      Sx

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    2. Always check that the photos are indeed full size - in the HTML editor, somewhere in the string of gobbeldygook that is the URL of the uploaded photo should be "s1600". If that "s" value is any lower than 1600, the resolution is too low. Jx

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    3. I think I've gotten the gist of it now thanks to you - and the tip about s1600 will be written in my little book of Blogspot along with my Hex codes. I forgot that Blogspot could be fun.
      Way back when, Mr LX got me to tinker with CSS code - I've forgotten so much though!
      You're a star, thank you so much for your help and pointers.
      Sx

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    4. There's nothing like a bit of tinkering, and then seeing it actually work, to make me happy! As I say, everything I have learned is thanks to Google - I never even had a Mr LX (RIP) to assist... Jx

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