ABOUT AL'S ART GALLERY PICTURES

Readers may wonder sometimes, where I get all the artwork pieces for 'Al's Art Gallery', and why do I choose the ones that I do.  First, all my images come from Facebook, and here's how that works.  If on Facebook, I come across a picture of a dog I like and click on it, Facebook's algorithm remembers that and decides that I clicked on the picture of the dog because I liked it.  Therefore, Facebook will begin sending me more nice dog pictures.  The more dog pictures you click on, the more dog pictures you will receive.   The same holds true for anything.  If you like vintage cars and click on a picture of one, you will receive more vintage car pictures. Files: I keep everything in files, so for example, using the 'copy and paste' method, if I click on a Facebook picture of Spring, I can copy and paste it into my 'Spring' file.  A cartoon will go into my 'Toons' file, and dogs into my 'Dogs' file, etc.  This is an easy way to keep things in order, and when you have as many file pictures as I do, it is important to keep them all sorted and simple.  Between my laptop and desk computers, here are my current files and the number of pictures in each file. 'Paint' (short for paintings, etc.) 2,795. 'Dogs' 389. Meanings:: 401. 'Spring' 99. 'Toons' 442. 'Winter' 352.  And, "Gnomes' 138.  That's a total of over 4,000 pictures I have saved to my Art Gallery files at the moment.  Why do I have so many pictures on file??  Well, I just keep finding new ones all the time I guess.  After I insert the pictures into my post, I go back to my files and delete those pictures so that I don't post them a second time.  That mainly works, but sometimes I forget to delete some and I might post them again by accident.  I'm sure readers have noticed that from time to time.  Okay, so what is it that makes me decide to pick any one Facebook picture to save to my files?  In Paint, Winter, and Spring, there are mainly two things that grab my attention.  Colors and shapes.  I am often drawn to the deep dark hauntingly vibrant and stark colors in many of the abstracts.  In 'Dogs', it is the dog's image itself and then the sometimes sayings.  In 'Meanings' it is solely on the meaning of the saying itself.  In 'Gnomes' it is the visual story that the magical pictures tell.  So, there you have it.  My explanation about my Al's Art Gallery pictures and how and why I choose them:))

With howling cold icy winds this morning, driving the windchill factor down into the low 20sF, I never even crawled out of my pyjamas until earlier this afternoon.  Woodsy had gone back to Stratford yesterday for a few days so I was on my own.  The only thing that finally got me dressed and outside was to top up the bird feeders.  And, what a blustery cold endeavor that was, but the birds, bunnies, squirrels, and chipmunks were waiting impatiently outside for their smorgasbord and I knew I had better get out there with some snacks if I knew what was good for me.  Those critters can get quite aggressive when they're hungry!!

Al's Music Box:: Eye In The Sky by the Alan Parsons Project.

GROANER'S CORNER:(( A little boy was overheard talking to himself as he strutted through the backyard, wearing his baseball cap and toting a ball and bat. "I'm the greatest hitter in the world," he announced. Then, he tossed the ball into the air, swung at it, and missed. "Strike One!" he yelled. Undaunted, he picked up the ball and said again, "I'm the greatest hitter in the world!" He tossed the ball into the air. When it came down, he swung again and missed. "Strike two!" he cried.The boy then paused a moment to examine his bat and  ball carefully. He spit on his hands and rubbed them together. He straightened his cap and said once more, "I'm the greatest hitter in the world!" Again, he tossed the ball up in the air and swung at it. He missed. "Strike three!" "Wow!" he exclaimed. "I'm the greatest pitcher in the world!"

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- If you can’t find a lawyer who knows the law...Find a lawyer who knows the judge!

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I went to the pet shop and asked for 12 bees. The clerk counted out 13 bees and handed them over. “You’ve given me one too many” I said. “That last one is a freebie”

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- The wife’s mother said: ‘When you’re dead, I’ll dance on your grave.’
I said: ‘Good. I’m being buried at sea.’'

- If someone with multiple personalities threatens to commit suicide, is that considered a hostage crisis?

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A farmer got pulled over by a state trooper for speeding, and the trooper started to lecture the farmer about his speed, and in general began to throw his weight around to try to make the farmer uncomfortable. Finally, the trooper got around to writing out the ticket, and as he was doing that he kept swatting at some flies that were buzzing around his head. The farmer said, 'Having some problems with circle flies there, are ya?' The trooper stopped writing the ticket and said, 'Well yeah, if that's what they are, but I never heard of circle flies.' So the farmer says, 'Well, circle flies are common on farms. See, they're called circle flies because they're almost always found circling around the back end of a horse.' The trooper says, 'Oh,' and goes back to writing the ticket. Then after a minute he stops and says, 'Hey...wait a minute, are you trying to call me a horse's ass?' The farmer says, 'Oh no, officer. I have too much respect for law enforcement and police officers to even think about calling you a horse's ass.' The trooper says, 'Well, that's a good thing,' and goes back to writing the ticket. After a long pause, the farmer says, 'Hard to fool them circle flies though...'

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Al's Doggy World

Meanings::

Al's Art Gallery

MAYBE SOMEHOW MAKE AN INTERESTING STORY OUT OF IT

 THIS COLD AND FORLORN LOOKING LITTLE SUNFLOWER SHACK ON TIPPERARY LINE PATIENTLY AWAITS THE WARM SUNSHINE OF SUMMER

Whenever I head out each and every morning with my camera for a drive around the area roads, it is never with the intention of seeking out and taking a perfect photograph/s.  I don't have the patience, nor the interest to do that.  If I can get close enough to good enough with a shot, I'm okay with that.  The fun for me is simply being outside, enjoying the scenery, being visually aware of my surroundings, and seeing things that might make an okay photo for the blog.  Maybe the photo tells a story, maybe it lends itself to something I've written, maybe it just pleases my eye, or maybe it's simply something I think readers might be interested in.  For me, the photo doesn't have to be perfect.  Some of my photos are a touch out of focus, maybe some blurr from camera shake, under or over overexposed because of an incorrect setting.  I constantly struggle with correct color, and sometimes I plumb forget how to adjust my camera settings.  But, despite all that, and after all these years, I still like to head out each and every day with my camera in hand.  And, when I say each and every day, I do mean 365 days a year.  My camera, and now a smart phone camera too, go with me everywhere I go.  Remember the old TV commercial saying, 'never leave home without it'?  Well, that's me.  There is another part to my photo enjoyment and that is the editing of each day's photos.  I so much enjoy sitting down at my computer with my simple little Picasa Photo Editing program and going over each and every photo, tweaking it here and there trying to make something nice and correct all the mistakes I made taking the photo in the first place.  Cropping is a biggy, challenging color corrections keep me on my toes, and trying to compensate for under or over exposed photos is a given.  All frustrating, but frustratingly fun somehow, and especially so when I can occasionally end up with a photo that puts a smile on my face.  A rare occurence I may add, but a nice feeling when it happens.  As I have written in previous posts, I don't think of myself as a photographer, but more of an ameteur photo journalist looking for a few pictures here and there to maybe somehow make an entertaining story out of.

 THIS IS WHAT OUR FRONT YARD LOOKED LIKE FRIDAY MORNING

 THREE OF OUR BLACK SQUIRREL HERD...HUEY, DEWEY, AND LOUIE

 GRACKLEATORGATORS

 THEY ARE A RAVENOUS BUNCH AND I HAVE SEEN AS MANY AS SEVEN ON THE BIRDSTATION AT ONE TIME

I had forgotten to add a few snowy morning photos in Friday's post, so I will include them below.  We had another dusting of snow Friday night, but apparently, inland, they had a nasty snowstorm.  Our cloud cover finally disappated around noon today, and we ended up with big, bright sunny skies.  Cold, icy winds drove the 28F way down and I had to dress warmly when I headed out earlier this morning.  We are predicted to hit 50F Sunday:)))))))  At the time of posting tonight (Saturday) we are sitting at a cold 26F:((

 ABOUT TO HEAD OUT ON ANOTHER COLD WINTER'S MORN

 HEADING UP THE STREET

IT'S LOOKING A LITTLE BLUSTERY IN THE PARK

 HEADING OUT OF THE PARK, IT LOOKS LIKE THE SNOW IS RAMPING UP

 MOTORING EAST ON BAYFIELD RIVER ROAD

 ONCE BARE FARMER'S FIELDS ARE TURNING WHITE AGAIN

 TURNED AROUND AND HEADING HOME

Al's Music Box:: Ventura Highway by America.

 A LONG TELEPHOTO SHOT THROUGH A THOUSAND SNOWFLAKES OF PARK RESIDENT MIKE AND HIS DOG ALFIE OUT FOR A WALK....THAT'S ALFIE LOWER RIGHT

GROANER'S CORNER:(( Two guys were doing construction on a house. One of them, who was nailing down siding, would reach into his nail pouch, pull out a nail, and then either toss it over his shoulder or nail it into the siding. The other guy, figuring this was worth looking into, asked, "Why are you throwing those nails away?" The first guy explained, "If I pull a nail out of my pouch and it's pointed towards me, I throw it away 'cause it's defective. If it's pointed toward the house, then I nail it into the siding." The second guy was outraged. He yelled, "You moron! The nails pointed towards you aren't defective! They're for the other side of the house!"

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Remember, when people are dead, they do not know they are dead. It is only painful for others. The same applies when people are stupid.

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- “It's a clumsy reflection of yourself when you break a mirror.”

- "How's the diet going?" "Not good, I had eggs for breakfast." "Scrambled?" "No, chocolate."

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The Little Moron was driving down the road when he looks up and sees a tree, so he swerves to the left. The tree is still in front of him so she swerves to the right, this time his car rolls into the ditch. When the Police Officer came to the scene of the accident the Little Moron told the Police Officer about the tree that was in front of him. The officer kindly explained that the tree was the green air freshener hanging off his rear view mirror.

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Al's Doggy World

Meanings::

Al's Art Gallery