May Day came in with a blast this weekend wiping away the last weeks of on again off again weather with pure sunshine. The festival season began in our town on Saturday, restaurant terraces are open and the garden center parking lots were full (we were there). I’m caught up in the feeling of energy and change with a number of new projects – probably more ideas than I’ll every get around to.

This past week I bought a painting literally off the easel of a local artist. I was in The Old Schoolhouse Art Centre where I’m taking another 6-week drawing class and ran into Jacqueline Smith, who I’d met socially some time ago, and had been following her work. Joining her in her studio for a chat, I was mesmerized by the piece she was just finishing, a 24×24 poured acrylic abstract inspired by Qualicum Falls, a place close to her heart, and before too long I decided it needed to be part of our collection. This has prompted me to move forward on something I’ve been thinking of for some time – with a few exceptions, I’m going to move around every piece of artwork in the house to new locations – new spot, new eyes, new appreciation.

The fuchsias are out of The GreenHouse now and over to the Summer GreenHouse where they will begin flowering over the next 6 weeks. The GreenHouse is due for a major cleaning once that’s done – I’ll remove everything to scrub and recaulk inside and out. It would be nice if my enthusiasm for spring cleaning extended to the house as well, but that’s highly unlikely. There are limits.

Besides the ongoing gardening, painting and taking pictures, there are other things in the pipeline and I’m not looking forward to all of them.

When I retired from the world of gainful employment some 8 years ago now, I removed my watch, changed the font, and bought an Apple computer. The watch is gone for good, the font change became a metaphor for exploring the creative and the new operating system took me about a year to get used to (I had used Windows for work and the personal forever). I started  writing tales about what I was seeing on my traveling adventures  to accompany the photos that I was taking in a big way. I used the Apple product Aperture to edit, sort and store my photos, the more pro version of their iPhoto software. I have over 20,000 images on this program, so that’s a lot of use, a lot of time and effort invested.

That’s gone now.

Apple has now abandoned Aperture and has released a replacement software that by all accounts comes up short. Professional photographers are leaving in droves. Apple’s focus is now on social media and interconnection of (their) devices via The Cloud. Apple wants you to use The Cloud. But of course. 5G of “free” storage runs out quickly (my photos alone are 20G) and then the monthly charges begin. I do not see any point in storing my stuff on some company’s server just to fuel the beast. The Apple operating system is morphing towards the look and feel of mobile devices. Meh. I’ve always been completely underwhelmed by the iPad. For me it is an overpriced magazine reader and YouTube viewer – preferably from a prone position on the couch. As for social media, forget it. Too noisy.

So it would seem at some point I have many hours ahead in front of the computer wrestling with a new photography program (along with new operating system). Oh joy.

I’ve never been a rabid Apple v. Windows advocate or fan but it seems to me that Scott Bourne, a professional photographer commenting on where Apple has been heading these past few years, may very well be on the money when he says

For those of you hanging on to the dream – It’s time to face the facts folks. Apple Computer is gone. When Steve Jobs died, so did the company that made high-end hardware and software for photo geeks. Now Apple is in the watch business. It’s a shame, but that is the way it is.