I'm back! Who can figure? And with a pretty Zygote cactus!

Hello dear friends! I know that it has been awhile, but lately things have been keeping me busy (please refer to my last post), and I simply have not had the time to post to this blog. I have missed you all.

Aside from other issues, one of the biggest hurdles to my posting has been that right before we were told that Mr. Perch would need surgery, I ordered a new computer. Since my last one was a Dell laptop that was probably almost 12 years old (it ran on Windows XP, if that tells you anything!), and served me quite well, I decided that I would buy another one. Though I have gotten used to Apple with my iPad and iPhone, I did not purchase a Mac mainly due to the cost factor. I probably would have kept my trusty old laptop till death, but Windows XP is no longer supported by many of the programs that I use, so I decided to quit while I was ahead and before my computer crashed altogether. So of course, the new laptop arrived about three days before Hubby went into the hospital and I have had about as much time to connect it, never mind get used to it, as I have had to each chocolate covered bon-bons while watching soap operas all day. So, I've been picking away at it slowly and now feel a little bit of a comfort level. Windows 10 is nice but it is so very much different than XP was. It was almost like having to learn how to work a computer all over again. Then, it wouldn't recognize the scanner on my printer, so I am now going to be using a scanning app. I'll see how it shakes out.

I got a little stressed out when it wouldn't accept my Canon Rebel camera's software either, but then realized that Microsoft 10 recognizes most cameras anyway, and the editing software, though basic, is nicer than what I had before. I don't get that involved with editing anyway on this simple little blog.

But the best part is that it appears that I can just hook up my iPhone to it and upload the photos just as I would my regular camera. I started to do this yesterday, but canceled out when I realized that I have over 3300 photos on my phone, and certainly didn't want them all on my new hard drive. I guess it's time to weed them out!

So here I am, finally able to take some photos, upload them to my sweet new computer and put them on my blog. What a joy this finally is!

Because the gardening season is well behind us, I needed some flower power and my first foray into this new endeavor had to be with a few photos of a new Zygote Cactus that I bought in our little grocery store the other day. You may recall photos in previous posts of the big coral-colored one that I have had for many years, but this is such a pretty little white one.

These were taken with my Rebel,

lazily taken in the auto-focus mode.

It was just beginning to bloom when I bought it.

I love the shocking pink center...

The nice thing (or difficult thing to get used to, depending on how you look at it) about Windows 10 is that there are many apps available that will help you with photo editing.

I edited the photo below by washing out the color a bit

 with the Windows 10

photo app built into the system,

but framed it with a free app that I downloaded

called KVADPhoto+.

I did quite a bit of research before I chose

this one as it seemed quite good.

Framing is only a small portion of

what this app is able to do.

Time will tell as I play around with it

a little more...

As to an update on the Mister, we are in the middle of his being fitted for his prosthesis. It is quite a process, but he should be "up on two legs" again just after Thanksgiving! It would be fair to say that we are both really looking forward to the day!!!