the little wild kingdom

[flowerbug]

updates from the bean page at: https://www.anthive.com/project/beans/ (the larger picture links are in there i'm not sure anyone really ever looks at them):


most of the beans from 2020 finally more organised

Spotted Pheasant Child

Seven of the Monster Childen

Six of the Domino Children

and no, i don't like how the colors are working out for these pictures either, but until i can get a colorimeter it is what i've got. i hope i can get an order put in for one this next week, but i keep dragging my feet too much. i hate shopping...

 

[Mini Horses]

The spotted remind me of Jacobs cattle.

When cooked, do they retain spots?

The speckled ones would drive me nuts, trying to pick out bad ones.

 

[flowerbug]

i don't have enough of those to cook up, like those speckled beans, that is my entire harvest of those.

the parent bean of all of the Monster and Monster Children is Dappled Grey which i did grow enough to cook up some of the rejects this year.

i don't really have enough room here for growing out all the beans i'd like - bulk and otherwise.

in the picture of the collection all togther the beans on very right side are the purple beans of which only one did i plant in bulk, from those as i was shelling out i selected beans for further planting the coming season - those seeds are in the larger yogurt continer. all the rest of those beans in the collection are almost the entire harvest from about 50 different beans that i planted. the bulk beans i have posted those pictures up thread from here.

 

[flowerbug]

The spotted remind me of Jacobs cattle.

When cooked, do they retain spots?

The speckled ones would drive me nuts, trying to pick out bad ones.

some of the patterned beans will retain some of the pattern when cooked but the colors can change and/or fade.

as far as picking out the bad beans i have a few varieties where you really have to look closely to make sure they're ok. i don't mind looking at them again.

i finally did get my new gadgets ordered Sunday and so those should arrive this week or next week. since i have no idea what these pictures actually look like to other people and my own color monitor is not very well calibrated and also because i really want to be able to see things better including the colors so i picked up a colorimeter, a small color chip set (which also has grey scale on it) and an adjustable light source which i hope will take care of my needs for getting better bean pictures. i've wanted to get all these things ordered since last spring but with the pandemic i didn't want to order something when everyone else was all of a sudden jumping on the on-line ordering bandwagon. now that things have become more regular and it is time for me to get back to what i was working on last winter (getting all my bean pictures taken).

i expect i may not get the entire bean collection of pictures taken this year, but just to get the past three years and some of the most interesting other beans taken would be a nice start. we'll see how it goes.

 

[flowerbug]

two of three items ordered made it here by this afternoon and the other one is at the PO to be picked up. the most important two i have now so i can have fun with them this weekend. all things considered (two snow storms and all the companies involved) the whole experience was excellent. i have some rigging to solidify so that i can use the light, but i can get that sorted out next Monday or Tuesday. all good here. if you don't see or hear much for me for a while that is what i'm up to. but i will likely get some pictures posted when i have something that looks better than what i've been getting so far - just to celebrate.

 

[flowerbug]

ended up having to rearrange my picture taking setup and i liked the results more after i did that. i was just starting to get ready to take more pictures and figure out the next steps of the process i want to use and...

then we had some storms and a power outage and my computer went on the fritz so finally today i got the last part i needed, upgraded the motherboard and CPU so mostly have a new computer but the rest of the parts are things i was using before.

this morning i had some small amount of dirt therapy feeding some of the worms and enjoyed the rest of the day.

i hope everyone is well.

 

[flowerbug]

my project of getting bean pictures taken has certainly been side tracked but just before the power went out and computer went on the fritz i did get this shot for a color test so i'm getting closer to things looking better (notice in the above pictures that there is a very bright reflection coming off the glossy coated beans):

the next step i need to do is figure out how to get a consistent white balance across many pictures as the camera does some things automatically and that may not match from shot to shot, so i either have to figure out how to turn that off in the camera so it doesn't adjust any of the white balance at all or i have to correct it so the pictures all match (yes, i am that way about some things which goes with my nitpicky brain and wanting things to be done correctly ).

for the pictures i want to have of the entire bean collection i want the pictures to all be fairly standard and not vary in the background color (that i've not really been happy with any background i've used so far is something that bugs me too). artistic and photographic creative type pictures are whole different thing and i haven't really even begun to figure that out very well. i've just been mostly doing some lightly staged stuff and snap shots.

ok, i do have a background that i like but some people have said it is too dark and too busy:

 

[flowerbug]

a few pics from this morning:


killdeer eggs, the same pair that have been nesting in the back fenced garden area for many years now, much calmer and quieter than the ones that don't know us. she let me snap this picture without a single peep.

garlic patch with green garlic to the right:

onion patch showing how well the seedlings survived from last fall without any mulch.

 

[flowerbug]

the past few weeks have been warm enough and dry enough to get back outside again and to get going on various garden tasks. it feels so good and progress is always welcome on any of my projects along with being more ready for spring planting when it begins.

mainly the next few weeks i hope to be able to get some peas planted. the beginning of May i'll try some early beans that are supposedly cool season tolerant.

until then it is weeding and working on a project which is to clear out some weeds and grasses along a pathway so it can be planted with more beans. you can see i made some progress on this last summer but i still have about 15 more feet to go. it is getting easier though since there is less grass and more chickweed the further i go. the end will be a bit of a pain though because of the ditch grass that is really hard to control...


from about 4yrs ago:

last year:

it's been fun seeing how it has changed back there through the years... for more information on that garden...

NE_Garden | Anthive

Learning by doing...

www.anthive.com

 

[Mini Horses]

Huge difference!! That took a lot of work.

Is the area behind the smiley face fence yours? I like the smileys.

While I like the background and the beans, possibly together it distracts from the lovely beans? But the colors are all showing beautifully. Very clear. Nice.