Around the House
A good reason to practice with the camera and share a few things that (I think) are interesting.
Check this out: This is on a plastic Adirondack chair on the back deck, right outside the eating area. From a few feet away, it looked like a clump of mud stuck to the chair. It's about a bazillion baby spiders. Don't know if they hatched right there, or maybe underneath and then migrated up into a sunny area.
Below is a link to a MPEG movie I took with my digital camera. It's rather long, so it's likely not worth it if you don't have broadband.
Here's something you would not ordinarily expect to see for free. It's my own production video of a squirrel eating sunflower seeds from a "bird" feeder in the back yard. This is a large download. If you have broadband, go for it. If you have normal dial-up, here's a hint: It kinda sucks, so don't bother.
The main feature in the backyard is the pond. It's three levels and maybe about 500 gallons total. It's built out of about 100 bags of premix and a lot of 5/8 rebar. I used cinder blocks to form the waterfalls and faced them with split basalt. Also split basalt around the edges of the two lower ponds.
The top pond is filled with gravel and is underfed. A grid of perforated PVC pipe spreads the water out and it winds its way up through about 8 inches of gravel.
Stay tuned...