To tell you a little about myself: I grew up on a farm and went to school in a rural area through the 8th grade and then moved to a small town where I graduated from high school. I then worked for four years for a photography studio working in the darkroom...developing black and white film. Then I met my husband on a blind date arranged by my boss for their Christmas Party. We were marrried six months later. We will soon celebrate our 41st wedding anniversary. We eventually moved to a much larger city after my husband retired from the Postal Service. My mother moved in with us as she was not in good health. I took care of her for many years before she had to go to a nursing home. Both my husband and I love computers and are very involved with a Computer User Group. You can read more about us if you go to the link below about the Random Access and look up the article about the "Swopes" That article actually is about 4 years old though.We have two grown children in their mid 30's. Our son has his own contracting business and our daughter just received her Doctorate in Audiology. I have dabbled in many crafts (knitting,crocheting,oil,sewing, painting etc.) over the years but now I am into computer graphics etc. I took the Photo Impact Beginners Workshop and several other classes such as Digital Painting,Animation and now the HTML class. I love to read, walk, take pictures with my digital camera and see what I can do with them. I love animals and have a 8 year old Golden Retriever named "Misty" and a 3 year old white cat named "Angel-Kitty". You can see their picture with the album of my orchids from the links icon above.
One of my favorite hobbies was raising orchids. You might say I was totally hooked on them. I bought my first orchid in Hawaii (my favorite place on earth) while we were on vacation there a few years back. I enjoyed that plant so much that I ordered some more from the Island of Hawaii and had them shipped to me. After that.... everytime I went shopping it seemed like I could not pass up the orchid plants. My collection grew to 26 different plants. My husband built a special place in the kitchen by a south and east window for them. They must have been happy plants as they bloomed and bloomed.
The months of December, January and February I could always plan on having my kitchen corner full of beautiful blooms. I had so many plants that sometimes I didn't see a bud form and would be surprised one day to find a new flower pop up. My favorite plants were the Cattelya and the Phalanopsis. The Phalanopsis seems to be the easiest for a beginner to get started with...at least that was my experience. I also had Dendrobium and Miltonia Orchids! I really found orchids easy to grow but finally got to point I was feeling tied down by them as I had to be around to water and fertilize every few days. I finally gave them to a family member who had always admired them. The last I knew they were still blooming their little hearts out! I still find myself having to pass them up in the stores as I want them all. I think they are one of the prettiest plants.
These are a few of my favorite web sites.
