I just discovered something that all you Blogger nerds will appreciate. I've always been troubled by the presence of extraneous html code in my posts -- mainly paragraph tags (a letter P inside brackets) that make the spaces between text and photos too big. I would always write a post and then go back into the html code and remove the paragraph tags. There were always four, two at the very top of the post, above the first photo, and two above the second photo. I have no idea why.
BUT I just discovered that when I start a post, if I hit backspace before I do anything else, it removes that formatting. Voila! No more need to go in and manually take out the tags. What I type is what I get.
This will mean nothing to you if you're not a blogger -- but if you are and you're picky about formatting like I am, it might be useful information.
I got lots done in the garden yesterday. It was an amazing day, weather-wise. Or, as Mr. Kravitz said to me when I ran into him on the street, "Cracking day, isn't it?" (Mr. K is a man of few words so I was impressed that I got anything more than a hello.)
I trimmed and pulled weeds, mainly dock, that cursed scourge. I'm really trying to work with weeds and let some of them be, but if I leave even one dock plant to set seed, we'll have six million of them the following year. And they are almost impossible to pull up, being brittle with a long taproot, and if even a smidgen of the root remains the plant will regrow. From an evolutionary standpoint it's impressive. Dock is a survivor.
I trimmed where one plant was bumping into or smothering another. Like where our big hideous camellia bush was overgrowing and stunting the top of the cardoon. Now the cardoon has space to breathe free and reach for the sky.
How is it possible that we have a hideous camellia, you may ask? Aren't camellias one of the prettiest of flowers?
Well, in many cases, yes. But our camellias are white, and the blossoms turn brown within a day or two of opening. And then they hang on forever, so the overall effect is a bush with brown, dead, saggy flowers. LOADS of them. It has also become way too large for the space. We're seriously thinking of chopping it down, and you know I don't do that kind of thing lightly.
See what I mean? It's also very misshapen, because it was planted too close to the gigantic mock orange behind it, which means the back side is entirely without leaves. (We didn't plant it. It was here when we moved in.)
Anyway, I filled two yard waste bags and the garden still looks wildly overgrown. We like it that way but it's funny how all that work produced little visible change.
Meanwhile, Queen Olga basked in the sun by the back door. Dave pulled out all that fertilizer (at left) because he was going to feed the plants, but then he took a nap and it didn't happen. Maybe today.
I also managed to work through two issues of The New Yorker plus our RHS gardening magazine. Whew! The exertion!
(Top photos: A bee inside our yellow peony, which has TEN buds this year, the first of which has just opened.)
Camellias are my favorite flowers, I have been trying for several years to grow them here and failed. I can understand that it is difficult for them to live here...
ReplyDeleteI have to laugh about the New Yorker. All the time I was growing up my parents subscribed to it and I can't recall ever seeing them read it. You're doing well!
ReplyDeleteI totally agree about white Camellias - luckily both those that I've owned in two different gardens have died and been replaced by something that lasts much longer.
ReplyDeleteI've discovered so much about using computers purely by accident.
ReplyDeleteI'm glad you added more information about the 'hideous' camellia. I've never come across one.
Gardening in the English spring sunshine sounds lovely.
I’d want to put that camelia (and you) out of its misery. Looking at that would not make me happy. If Dave is anything like SG, those supplies will sit by the door for at least another week.
ReplyDeleteI so admire your New Yorker fortitude. I love the New Yorker; I simply find it entertaining to follow your accomplishments. Weeding the entire garden, doing 17 loads of laundry, working all week, cleaning the house, walking 43 miles — AND reading 2 New Yorkers!
Perhaps the plants relax into the space that you thought you had cleared?
ReplyDeleteWhat is html? I've come across it...is it just a different computer language?
I just add photos, write and hit publish 🙂
I guess I'm a blogging format nerd because I get irritated reading other blogs with poor formatting. One I read always ends up with centered text after they post their first picture!
ReplyDeleteI don't find myself going back into the html code very often to correct something but then, I usually hit backspace before starting to type because Blogger has an annoying habit of putting a space before the first left in the first line of the post.
I did not know peonies came in yellow, they are lovely and so is the bee.
ReplyDeleteI know nothing of formatting or HTML, I just type my stuff directly onto the "new post" page and either schedule for when I want it up or publish right away.
Carlos planted Camellias along our fence and their blooms are gorgeous, and seem to last a while.
ReplyDeleteI do notice that when I create a post and start with a photo, the photo is automatically placed two lines down.I generally click on the photo and then align it to the left and then recenter it and it goes up to the top line.
I wonder if your trick will stop that.
I usually just rearrange the formatting by backspacing to reduce that extra line around photos. And to remove that single extra space at the beginning, which is neither left align nor indent. I've found that deleting a picture makes the following text centered. Sometimes I can fix that,sometimes life's too short, and sometimes I refrain from deleting till I've finished writing.
ReplyDeleteMy tiny patio area is getting crowded but the cold wet weather isn't the time to fix that.
You know how much I love camellias and yet here I am saying, "Cut that down!" It's not happy and it's not making you happy.
ReplyDeleteI have never seen that particular quirk when writing on blogger but I surely do have problems with that first indention (which seems to be two spaces for me) and the fact that very often after posting and/or deleting a photo, the text wants to be centered, just as Liz said. Sometimes I can fix it, other times not. Drives me crazy. But hey- it's FREE!
So nice of Mr. K. to say hello. Perhaps he was long ago stunned into silence by his wife.
You might try googling 'camellia flower blight'. I'm no expert, but this might be helpful.
ReplyDeleteI write my post in text edit and then copy and paste and then add in the pictures. I prefer to leave a space at the top of the compose window so my text or photo isn't butt up against the title. I like to leave a space under photos before the next paragraph and it will look fine in compose but in preview it will have two spaces so I just go back and delete the one in compose. I had to go back and tighten up my spacing in text edit though which helped with the big space between paragraphs.
ReplyDeleteyou might wait til it quits blooming to cut down the camillia so the flower fairies don't panic and have nowhere to go.
I vote you get rid of it.
ReplyDeleteYou lost me at html. I know what it is but everytime I do anything with it, everything goes for shit, so I leave it alone now.
ReplyDeleteI didn't know there was a Mr. Kravitz. This changes everything for me.
That camellia is very ugly. I would pull it too.
I agree, the Camellia needs to go. I once had to many lilies and put the word out: Free lilies, call xxxx. People called and I said, "Bring your shovel." The lilies were cleared and I had new space. Somebody probably wants all those Camellias.
ReplyDeleteThat must have been an exhausting but very productive day. I agree about the camellias. Those brown blooms sort of ruin the whole effect. Sounds like it was a perfect day, or as Mr Kravitz said a "cracking" day.
ReplyDeletehtml is a complete mystery to me. I guess one of these days I should see what it's all about.
ReplyDeleteOur camellia is pink, but the blooms on it go brown within a couple of days, too. I always just figured it needed to be heavily deadheaded when it's in bloom. I would never get rid of it because my MIL gave it to us when our younger daughter was born. It's 36 years old and has survived ice storms AND multiple dogs digging under it during hot summers. It's determined to live!
ReplyDeleteThe camellia is not lovely. It's violating my "produce or die" gardening rule. So, off with its head. Thanks for the formatting tip, I spend a lot of time remembering to use shift/carriage return to prevent the extra line blogger wants to put in. Even then I frequently have to go back and get an extraneous blank line.
ReplyDeleteThat's the first ugly camellia I've ever seen. I have trouble getting rid of live plants, but I might make an exception. It's been glorious weather here too--sunny and 70s/low 80s.
ReplyDeleteI too was surprised by mention of Mr. Kravitz. From your previous posts I had assumed that Mrs. Kravitz was either a widow or never married.
ReplyDeleteI write my posts in Word & then copy & paste. Then I have to "select" the whole thing & change it from "paragraph" to "normal" - otherwise I have all kinds of extra spaces between paragraphs & photos. And there is ALWAYS an extra space at the beginning of the post, but I just delete it.
ReplyDeleteI think your camellia problem is why I don't really like white flowers - they turn brown so easily. Which is fine in fall - ha!
Yael: I don't think they do well in hot climates and direct sun. Which I think is why ours suffers.
ReplyDeleteBarbara: Ha! It's EXPENSIVE, so I want to get my money's worth!
Sue: I think pink and red camellias hide the brownness better.
Andrew: Well, there's something to be said for self-teaching! I've learned a lot of computer stuff just by doing -- not that I really know very much.
Mitchell: Ha! You've pretty much summed up my life, there! Dave did, in fact, feed the plants the next day. :)
GZ: Yes, it's the computer code that tells Blogger what things should look like. There are little commands that specify whether type should be italicized, where there should be line breaks, and that kind of thing. You don't need to even think about it most of the time.
Ed: Yes, it's that same annoying space that I'm always trying to get rid of! WHY does Blogger do that?!
River: This is something called an "intersectional" peony, which as I understand it is a hybrid of two different varieties?
Bob: I think camellias need a bit of shade. Maybe your spot along the fence is shady? Yes, I think my trick will get rid of that picture issue.
Boud: Situations like that centered text made me learn how to tweak the html code. Sometimes I'd wind up with formatting that I didn't want and the only way I could see to correct it was to manually remove the html tags.
Ms Moon: OK, well, if YOU say to cut it down, I feel much less guilty! I think it gets too much sun, and that's what burns the flowers. It's just in the wrong place.
Debby: Hmmmm...I'll take a look but I really don't think it's a blight. I think it's just an unattractive camellia in a spot that's too sunny.
Ellen: How come you write in text edit rather than directly into Blogger? Just curious! I have to get permission from the landlords before I remove the camellia, so it won't happen immediately. (If it happens at all.)
Tasker: Your vote has been recorded and I appreciate it!
Pixie: Yes! Mr. Kravitz is not someone I encounter regularly -- I usually just see him now and again on the street. Unlike his wife he does not insert himself into our private business.
Susan: I wish I could give away the camellia whole, but it's too big for that. Digging it out would leave a moon-sized crater!
Sharon: Yeah, all that brown just looks so dreary!
Red: I don't know a whole lot about it. I know just enough to do a few simple things.
Kelly: I don't see how I could deadhead this plant. It's too tall, for one thing, and there are SO many flowers. I'd never get anything else done!
Allison: Yeah, I do that shift/return thing too, so I only get single spaces. Why does Blogger want to put in all this extra space?
Margaret: I agree! Camellias are usually beautiful! I'm telling you, this one is cursed.
Catalyst: No, she is in fact married. But he stays mostly out of sight and keeps to himself.
Bug: It's funny how we've all developed these little techniques to get rid of that extra space at the beginning. Which begs the question: WHY DOES BLOGGER PUT IT THERE IN THE FIRST PLACE?!
Hmmm. I never go into the html -- it freaks me out! But I have noted the back space thing working (I guess because I never go into html I kept hitting keys till something changed!) I should go there sometime but all that glob of characters is too much for my brain!
ReplyDeleteThe garden looks great. I did a lot of weeding this weekend and paying for it today! And repotting seedling from the nursery. Hopefully I can get some mulch down this week and slow down the weeds!
I had two pink Camelias like that one that came with the house when I bought it, both are long gone. I have no problem getting rid of messy and ugly. It makes more space for plants you really want. One of them I replaced with a blood orange tree which I love more each year. x0x0 N2
ReplyDelete