Backing up the photo files

 Let me give you an idea of how old I am. 

I remember film. You know, that stuff you loaded into a camera without allowing bright light to hit it. I remember Kodak's instant developing film, too. I even have a few surviving examples of those. 

My very first camera was a Kodak Brownie Hawkeye. I'm pretty sure it was old and used by the time my grandfather gave it to me. He would load the film for me. Then the camera was held down in front of you at waist level so you could see through this tiny round hole. I thought I was a big dog taking pictures until I'd used all twelve spots on the film. Then Pop would remove the film and take it to be developed. He may or may not bring a fresh roll of film home when he dropped off the exposed roll. Money didn't flow back in those days, not like it does now. 

Pop fostered my interest in a wide variety of activities. Where my parents thought I was "scattered," Pop saw something more. He saw me soaking up information about everything that passed in front of me and everywhere he took me. He was, and still is by far, the most influential person in my life. 

Taking pictures is much easier than it was back in the nineteen sixties. Everyone has a cell phone and digital pictures are easy to store. Just transfer the file to your computer or the cloud. I don't even know if I could find film to purchase for my old Pentax ME Super. 

What precipitated this blog is the newest backup of my photo files. I was using a couple of older jump drives and decided I needed to get one single stick with enough capacity for all of it. 

Holy cow...

I have almost 11,000 files on the hard drive. That translated to about 44 GB of pictures. Apparently, the man of the manor is correct. I really do keep everything. 

But then, so did Pop.

The Lady of Holly Tree Manor

A long time coming - berries on the largest holly tree

For years I've wondered if any of the holly trees would ever get berries. I knew that berries only form on old growth, so pruning is not recommended if you want to get berries. I also knew that hollies have both male and female plants, and the berries form on the female trees. This is the first year any of the hollies have produced berries, and it's only on the largest tree.

I didn't plant any of the fourteen holly trees on the manor. A lifetime ago, my grandfather purchased a male and a female holly and planted it in the lower corner of his yard. A walk through the nearby woods will show a person just how prolific those parent trees were. I'm sure my hollies are their progeny. 

When he purchased the home place, my cousin felled the holly trees. Holly trees can live well over 100 years and these two were probably about seventy and beginning to show their age. Even a light snow caused branches to break. We didn't want to wake up one morning and find our shared lane blocked by a fallen tree, and so I reluctantly agreed they had to come down at a time of our choosing. By then, I already had young, established trees. 

Will we have a little holly "baby boom" on the manor? It wouldn't be a bad thing. It would give me the chance to transplant a few young trees along the western stone fence to grow as a barrier to a neighbor who thinks target shooting into my hillside is okay. It's not. 

All we can do now is wait and see. Mother Nature can't be rushed.

The Lady of Holly Tree Manor