Hardly anyone posting here I'm just dropping in from your future.

Here's a reprocessed image of a photo taken in February of 2018.

The original concentrated on the vibrant yellow and orange of the blossom. For this version I decided to go for a mostly B&W look because I thought the values were good. I played with a couple of B&W conversions, then tried what PSE calls an Infrared look. I doesn't look much like infrared to me, but I liked the result...

   

Less than 5 minutes before Australia vs England with the winner to face Spain in the final.

England:
PROS
1) more experience at this stage of a world cup
2) a very good defense
3) They entered this World Cup as the team most hampered by injuries, but in the early games they did just enough to win. And now they are much healthier.

CONS
1) As good as their defense has been, I'm not overly impressed by their offense.
2) Perhaps their best player, Lauren James is serving her second  disqualification due to a red card. (And this is fair - she lost her cool and intentionally stepped on an opponent. It was a very low class move.

Australia:
PROS
1) Sam Kerr will play. Although not 100%, the experience and skill she brings is invaluable.
2) Of course the Matildas will draw strength from the home crowd.
3) Young Mary Fowler has impressed me with her play and maturity; I expect her to be a key player in this game.

CONS
1) How healthy is Sam Kerr, and how many minutes will she be able to play?
2) Australia is in uncharted waters this deep in a World Cup. Will that inexperience hurt their play?

My prediction:
Australia will score 2 or more goals against the tough English defense. And they need to get off to a quick start to help them relax in such a high pressure situation.

I'll call it 2-1 for Australia, maybe 3-2 if Kerr and Fowler play as well as I think they will.

Maybe I'll make it a Taco Tuesday later today; thinking of a pulled pork soft taco.

Great World Cup game. Most of the experts picked Sweden to win, not giving Spain much of a chance. It was an exciting but scoreless game for all but the past 15 minutes or so. Spain scored first. Minutes later Sweden scored to draw even. Finally Spain scored the winning goal. There were 3 goals in about 8 minutes.

Tomorrow it's Australia vs England. Some so-called experts expect England to win. But Australia is rolling, and it's quite likely that they'll draw energy and determination from the home crowd to beat England and advance to the championship match vs Spain..

My daughter's vacation to Australia and New Zealand is almost over. I envy her and her DH for this experience.

One photo (not taken by me, obviously) to share, just because it's so cute, is this one of my daughter and a new friend taken at a Red Panda encounter in New Zealand...

   

Monday, Monday.

I've been thinking of all our cyber friends we haven't heard from in a long time. I hope they are doiing well.

Today's sunrise outside a small local mall.

   

Sorry to jump ahead but it is indeed Saturday here.
Here is one of my backyard Bearded Dragons having a bit of a warm sunny winters day.



For Dave and others interested in the Womens World Cup. Both France and Australia have reasons to make this a win. https://www.abc.net.au/news/2023-08-12/m.../102720344

Here's another neighborhood sunrise, taken yesterday morning from about the same spot as the one I posted a couple of days ago...

   

You all have yourselves a good day or night.

Good day all! A beautiful Morning in South Dakota. Hope all is well in your part of the world.

Our lake however has it's annual problem with algae. Fix is to dredge the bottom and fix the incoming problem upstream that feeds the lake. Starting price $25 million.

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A golden suburban sunrise about ten minutes into my early morning walk today...

   

Wishing you all a good day or night.

After the disappointing performance by the US in the Round of 16 at the World Cup my daughter and her husband are cutting short their vacation in the lands down under. But before they return they will enjoy a couple of side trips to experience more of what this area of the world has to offer. By now they are on their way to Auckland and tomorrow they're off to Fiji (a 2100 mile 3-hour flight) for a few days to try to forget all about soccer. Then back to Auckland for a previously arranged outing to see and maybe interact with red pandas. After that comes the long flight back to California.

Here's a shot from April 2018 that I revisited and reprocessed...

   

I hope it has been or will be a good day for all of you.

Here is a reprocessed version of a macro I took in September of 2018...

   

Well, here are my World Cup predictions:

In the first round of the knockout phase
- Spain to beat Switzerland
- Netherlands to beat South Africa
- Japan to beat Norway
- Sweden to beat USA
- Australia to beat Denmark
- France to beat Morocco
- England to beat Nigeria
- Colombia to beat Jamaica

This gives these matches in the next round:
- Spain vs Netherlands, with Spain winning
- Japan vs Sweden, a huge match; Sweden is the logical choice to win, but I pick Japan
- Australia vs France, with France winning
- England vs Colombia with England winning

As Champions, I have these as possibilities, with most likely to win it at the top:
- England
- Sweden
- Spain
- France

BUT: don't write off Japan; they are playing very well: undefeated, led group play in goals scored with 11, tied for 1st in goals allowed with ZERO. They are agile, and show great hustle on both offense and defense; their defense is organized and disciplined. One difficulty might be their physical size - almost every other team is taller and stronger. But in the Japanese games I watched, this wasn't as problem; the smaller Japanese players weren't intimidated and their speed and agility resulted more often than not in more takeaways, more defensive stops, and control of more contested balls than their opponents.