I continue to play in the cloud. While this blog has a limited number of posts it still provides me with an abundance of materials to fool around with. Right now Google Maps is favorite ‘tool’ and I’ve started a Roadside Wildflower Map. I’ll be changing that to just a wildflower map that also includes wildflowers off the paved path.

I’ll have to make another ‘marker’ to personalize my map but I’m sure I’ll have another Looney volunteer to point the way. The whole process is a work in progress but Google Maps makes it easy to update while continuing to ‘publish’ the map as I go along my merry way. For example the Title will change shortly after I finish this post and Google Maps will take care of the geek details for me and republish the whole nine yards as I save my updates. There will be no returning to places I’ve embedded the map and updating the code used to do so.

Want to see the map in progress – it’s now on the sidebar for anyone to use. I think what I really like about it is that I figured out a way to link back to the original blog post and the photos of the specific wildflower. It’s not just a map – it’s another way to organize my wildflower collection.

Ah what the heck. As long as I’m here I might as well add my canoe and hiking map to the sidebar too. There’s not much too it yet. It’s really going to be next years summer project as I play on the rivers and hiking trails

Meanwhile I have to remember when creating a slideshow to save the photos in a new gallery that will not be updated. Seems like they break when I update the original photo gallery in Picasa. I’m not sure what the problem is but I did notice that the slideshow broke again on the post from a couple days ago. Oh well, live and learn.

Sorry – I still have nothing new to post unless I get out of my easy chair and go to the desktop and dig out another photo to use. I’m not ready to get up yet so I’ll just dig into the old posts and post once again one of my favorite images from my glorified bird bath / pond.

I’m still playing with the chromebook and exploring what Google has been doing while I wasn’t looking. The Picnik image editor is beginning to grow on me. Picasa Web Albums is something I should have used long ago. Creating photo galleries and slideshows will make it easier to browse all the future images and any that don’t quite make it the blog.

Here are some cow faces I touched up today:

Google Maps is making me anxious too. Mapping my discoveries is really going to help me remember where I found things. I can already imagine a mushroom map, a wildflower map, best gardens map and on and on and on.

Here’s a river access map I’ve already started to cover canoeing and hiking in the area.

View Canoe and Hiking in St. Lawrence County, NY in a larger map

Now I’m off to see if it’s possible to at least post a link back to here from inside a map.
Maybe tomorrow I’ll get out of my easy chair.