About Balsam's Rosemount Road

Shocked, freaked and dismayed. Yep, no more picnik.com after April 19, 2012. I tried going to Flickr but big upside down smiley face on that. Navigating around that site felt like my shoes were on the wrong feet. I opened up Publisher on the computer and while it’s great for flyers and note cards, it doesn’t serve the purpose at all for photo editing.

There was no explanation about WHY picnik is going away, just that it is going away. Some sort of cutesy banner about the “ants have invaded”, what the hell does that mean? Another cutesy banner about “takeout”, their offer to send all of the members’ photos and slide shows to them in a zip file and I’m glad for that of course. They are refunding all the premium members dues and until their final day all of the premium services are free. Ok, great…except even being on their site today felt weird. Sort of like how you feel once you’ve given notice at a job you’ve really enjoyed. You know the feeling…you come in the day after you give notice and there is a degree of separation and coldness in the room?

Picnik.com was suggested to me by William Johnson and the experience of editing photos on that site was so liberating and eye opening for me that I managed to learn a lot. For that I’m very grateful that the site existed. There are probably other sites like that and I’m sure this will be a big topic of conversation in the Rain as we all help each other grieve for the loss of this incredibly handy tool.

Buying “programs” or “software” is not my favorite thing because again…feels like wearing shoes on the wrong feet. I don’t understand the boxes the programs come in, the sales people never seem to understand either or worse…they do understand and can’t communicate pros and cons to mere earthlings like myself.

Irfanview is what I used to use before picnik and I guess I’ll go check it out. I’ve only used the free version and it WAS pretty handy. In all fairness, I never explored their Premium or Pro version but I guess that’s one avenue to check out.

One thing I have learned about web based sites like Picnik, it is really handy to not have to install programs on multiple computers and it’s great to have everything in one convenient place. I like logging on wherever I am and finding where I left off easily.

So many of us on ActiveRain were Picnik participants that I’m looking forward to seeing what other great resources we discover. Maybe this is a great opportunity to find an even better photo editing product. Right? Let’s go team? Still…whatever…I’m bummed.

Not to mention shocked, freaked and dismayed.

They are just names in an article until you can see them laid out. We used to sell the dickens out of raised relief maps when we were in retail with Venture Out, our camping and backpacking store. We keep a framed raised relief map in our office and property hunters are as fascinated by the area’s layout as we are.

This is a small portion of our comfort zone. All the names I’ve posted about and more…to the west you can see Dillsboro, where MoonDancer Realty’s office is located, towards the east and kind of in the center of the photo is Balsam where I live right next to the Blue Ridge Parkway and continuing further east is the Town of Waynesville that I love to show property in and spend a good bit of time with my camera.

It would be interesting to share these views of where we all live and work. Where’s your comfort zone?

Wordless Wednesday is so apt, because it’s been tough finding any time to put down words. Like a lot of the south right now, Balsam, NC has been socked in with fog. Funny enough though, when I was reading Gayle Rich-Boxman’s beautiful post about Fishawk Lake I looked up from the computer to see a brilliant red sunrise that I’ll post another time. I took the camera back into the house and looked up about 10 minutes later and found myself encased in a surreal landscape of fog with ghostly shaped trees.

Thank goodness the wind had died down from last night, otherwise 11.3 degrees would have felt cold. Well, okay…it still felt cold. Hello! 11.3 degrees IS cold.

Working in real estate has enough challenges without adding winter into the mix. What agent hasn’t been thrilled by the prospect of showing a vacant house in winter that the seller is trying out cost saving measures like eliminating heat. Sometimes it just isn’t possible to get out to a listing to turn up the thermostat before you or another agent show up with your buyers.

Has anyone ever in their real estate careers, ushered buyers into a house boasting a toasty 48 degrees and have the buyers gush through frosty puffs of breath….”Oh, I love it! Honey, let’s get this one!”. I don’t think so. There is not a house on the planet that will show well when the buyers’ teeth are chattering.

Whoa…I think that was a rant and totally not where I was headed with this post. Oops. Where was I? Oh yeah, challenges.

So many things can happen in a burst of winter, I don’t know how those Colorado folks do it! Buyers’ travel plans get changed, roads can be impassable (doesn’t that really sell a property!), signs won’t go in the dirt, and OH MY GOSH…the clothing! Realtors’ cars get completely loaded up with coats, hats, gloves…a shovel, just in case and this morning I just discovered that digital cameras? Not so happy with the 11 degree temps.

First, let me assure anyone thinking of living in the mountains of Western North Carolina…this is totally not typical winter weather. One of the best things about winter in Western NC is that the weather can run the gamut of temperatures and precipitation. Just enough to keep from being bored. We usually only see (well, except for last year - that was a bear) three or four “winterish snaps”. The kind with snow and really cold weather. Then we can expect a return to sunny 40-65 degree days so that the snow never has the opportunity to get grungy and slushy looking.

Still not where I thought this post would head. I thought three easy photos and captions.

Here’s how quickly the weather can change…

Sunny, 60s on Sunday - New Years Day in Hot Springs, NC. These are the steps that lead down to a beautiful rivery creek at the house we are hoping is officially under contract. There were some acorn tops on the steps and I was marveling at how warm everything looked.

Fast forward 48ish hours to this morning getting ready to walk the dogs. Forget the wool socks and crocs…goretex shelled fleece hat, fleece hoodie, fleece lined barn coat, wool socks and boots. Oh yeah and gloves so I can cuss at the leashes.

Itty, bitty Office Manager footsteps…awwwww, aren’t they cute?

Like I said, thank goodness the wind had died down ;-D

Have a great day!