Paddy had long heard the stories of an amazing family tradition.
It seems that his father, grandfather and great-grandfather had all been
able to walk on water on their 18th birthday.

On that special day, they'd each walked across the lake to the pub on the
far side for their first legal drink.

So when Paddy's 18th birthday came around, he and his pal Mick, took a
boat out to the middle of the lake, Paddy, stepped out of the boat ....and
nearly drowned!

Mick just barely managed to pull him to safety.
Furious and confused, Paddy went to see his grandmother ..

"Grandma," he asked, "Tis me 18th birthday, so why can't I walk across
the lake like me father, his father and his father before him?"

Granny looked deeply into Paddy's, troubled blue eyes and said,
"Because ye father, ye grandfather and ye great-grandfather were
all born in December, when the lake is frozen,
and ye were born in August, ya fookin idiot!"

The only cow in a small town in Ireland stopped giving milk. The town folk found they could buy a cow in Scotland quite cheaply, so they had the cow shipped over. The new cow was absolutely wonderful. It produced lots of milk every day and everyone was happy.
The townsfolk bought a bull to mate with the cow, to get more cows, so they would never have to worry about their milk supply again. They put the bull in the pasture with the cow, but whenever the bull tried to mount the cow, the cow would move away. No matter what approach the bull made, the cow would move away from the bull and was never able to do the deed.
The people were very upset and decided to talk to the Vet, describing that whenever the bull tries to mount our cow, she moves away. If he approaches from the back, she moves forward. When he approaches from the front, she backs off. If he attempts it from the side, she walks away to the other side.
The Vet rubbed his chin thoughtfully. After pondering the problem for a while, he asked, "Did you by chance, purchase this cow from Scotland?"
The people were dumbfounded, since they had never mentioned that they had brought the cow from Scotland.
"You are truly a very intelligent Vet", they said, "How did you know the cow came from Scotland?"
The Vet replied with a very distant look in his eye, "My wife's from Scotland."

The Muslim attack on the French magazine Charlie was bestial and completely inexcusable. However the magazine was utter filth wirh cartoons for instance showing Christ sodomising God.
Freedom of speech is absolutely essential but should it not draw the line
in the way it offends people?
The magazine is violently left wing and despises all religeon.
The Muslims didn't need much excuse to attack there and the Jewish store but they have had the effect of turning a 60,000 circulation into one of millions.
The vile attack should not disguise the fact that the magazine would not have been bought by normal decent people.

What do you think?

I had to delete a yellow fence top that surrounded a baseball field in the background.

I moved the bench, and then had to delete the shadow that was created by Elements 12 of the original bench.

I removed a tree trunk behind the bench that was moved when I moved the bench.

I played with pp until I got an effect that appealed to me.

I'd like critique from viewers. Not that the second photo is nice or that, if I'm satisfied with the final rendition, that's all that's important.

Thanks in advance.

Hello fellow Hedgehog members.
I have decided that at this point in time, I would like ONE quality lens for my Nikon D600. I have decided on a the focal length of 24-70 (roughly). My first thought was Nikon 24-70 of course which is very expensive. $1800+. Then I got to thinking of other brands and came across a number of articles on the Tamron 24-70 f2.8. Claims were made that it was every bit as good as the Nikon, maybe better. I realize that the Nikon brand will hold its value much better, but I never get rid of anything, so that is not a concern. I would like to hear everyone's thoughts on this, especially if you actually use the lens that you recommend.

Thanks