James Wharry's garden - Glens of Antrim, N Ireland

[ideasguy]

I met James on the Grand Gardens Tour in May 08 and learned that he was one of gardeners at Glenarm Castle.
On the same trip, James' wife told me that James was very proud of his own private garden, and - I got an invite to go up there and have a look (and to Glenarm Castle  - see separate thread on this forum).

We took him up on the offer on Tuesday 5th Aug 08.
The drive to James' house was through one of the most picturesque regions of Ireland, and his house is situated with a spectacular view of the "Glens of Antrim".
James Garden? My wife and I had the same reaction - absolutely brilliant.
Plants, garden features, this garden had it all.
After the visit, I suggested that the garden should be featured on TV. James replied that he'd been asked a few times, but so far has declined.

Look out for an Ideas Genie Pro WPG webset - meanwhile, heres a few photos

The weather was a bit unsettled. The overcast skies were a little darker than my preferred photographic conditions, but as it happened, I managed to capture a very good set of photos.
We had light drizzle at times -  I was so enthralled, I don't think I noticed.

My wife and I thoroughly enjoyed the day out.

Two Ideas Genie Pro WPG sets to follow. Watch this space...

[ideasguy]

A closer view of the "Huffin' house"
James built this house from local rock 

[ideasguy]

James in the middle of his lawn, surrounded by his beautiful creations.

 

[NightHawk]

You have been a busy little beaver George. 

You always seem to hob-nob with the best of them.  Did you manage to get him interested in your software?    He sounds like he could be a great addition and source of knowledge to the Forum.

Great looking gardens he's got too.

Looking forward to seeing the web sets.

Laurie.

[ideasguy]

Unfortunately, he's not a computer guy. His wife is the computer person, and has email, so I've been able to keep in contact.
The head gardener at Glenarm Castle doesnt have a computer at present, which is a great pity. She is a real plants expert.

Busy it is, indeed. I'm like a time juggler, if there's such a thing!

 

[ideasguy]

At long last, here's a web project showing ALL the photos I took at James' garden:
http://www.ideasforgardens.com/Garden-Pictures/James-Wharrys-Garden/index.html

The web project was created using the 2nd Web Page Generator which comes as standard with Ideas Genie Pro 6

[NightHawk]

Great photos George, showing a very tidy and well-maintained garden.

The WPG is coming along nicely too.  Obviously some page navigation tweaks to still be addressed I noticed, but a big improvement on the previous WPG 

Exciting stuff 

[ideasguy]

Hi Laurie.
Yes, exciting indeed!

Thank you once again for a very fast response to my posting!

Can you explain what navigation issues you have encountered?
I thought I had that sorted.

Ive made the "big" photo bigger in that last project (from 650 to 850 pixels wide).
It looks good on my desktop. Our iPad doesn't show the controls at the bottom, and I haven't seen it yet on an iPhone (will very soon on my sons device).
What device were you using to view it?
There are four "pages" of photos in that web project. Did you spot that or was that one of the navigation issues?

[NightHawk]

Sorry George.  I wasn't aware you weren't still working on the navigation aspect of the program so I didn't go into any details.

(1)  Clicking on the link from the Forum posting takes you to the main "index.html" page.  The main photo shown is of James,  which is the first thumbnail of 23 as expected.

(2)  Clicking on Next Page link at the bottom of the large photo takes you to "Garden-Photos-2-2.html".  I was expecting that 'next page' to take me to the second thumbnail on the first page, but I couldn't actually see that thumbnail there?

(3)  Likewise, clicking next page and then previous page doesn't seem to go to the thumbnails in sequence as seen on the first page.

(4)  Clicking on the large right-facing arrow from the "index.html" page takes you to the large photo that matches the thumbnail - "Garden-Photos-1-2.html", which I think is what you intended, but the 'Next Page' link on the same page goes to "Garden-Photos-2-2.html"

The photos themselves are appearing fine to me.

I am viewing the web pages on my laptop using Firefox v.31 browser.

I hope this makes sense.

[ideasguy]

Indeed it does Laurie, and thank you for your thorough (as usual ) analysis!
Pleased to read it worked well in Firefox.
I've now seen it on Julians iPhone and whereas you do have to scroll, he tells me that is normal on that device.

I HOPE (smile) the navigation is OK. It took AGES!!!

The projects are arranged in pages.
In my projects, I'm planning to have 21 photos per page.
The software does NOT have a restriction but has a default of 21 photos per page as the web pages are aesthetically pleasing.
A web page can have anything from 1 photo upwards.
Having 21 photos makes it easier to manipulate when in design mode using the Ideas Genie program.
The software allows the photos to be shuffled into a preferred order, and to be moved from page to page.

The James Wharry project has 4 pages.
CURRENTLY (but may change if I republish):
Page 1 has 23 photos.
Page 2 has 20 photos
Page 3 has 21 photos
Page 4 has 17 photos.

Navigation (per design):
1) Click a photo to go to NEXT photo. When last photo on Page 4 is clicked, Photo No 1 on Page 1 is redisplayed (i.e. it loops back to the beginning)
2) Click on small photo icons on the right to select and display the large photo associated with that icon.
I noticed that this was the preferred method by my test engineers (the 3 kids, 2, 4 and 8 years old )
James loves the huffin' house and asked if we could go again to see the garden
3) Click on Left and Right arrow buttons to move to previous and next photo respectively.
4) Click on the Page links to jump forward and back through whole pages.

The Ideas Genie does all the resizing (the small thumbnail icons and the large photo (850 pixels wide if landscape image, 850 high if a portrait image).
All the user has to do is select the original photos from their photo collections.
As with WPG1 (Web Page Generator program in Ideas Genie 5) the HTML (web) pages are created at a click of a button!

[NightHawk]

Well explained George, and I'm pleased that it is actually working as per your intended design.

Clicking on each thumbnail to the right of the large photo does indeed bring up the corresponding correct larger version, so there's certainly no problem there.

Now you've explained your thought processes, the functionality does make sense.

Great job 

[ideasguy]

Phew! Thanks for that Laurie.
I'm enjoying using the program and hope to roll out a beta version of Ideas Genie Pro 6 to you and a few other users soon.

[Eric Hardy]

Wonderful garden, George. The photos give a great idea of it, as does the website. The lack of sunlight is probably better than a very bright contrasty day for appreciating it.

Eric H

[ideasguy]

Thank you Eric. Coming from an expert photographer, I'm chuffed

It sure was a dismal day and before we set off we considered rescheduling.
You can see Mary with her umbrella up in some of them!

I was delighted with the photos - they are completely unedited.

I love the ones I took looking through the porthole (Web Page 3) in the conifer hedge - natural framing

The last few photos on Web Page 4 show a view looking into the Glens of Antrim (a BIG tourist attraction in N Ireland).
Visibility says it all!

We were talking about features made from natural stone in another topic.
Coincidentally, that garden has many quite exceptional examples. I hope you enjoyed them.

The huffin' house is just amazing. I was so impressed!
There are two blurred photos in the set. They were taken inside the huffin' house - a reminder at this stage.
Hopefully I can get a replacement some day (I'm hoping to make contact with James Wharry again).