Massimo Giannuzzi

The Peace of Wild Things

When despair for the world grows in me
and I wake in the night at the least sound
in fear of what my life and my children’s lives may be,
I go and lie down where the wood drake
rests in his beauty on the water, and the great heron feeds.

I come into the peace of wild things
who do not tax their lives with forethought
of grief. I come into the presence of still water.

And I feel above me the day-blind stars
waiting with their light. For a time
I rest in the grace of the world, and am free.

Wendell Berry
https://www.scottishpoetrylibrary.org.uk/poem/peace-wild-things-0/

Do your little bit of good

Do your little bit of good where you are; it’s those little bits of good put together that overwhelm the world

Desmond Tutu

You have been telling people that this is the Eleventh Hour, now you must go back and tell the people that this is the Hour. And there are things to be considered…

Where are you living?
What are you doing?
What are your relationships?
Are you in right relation?
Where is your water?

Know your garden.

It is time to speak your truth.

Create your community.

Be good to each other.

And do not look outside yourself for your leader.

Then he clasped his hands together, smiled, and said, “This could be a good time! There is a river flowing now very fast. It is so great and swift that there are those who will be afraid. They will try to hold on to the shore. They will feel they are being torn apart and will suffer greatly. Know the river has its destination. The elders say we must let go of the shore, push off into the middle of the river, keep our eyes open, and our heads above the water.

And I say, see who is in there with you and celebrate. At this time in history, we are to take nothing personally, least of all ourselves. For the moment that we do, our spiritual growth and journey come to a halt.

The time of the lone wolf is over. Gather yourselves! Banish the word ’struggle’ from your attitude and your vocabulary. All that we do now must be done in a sacred manner and in celebration.

We are the ones we’ve been waiting for.

Hopi Elders’ Prophecy

All photos, images and PDFs will be stored in the ‘Media library’ of your website.

You can upload new images there, and then insert them into Pages and Posts.

You can insert individual images or sets of images in galleries.

What size images should I use? (a brief summary)

Small images that will be inserted in a page (maybe to the left or to the right and with text wrapping around them – such as the one to the right here) don’t need to be large.

Pictures that are more crucial are:

the ones that stretch across the whole width of the page, such as the “banner” at the top of each page
or what’s often called a “hero” image, which perhaps takes the whole screen when you first arrive at a website
also, those strips that run across the whole width of the page on some home pages

These ideally need to be a minimum of 1600 to 3000 px wide. Otherwise, they can look blurry and unprofessional.

And remember that if only a certain part of the image is to be used, then it’s that bit that needs to match these minimum measurements, and not the whole width or height.

Where should I store them and how should I name them?

Consider keeping all the images for your website in one folder on your computer (and ideally backed up).
If you have a particularly large website, with many images, you might benefit from using multiple sub folders.
Name each original image to help you identify them easily later on (especially if you come back to them after a year or two).
Important: keep the original image on your computer untouched. Make any changes (like cropping or compressing) to a copy of it.
Name your files before you upload them to your website. Choose descriptive names that will contribute to your SEO score.

SEO is search engine optimisation = being found by search engines like Google.

You can improve your SEO in many ways. One of which is by having images with sensible ‘File Names’, ‘Titles’ and ‘Alt Text’ entries. These should include phrases that people might be searching for.

So, for example, I have help pages for people using Zoom. The name of one of my images is “Zoom Breakout Rooms Mobile closing notice cropped” – so it will contribute to being found by people searching for “Zoom Breakout Rooms” or “Breakout Rooms on a mobile”.

The “cropped” on the end simply helps me know its been cropped from the original.

This is a very useful article on using images in your website and SEO

More detailed information on using images

What size should an image be?

Most websites, even with large pictures, load quickly. But you still need to be careful about image sizes. Basically, “large” images look great, but can take longer to load. If they are too slow people may move to another page or site. So upload the largest size you think you’ll need (but ideally, no larger than this).

A whole page image or a full width banner will need to be uploaded as a large file. Whereas an image that only ever sits in a small box on a page, can be uploaded as a smaller file.

Images have:

file dimensions (width and height – in “pixels” or “px”) and
a file size (kilobytes KB or megabytes MB). There are many programs that help you reduce the size, while maintaining as much quality as possible (e.g. photoshop, irfanview and many online ones).

What WordPress does for you

When you insert a picture from your Media library into a Page or Post, WordPress has a set of different (but fixed) sized copies, and uses the appropriate one depending upon where it is going to be used/what size you choose. So if you have uploaded a huge image and are just using it as a small version, a reduced size copy is inserted into the page and not the original.

Also WordPress helps/allows the browser that’s viewing your site to choose the correct size version, based on the space the image is taking on your page and the quality of the screen. So, for example, if you upload an image of 2400 px, most people will upload and see a smaller version, but people will higher quality screens may get the larger version.

Screen sizes most commonly used in 2021

What size should I upload?

Below are some approximate guidelines (and don’t get hung up on these, unless your site is a commercial one – just slows loading of your page a little)

Largest: at least 1600 px x 1600 px, but not larger than 3000 px x 3000 px

WordPress will output your images in a format that allows the browser to choose the correct size based on the space the image is taking on your page and the quality of the screen. So just because you are uploading an image at 2000px, for example, most viewers to your site will see it in smaller dimensions and not have to load that large of an image, but you will still be supporting higher quality screens and different layout options.

Full screen images [2400 pixels wide / 200 – 400kb]
Banner images across the top [2400 pixels wide / 100 – 200kb]
Smaller images within/next to text [800 pixels / 30 – 100kb]
Featured images (used for Posts) [800 x 600 / 30 – 100kb]

Here’s a site with detailed explanations on all this

Before uploading an image

These are some steps (some optional) to take before uploading the image to your website

Crop the image if necessary. And remember to make a copy of it and reduce that – so you always have the original, high quality one if you should need it.
Reduce the size/compress the image if necessary. (And again – work on a copy!)
Choose the right file format if possible – generally, choose JPEG for photos and PNG for graphics.
Important: Rename the file before uploading. SEO (search engine optimisation – being found by search engines like Google) is helped by media files having sensible file names, Titles and Alt Text entries. So rename it before you upload it (you can’t change this later).

Uploading an image to your website

Go to ‘Media’
Click on ‘Add New’
Either ‘Browse’ or click-and-drag image

Insert an image into a page or post

Insert image into page

Click where you want the top of the image to be
Use the ‘Add Media’ button just above your toolbar
Choose your media (you can also upload new images from here)
Fill in the appropriate details
- Title – your chance to add sensible, short phrases that will help your SEO
- Alt Text – ditto for Title (this is used by screen readers for people with sight issues)
- Caption (optional) – appears underneath your image
- Alignment: ‘Left or Right’ – will wrap text round the image. ‘None’ – puts image on its own with text above and below (but not wrapped around). Note you can then centre it on the page if you want.
- Link To: ‘None’ (other options ‘Media file’ = on click image opened over top of page / ‘Custom URL’ = on click goes to the URL you specify)
- Size: Avoid Thumbnail. You’ll get used to which size you want. And you can resize it once its inserted.
  - Choose the smallest size (loads quickest) that you then reduce (if necessary).
  - NEVER, expand an image as it will look grainy and poor quality.
Click ‘Insert into page’

Image alignment

‘Left or Right’ – will wrap text round the image.

‘None’ – puts image on its own with text above and below (but not wrapped around). Note you can then centre it on the page if you want.

Editing an image once its been inserted

Click on image and then …

Click and drag corner handles to change its size on the page
Choose word-wrap alignment from menu that appears and if you choose ‘None’ you can then use alignment tools in main editing toolbar (see image)
Click the ‘Pencil’ to Edit other aspects of image