To make my background I took the best (manual) DSLR camera I could get my hands on, pointed it off my back deck at a view that I found eye wandering to whenever

To make my background I took the best (manual) DSLR camera I could get my hands on, pointed it off my back deck at a view that I found eye wandering to whenever possible, unfocused all the way and took a picture. The only processing I did was to desaturate it a bit before making it my background. This creates the pleasant illusion that my eye is focused on the near tasks in the windows but the outside view is present in the background, and blurred, just as if it were really there.