Full scratch disks - how do I empty them?

NOTE: 4GB of ram installed is sometimes difficult to work with, 8bg and aBove is better. 

Scratch disc data is automatically deleted when you close the program.   A scratch disk is nothing more that a part of your hard drive that is reserved for PSE to use.  It gets used when the ram you have set aside (the default is 70%) gets all used up. 

 Your scratch disk area gets used when what RAM you have set up (That 70% default value) in the performance tab in your editor preferences get "used" with temp files.   It's quite easy and somewhat typical for a scratch disk area to hit 10GB--- and it's nothing to worry about.  

Now lets say you just reach and turn your computer off with the power button.
When you look in your drive you have set up for a scratch disk you will see a adobe related temp file which should be the size depicted (In the example above it's a temp file that is 681MB in size:  just locate it, and manually delete it. 

5 bonus points if you can tell me where the pond depicted is located, and it's significance.

If you are getting a message that the scratch disks are full, it means that your computer storage is insufficient for Elements to use for a scratch disk.  Go to Edit>Preferences>Scratch Disks, and you can see which disks are in use, which are available for use, and how much storage you have:

If you don't have enough storage space on your computer, you need to get more or clean up the storage you already have.