Janet Brien's photos with the keyword: translucence

(+5 insets!) (full-size is dreamy!) :) I haven't had much time to write so here's another entry from my trip file! Oh, the Joy of a Window-Filled Trailer! As I type, I'm glancing out at the campsite next to us. I am lounging on my perfect little bed, custom-made to fit the twin-sized space in my perfect little room. (My bed sits on a custom-made bed frame, complete with three huge drawers for storage, made beautifully by Steve!) This bed sits in a nook that is entirely filled with windows! Two tall, narrow ones on either end and a bisected, full size window on the long side! Every window in our coach is darkened so that in the daytime, people can't see in but we have a marvelous view outside. I am seated about five feet off the ground so it's like an eagle's nest! The floor of the entire coach is much higher than our old Grey Wolf trailer and we can't get over the awesomeness of the great views we have. To be honest, one of the (many) selling points of this trailer were all of the windows! The entire dining and kitchen area are completely filled with windows, with exception for the back wall where the stove/oven, coffee counter and refrigerator reside. The hallway leading up the three stairs to the master bedroom has a tall narrow window and there's also a window in the outer door. The master bedroom has a large one on one wall and the head of the bed there are a pair of tall narrow windows on each side. Even the bathroom has light streaming in through the skylight! The overall effect of this beautifully lit coach is cheery and inviting, an expansive space that's totally comfortable and homey. What an opposite to the Grey Wolf. No matter how many lights we added to that tin can cave, there was no way to make it feel homey and truly nice. It really was a "weekender" trailer and when we finally admitted defeat, one of the things on our "Won't Sacrifice" list was Lots of Windows! Our Avalanche is a dream come true! Yeah, But What About All That Light in the Morning?! You might wonder how we get any sleep when the light begins to tinge the sky at o-dark-hundred every day. Well, every window also has its own black-out blind and they work perfectly! Paired with tinted windows, it could be high noon out in the desert and still dark as a tomb inside! To be honest, some light does come in but it's totally negligible. The litmus test is our little parrot, Pumpkin. If it's getting light and she awakens, she begins a non-stop series of darling little peeps to say good morning, letting us know it's time to start the day. However, with these blackout blinds, the coach is dark until we say so…hurray! Today's Pictures I got lots of really neat pictures when we were at Humbug Mountain State Park, and my main picture is a favorite! These flowers are about 4" in diameter and simply glow in the morning light so I was delighted when I was able to get a worthy capture. I am also including an inset that shows a pair of these pretty flowers, as well as a meadow filled with Cat Ear flowers, and a Hedge Blindweed vine (an invasive flower in the morning glory family but not a true Morning Glory, which is in the ipomena genus ) wrapped around a blackberry cane. Finally, the opening bud of a Queen Anne's Lace couldn't be passed up--they are just magnificent--and last but not least, a Cat Ear plant with webs all over it! :) (I found an interesting, short, and picture-filled page about this plant and similar ones here: Invasive Vine Weeds for those who are curious!) This morning is lovely and sunny and we are hoping to drive down to the Oregon Dunes National Recreation Area and then go agate rock hunting on the beach! Wish us luck! Sending my *virtual* hugs and love your way! Explored on 7/19/20; highest placement #4.

(+2 insets!) (Bigger is even better!) :) I want to make sure I have time to post this so I'm just posting a quick note to go with my pictures today! We are about to leave our wonderful campground, Bullard's Beach State Park and we had a wonderful stay! We will be heading about an hour north for a three day-stay at our next campsite. Unfortunately, that was the longest we could get for the time slot, but after another four days at a different place, we'll be back for another four days. Heh, I know that's not the same thing as seven uninterrupted days but sometimes you don't have a choice in these things! Today's Pictures I had a very nice time creeping around with my macro lens and got bunches of really neat pictures. Along the way I found these marvelous bushes covered with red-cloaked, round black berries. I thought it was very interesting that the berries grew in pairs…and so when I discovered the name of this plant was Twinberry, I had to laugh! Perfect! While I took photos, I couldn't help focusing on my favorite part--the beautifully shaped, red bracts surrounding the berries. Upon investigating online, I learned they are called involucre , and is part of the botany name of Black Twinberry, "Lonicera involucrata" . (These plants also have a red version, naturally called Red Twinberry ) I was also fascinated to learn that these berries are a kind of honeysuckle! The plant grows like a bush, which threw me off because I thought all honeysuckles are vines. However, when I learned it was in the honeysuckle family it all made sense do me. The honeysuckle that grows on our property has the very same berries, except that they are red. The leaves are the same too, and looking at pictures of the flowers, they are also quite similar. It's so fascinating to see the various species of a plant group, isn't it? So, as I took pictures, I took turns concentrating on the berries and then the lovely red bracts. Then I saw a lovely red flash…and gasped in surprise! Would you just look at that? Bracts that appeared to be a lovely red butterfly with perfectly shaped berries to represent a thorax and head! Seriously, what are the odds?! :D This picture just HAD to be my main image today! I'm also including some other views of these pretty berries--a pair to admire and a folded-over bract that looks like a red bat! :) I hope you like them! I wanted to give everyone hugs for all of the attention you've been giving my pictures, and for the lovely comments and stars. I appreciate you all so much. I was able to visit some of you finally and it was great to see what you've been sharing with us here on ipernity! Here's hoping everyone stays safe and healthy in these crazy days! Here's more information about these berries that I found very interesting: Twinberry, also called bearberry honeysuckle, is in the honeysuckle family. Twinberries are very common in the Cape Lookout State Park at the base of Netarts Spit. Unlike their cousins, the climbing and pink honeysuckles which are twining vines and can occur in our area, the twinberry is an erect shrub that may grow to more than twelve feet high. Its paired yellow flowers each have a five-lobed, tubular corolla. The flowers are subtended by a pair of large, green bracts that turn red as the fruits mature into pairs of shiny black berries. These berries are bitter and considered inedible, but their juice has been used as a dye. Its leaves are opposite, they have petioles, and they are rather shiny on top. They drop off in the winter. There are two varieties of twinberries, the coastal Lonicera var. ledebourii, occurring in coastal Oregon and California, and the mountain Lonicera var. involucrata, found in all western and the lake states. From Netarts Bay Today Explored on 7/14/20; highest placement #1.

(2 Insets above!) Brrrr...it's really starting to get cold around here! I got up several times during the night to turn up my floor heater which was being very stubborn. It didn't want to budge from 64°F/18°C. I'd turn up the heater with the aim of warming up to about 68°F/20°C. The next time I woke up I'd check the temperature and it would only be one degree warmer, ARGH! Personally I don't mind. In fact, there are few things more wonderful than burrowing under a luxurious pile of blankets. But I do worry about Pumpkin getting chilly. Her cage, which hangs from the ceiling, is covered with towels at night to keep the heat in, and she sleeps in her fleece-lined Happy Hut, AND she's covered with extremely warm down feathers, but I still worry about her feeling the least bit cold. So the heater and I waged war all night long and when my darling little peeper woke me up at 5 till 7am, it was FINALLY sitting at 68°F/20°C. MEH! It was raining this morning but nothing about it was inviting today. Looking out at the murky, steel-grey sky, I made sure to bundle up extra warmly before I went out. The thermometer read 34°F/1°C but it sure felt a lot colder to me. I stretched inside, grabbed my umbrella and went out for my walk. I was pleasantly surprised to find that is was wonderful outside, with autumn smells and a nice pattering of rain on my umbrella. Enjoying my walk up and down our road, I kept track of my laps by moving white pebbles from one rock slab to the other. I couldn't help thinking about yesterday morning's visitor. Guess who stopped by to leave another outrageously RUDE calling card? ON ONE OF MY ROCK SLABS, no less! I stood goggling at what I saw, totally aghast. Just imagine if people did that to one another to establish territory...totally unacceptable! I couldn't stop laughing and as I sent the fox poos flying off into the grass in all directions. "You're a BAD FOX! You're a VERY BAD FOX! And now I'm going to send you into the CORN FIELD!" (I love that episode of the classic Twilight Zone with Billy Mummy and use that quote whenever I can! ) Off I go down the road...and then...why..."IT'S SNOWING!!! IT'S SNOWING!!!!" I began to sing the words and laughed out loud, "IT'S SNOWING! IT'S SNOWING!!!" It was not possible to keep my inner child from giggling, singing and bouncing up and down as we looked out at the world around us. The world had grown quiet now, as the rain turned to snow and fell in fat blobs to melt instantly upon touching the ground. What a wondrous thing to see this remarkable change before my eyes. The temperature was just not cold enough to keep forming snow though. But for a few magical moments, the snow drifted down, changing back and forth from rain to snow and back again. Such a joy. This experience will never get old to me because I was born and raised in San Francisco. For about 40 years of my life I lived in the City and around the Bay Area, where the weather is so consistently...BORING. San Francisco rarely gets very hot or very cold, so I wanted dearly to live in a place with actual seasons. As I felt the rain drops again patter on my umbrella, I smiled with gratefully because I loved experiencing this so much. Today's picture is a lovely flake of manzanita bark glowing in the afternoon sun. I saw this as I was heading back down the Upper Table Rock trail a few weeks back. Have you ever seen manzanita trees before? They have the most wonderful, silky smooth bark, and every year they shed the last year's layer to expose the new layer. The skin flakes off in beautiful curls and fun shapes that are wonderful to see and hold in your hand. (I will include some insets for you to get a better view!) Pam, does manzanita grow where you live? I imagine you hugging your resident trees like I do, sitting in branches from time to time and appreciating their beauty. I bet you would have fun discovering the little clumps of moss that form at the bases sometimes or in the divots that form here and there. These lovely trees would surely put a smile on your face. I hope you are doing well today and I am sending my love and healing energy to you! Explored on 12/2/18, highest placement, #3.

A couple of years ago I had my raised-bed garden, and decided to splurge on a variety of flower bulbs, including a bunch of anemones in different colors. Such elegant beauties they are, with stunning details like their crisply veined petals and lovely fuzzy centers!

It is always a great prize when I find a feather on my photo walks because they make such fine subjects. To the naked eye, these feathers look like nothing, but up close, the details reveal themselves and you find yourself staring at something that is almost ethereal in its beauty. I found this one on a drizzly morning at the end of September 2013. I especially like how you see the droplets of water on the underside of the feather...they look like spots!

My front garden was where I first tried to grow poppies. I had a 5-year old packet of red poppies and thought, "These will NEVER sprout, but certainly not if I don't plant them!" So I walked outside and went to my small flower bed and promptly flung them all over the bed without care! I hoped that maybe a few would sprout. I was not prepared for what happened in the coming months. Instead of just a few, I think there must have been over 100 that sprouted and grew into a veritable WALL of red poppies!! Every morning I would come out and my jaw would drop at the incredible sight before me as new poppies opened! It was incredible. I fell madly in love with these flowers and watered them every day through our hot and unforgiving summer, and all the way until the first frost of winter killed the last of them. What a show! What a gift of beauty that continued month after month. If that weren't enough, the next spring, without any input by me, these flowers had reseeded themselves and put on ANOTHER show!! I added a mixture of poppies that year and soon the red ones were joined by a rainbow of lovely blossoms of different types of poppies. Even without care, they put on another show last year. Not a speck of water from me and still, these prolific flowers greeted me with another glorious springtime show! They didn't last as long, but still, I was happy to see them blooming until June! This picture is from May 2014, the year I had my raised bed garden, and here in my front garden I had irises and hyacinths and different kinds of allium (onion ), and others too. Seeing the poppies as the sun peeked over the hillside was a sight I relished, and I would be there with my camera to see the first rays of warm light shine through the crepe-like petals of these flowers I so adore.

(1 picture above in a note, and a link to others) Steve and I went on an photo outing a year ago that took us to a trail that meanders along the beautiful Rogue River. I was delighted to find Campion flowers there, because they are such wonderful subjects to photograph. In the past I have only studied the blossoms, but it was later in the year and the flowers were all going to seed. In the late afternoon, I turned to see this pod glowing with the sun's last rays of the day.

These flowers have such lovely centers, don't they? :)

(+3 insets above) Note: I have a series of blog posts about my new garden! My New Adventure: A Raised Bed Flower Garden! (More posts are there now!) A couple of years ago, I got a really nice deal on end-of-season spring bulbs, and Steve and I spent many hours digging holes and planting them out in our meadow around the beloved Oak tree which stands guard there. We didn't have much soil to contribute, so we dug in the clay dirt, plopped in some potting soil, added the bulb and covered it up. We set up sprinklers and watered every day. In the end, not a single bulb flowered. We were so disappointed. Last year in April, I looked out into the meadow and saw something blue. No. Could it be? I ran out to see, and yes, it was an anemone!!! I got my camera and took many pictures because I expected that it would be eaten by the next day, and it was. It was the only flower to bloom. (See the insets above). This year, April came around and I looked at my anemone pictures to get the exact date. A few days before, I began making rounds, but the blue anemone didn't come up. Discouraged, I almost gave up the hunt, but decided to check the next day, just in case. As I approached, I saw something red and held my breath. Shouting in happiness, I bent down to look. "Ohhhhhh!!! A RED ONE!!" Again I ran for my camera and took pictures. Even though it lasted just a day, I am so happy I captured images of this lovely red de Caen Anemone! Explored on May 24, 2014. Highest placement, #1.

(+16 in notes above!) Last summer, from July until late November, I was given a never-ending poppy show. Every morning I would step outside and see the new blossoms glowing in the morning sunshine and the sight would take my breath away. These flowers are a photographer's dream, with extremely translucent petals and a rainbow of gorgeous colors. I have two very exciting comments to add! The first is that my poppies have reseeded themselves and I have counted half a dozen poppy buds that are already forming! That's three months earlier than last year!! My second exciting bit of news is that I purchased a huge assortment of poppy flower seeds which I will be planting on May 1, which is the official "last day of frost" here in southern Oregon. I can hardly wait! :) Explored on April 22, 2014. Highest placement, #1.

(15 more pictures in notes on the image, all are clickable! Enjoy the show!) One of our first wildflowers is the bright and cheerful Buttercup! I discovered that we have several species here, but this one, the Western Buttercup, is the most common. Every year I end up taking far too many pictures of these pretty little flowers, and though I tried to resist this year, I simply could not refuse when I saw the light glowing through the petals of this gorgeous little blossom! Please be sure to roll your mouse over this picture to see the show of many clickable pictures of the buttercups I've photographed previously! They are such a wonderful subject! :) Explored on ipernity on April 1, 2014. Highest placement, #4.

It's difficult for me to resist taking shots of glowing leaves, and it's always fun to find them when they've fallen but got stuck on the way down! This image was taken in January, 2012.

[best appreciated at full size against black] I took this picture about a month ago on a lovely frosty morning, so crisp and cold. As I was looking for sparkling subjects, I noticed this glowing leaf backlit by the rising sun. I love to see those special leaves that fall off thier tree and get stopped on the way. Can you see how it is just barely balanced on the edge of a twig?! Just a gust of wind and it will flutter to meet the other leaves on the ground. It boggles the mind to think of the odds of this happening, and yet, I have seen this so many times! I guess what with so many leaves, some will "win the lottery" and if I'm lucky, I will see them suspended in mid air! This image was taken in January, 2012.

Another image from the archives, this California Poppy was one of the flowers that bloomed from some mixed wildflower seeds I planted during the summer. I put them in a metal trough planter we used one year for sunflowers, and I really didn't know if I'd get anything to grow at all because the seeds were several years old. To my delight, we were given an amazing show of so many flowers I couldn't believe my eyes! As I can, I hope to share some of the incredible beauty that grew from this thimble full of seeds! Gérard de Nerval (May 22, 1808 – January 26, 1855) was the nom-de-plume of the French poet, essayist and translator Gérard Labrunie, one of the most essentially Romantic French poets. Wikipedia: Gérard de Nerval

The other day I was up on our ridgeline taking pictures of fall colors and I found this group of drying poison oak berries glowing in the afternoon sun. I would say this is one of my better images! :D I've uploaded three more pictures today--I usually post only two, but I found another view of the Foothill Clover where it's standing up and thought it deserved a view! :) I've also posted some macaw pictures and the 150th Flower of Spring & Summer!! :) Thanks to all of you who have visited and have left comments and favorites! I try to go to all of your pages within a day or two and is a highlight for me to see your beautiful photography! :)

Steve and I went to the historic town of Jacksonville, Oregon a few weeks ago, and as we were walking around, I saw this butterfly flitting about. I followed it slowly all over a row of flowers until it finally stopped on a leaf to rest and I was able to creep in and get some pictures! This lovely butterfly is found over most of the world, where it causes damage to cabbage and mustard family crops. If you would like to know more about this pretty but damaging butterfly, Wiki has a very good page here: Wiki: Cabbage White Butterfly (Pieris rapae) Thanks so much for your visits, comments and favorites! I won't be able to comment much for the next week while I'm busy with my current project, but I am trying to visit a few pages when I can during breaks! Thanks for your patience! :) Explored on October 12, 2012, highest position #214.

Steve and I went to the historical town of Jacksonville, Oregon last week to see if there were any interesting pictures to take of the buildings there. Well...as it turned out, we weren't inspired by the buildings, but I certainly went crazy with my macro lens and had a grand time! After weeding out all the bad shots, I got 85 keepers! Whee!!! :D This was a maple tree I noticed as we walked up one street and I simply had to stop and take pictures of the sun shining through some leaves! Work is keeping me buried, but I'll have about 20 minutes tonight to bounce around to some of your lovely photo streams! It will be a very nice adventure for me and I can't wait to see what you all have for me to see! :)

I took another picture of the Japanese maple tree I saw in Jacksonville last week and I liked the way the sun flare looked! :) Internet service in southern Oregon was down all day long! I've been too busy to worry about it, but it's interesting how dependent we become on having this luxury! Thanks for all of your visits, I had hoped to visit some photostreams this morning but it will have to wait until tomorrow I'm afraid, since we just got our internet back just when it's time to go to bed!! *tantrum* I did have time to visit some pages last night and had a very nice time, but didn't get to everyone's by the time I needed to log off. *sigh*....work is very nice but I miss all of your lovely photos!