Janet Brien's photos with the keyword: family

(+2 insets: one of them is Pam's picture!) So it's almost 8pm here and we got home about 30 minutes ago. Steve and I drove back to Oregon after a six day visit to see my younger brother and his wife and family just across the Bridge from San Francisco. We had such a fantastic time! In the end we didn't do a lot of stuff but it was exactly the right pace for us. We relaxed, made some delicious food, did some hiking, spent a lot of time with family and had a super time. I also had a terrific time wandering around their property taking pictures inside and out. Couldn't have asked for a better getaway! Today's picture is for Happy Fence Friday, and what better than to use another image of the San Francisco Golden Gate Bridge? This photo was taken during our motorcycle trip a couple of years ago. However, I didn't take it from the back of motorcycle. We parked and took a bunch of shots before heading into the City. I think it's pretty hard to take a bad picture of this lovely bridge! :) By the way, the other day I posted an abstract view of the Bridge as we were crossing it and I totally forgot to mention something super cool! I would like you to take a look at the two inset images. You will see my picture and you will also see another one. The other is so similar that you might think that I took it too. NO! Pam took that one! Without seeing each other's pictures, we both took two that are totally close in appearance! I find it amazing because that view is unique. And yet, we have the same idea in an inspired image! I just love that. Pam, it was such fun to look at your San Francisco pictures. I hope that you will be able to post more from your visit because I'm sure you have piles of winning shots that we will all love. I really loved seeing the similarity of our GGB photography too, you are so totally my Pod Sister! Thinking of you every day my dear! Explored on 1/4/19, highest placement, #7.

Steve and I spent the day driving from Oregon to the San Francisco Bay Area to stay with my younger brother Brian and his wife Nathalie. It was a lovely drive! Incredible views everywhere, and we saw a mind-boggling sunset over the Bay, which we were crossing at the time...unbelievable reflections and colors everywhere! This is going to be really short because we're off to eat and hang out! This picture is another one from our motorcycle trip a couple of years ago. As we rode over our beloved Golden Gate Bridge, I pointed my camera up and got this! :) Please forgive my lack of commenting today, and it's going to be severely limited for the next week, but will get back to normal once we return! :) Pam, I know you've been here!! How wonderful that you've set foot on this remarkable bridge. I'm thinking of you and hoping you're feeling good today! Explored on 12/29/18, highest placement, #9.

One of the cool things about mushrooms is how unique they can be up close. Towering above them, mushrooms appear nearly identical to one another, but through a macro lens, the differences are distinct. I think this one looks like an umbrella, nestled against a trio of grass blades.

To me, mushrooms are forest fairies. When I find them, each comes with its own wonderful story. Take this trio, for example.... I was wandering around our lower forest on Halloween 2014, when I thought I heard the tell-tale tinkle of laughter. Trained to instantly freeze at the sound, I slowly peered around the tree in my path. Another tinkle and a pair of whispers gave me a direction to look, and...there they were! A family of mushroom fairies, out for a autumn stroll. I resisted the urge to giggle at the antics of the child, who was taller than his mother, but very lanky indeed. Bouncing from pebble to stick to lump of moss, this baby moved about on an invisible cushion of air. "Shhhhhh," said the smaller of the adults in a high-pitched squeak. That would be the mother, I mused to myself, and my eyes flicked to the tallest, who looked about warily but with confidence. "Little One, you must keep quiet...you never know what might hear you." Undeterred, Little One's gay laughter tinkled up to my ears and he continued playing among the forest's undergrowth. Suddenly, a Stellar's Jay flew past and landed on a tree nearby, cawing noisily and puffing its feathers to show the world who was boss. In a flash, the three mushroom fairies moved to the protection of a stump and pulled together into a protective group. I saw my opportunity, raised my camera and took their picture while they looked on in stunned amazement. With a grin and a wave, I slipped away to leave them in peace. See what I mean? There are stories with every mushroom I find... :)

2 more pictures and a note above ! :) Yesterday I took the dogs out on a quick walk around the lower forest and as I walked, I looked to see if there were any new mushrooms. Holy cow, yes there were! I found some very large orange ones pushing their way up through leaves and moss and put those on my list for pictures today. This morning I took the dogs with me down to where I found the mushrooms and began excavating them. They were quite large--caps about 4-5" in diameter, and I relaxed and took my time, carefully removing leaves, pine needles and moss. Because they were pretty low to the ground, I decided to carefully move some moss around them so I could take a better picture. As I moved the moss to the side and continued brushing dirt out of the way, I saw something blue in the dirt under the place where the moss had been. "Hmm, I wonder what that is?" I thought to myself as I leaned closer...and closer, and..."NO. NO WAY. BLUE MUSHROOMS!! I FOUND BLUE MUSHROOMS!!!! AHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!" These are some of the most amazing fungus finds yet!!! HOORAY!! Laying in the dirt, growing under the moss, were several small clumps of these blue-green mushrooms. They were covered with dirt and some of them were so impossibly tiny that I had to be very, very careful when attempting to pick them up. I was so excited that I wanted to stop what I was doing and run up to the house with my amazing find so I could take pictures. But I didn't. Instead, I finished clearing my "stage" for the orange mushrooms and took pictures of them. (I'll be sharing that picture in the next couple of days...I showed Steve and his response was, "WOW!!" so hopefully you will all like it too! :D) Once I was pleased with my images of the orange mushrooms, I tucked the moss back around them and finally I carried the blue mushrooms back to the house. I was worried that the heat of my hand would affect them so I rolled them onto a bit of moss I had with me for "stage dressing". I first took pictures without washing them off, in case water would hurt them somehow or make them even dirtier. Looking at the pictures, I had to laugh...flecks of dirt show up like boulders at macro scale...I needed to wash the dirt off! So, I took a spray bottle and gently spritzed each little group. The next set of pictures was possibly more awful because the water made the mushrooms look really gross! YUCK! So, I let some time pass, allowing the water to dry and I tried again. Success! This group, if you can see, is four mushrooms--one of them grew in a folded-over position and is slightly buried in dirt. The tallest pair stand about .5 inches tall, or a bit more than 1 centimeter. What strange looking mushrooms! One of them that I didn't photograph had changed to a more tan color like the cap of the one on the left, and it was a bit larger, about .75" or just under 2 cm. (By the way, I added some light texturing to the background to give this image more depth) I have a friend, Ken Dies who's very experienced with mushrooms, and he explained that these mushrooms are not actually blue or green. They have been attacked by a fungus, which gives them that color! Thanks for the information, Ken! :) Henry Taube, Ph.D, M.Sc, B.Sc, FRSC (November 30, 1915 – November 16, 2005) was a Canadian-born American chemist noted for having been awarded the 1983 Nobel Prize in Chemistry for "his work in the mechanisms of electron-transfer reactions, especially in metal complexes." He was the first Canadian-born chemist to win the Nobel Prize. Taube completed his undergraduate and Masters degrees at the University of Saskatchewan, and his Ph.D from the University of California, Berkeley. After finishing graduate school, Taube worked at Cornell University, the University of Chicago and Stanford University. Wikipedia: Henry Taube Explored on November 19, 2013. Highest placement, page 3.

Wandering around my father's house, I peeked into his office and found this old, faded picture of my brothers and me. This isn't a great image (because it's faded and photographed through a dirty frame), but you can see what I looked like when I was little. Aren't my brothers cute?! I adore their smiles and happy faces!!!! My brother Scott is on the left, my little brother Brian is on the right, and my oldest brother, Doug, is at the far right. (If you would like to see some artwork by my mother, please scroll down 10 pictures: there are three pieces!) This image was taken during my trip to San Francisco during September 12-15, 2011.

Back in December, I was walking on my way back to the house from a photo shoot in the lower forest, when I glanced over and saw a family of mushrooms enjoying the day. What a lovely trio!

Today I flew home from San Francisco, where I spent 5 full days and two partial days with my dad. (I even got to see my oldest brother, which was a treat!) It was a wonderful visit and so nice to see my father and to help with our ongoing quilt photography project. I miss him already and look forward to visiting again as soon as I can! Love you dad!!! As much fun as I had with my dad, I was really, REALLY missing my family back home in Oregon, and this sight is what I've been dreaming about every day that I've been away. I love you all, my dear husband Steve, my darling Pumpkin, my silly Zoe girl, sweetheart Moosie, and our wonderful Molly Moo! :) How great it is to be back with you all!! Michael J. Fox (born June 9, 1961) is a Canadian American actor, author, producer, activist and voice-over artist. With a film and television career spanning from the late 1970s, Fox's roles have included Marty McFly from the Back to the Future trilogy (1985–1990); Alex P. Keaton from Family Ties (1982–1989) for which he won three Emmy Awards and a Golden Globe Award; Mike Flaherty from Spin City (1996–2000), for which he won an Emmy, three Golden Globes, and two Screen Actors Guild Awards; and Private Max Eriksson in the Brian DePalma film Casualties of War. Wikipedia: Michael J. Fox