Janet Brien's photos with the keyword: dahlia

A New Year and a New Ipernity, and Oh, What a Day… I've really missed ipernity. Even though we could comment and move our pictures around in chronological order, It just wasn't the same without being able to upload pictures. So I mostly stayed away the entire time it's been unable to update its database. I thought I had a handle on the effects of Covid on the world. In fact, getting out to go camping for an amazing three months did wonders for both of us! But then the virus went spiraling out of control, numbers skyrocketed, people became more horrible than ever and I'm right back in the depths of a very gloomy depression. Add to that the simply incredible US election year. I loathe politics. I detest Trump even more. To have this spoiled, uncivilized brat rousted from his undeserved seat of power was a beam of golden light. But of course it tripped his switch of complete and utter insanity, followed by unfathomable chaos and then an attempt to kick off a civil war…this could not actually be happening, right? What seemed like it must be some stupid Lifetime movie was actual reality, where people were getting killed and outrages were unfolding everywhere. Yesterday I discovered that ipernity was back online in regards to uploading pictures and I was overjoyed to see this! But with everything going on in the news, and wrestling with my doldrums, I just couldn't get it together to upload anything. I am posting this outrageously colorful dahlia today (photographed at San Francisco's Conservatory of Flowers ) to express the fireworks of joy that I'm feeling to have our ipernity back! It symbolizes the happiness I feel about today's second impeachment of the Great Embarrassment of the US, and as a shining beacon for a better, happier year ahead. The vaccines are rolling out, a new day dawns before us and things are going to get better! WELCOME BACK IPERNITY! Here's to healing for all of us! Explored on 1/13/21; highest placement #2.

This stunner of a dahlia was one of the beauties that Steve and I photographed at the Dahlia exhibit in San Francisco's Conservatory of Flowers in Golden Gate Park. We visited one day when we were staying at my dad's place and took some time for a photo break. I have another dozen pictures I've processed from that trip and I know there are probably 50-75 other pictures that I could process as well. It just blows my mind how incredibly beautiful these flowers are! I wanted to let everyone know that Steve and I are doing just great! In fact, when Steve went to Costco a couple of weeks back, the store was almost perfectly stocked and we were able to get one huge pack of toilet paper and paper towels to top us off. We didn't need more than that but it was nice to get it. No sanitizer but we don't really need it anyway. All is well! We're having a great time immersing ourselves in games but also, the weather is so lovely that Steve went for a bike ride yesterday and I'll follow suit today! :) I have my morning walks every day but it's nice to go out later for a change of scenery. Oregon continues to show very low numbers compared to California to the south and Washington to the north...we are both convinced that the low number is because Oregon hasn't been testing very many people. In any event, Steve and I view the populous as infected just to be safe. Steve shops only once every two weeks or so, and is out as little as possible. It does look like things may finally be slowing down in the rate of infections...it feels a lot more positive in the past few days to me, but maybe Spring Fever has infected me and filled me with positive vibes! In any event, I'm definitely feeling a lot better lately! Let's hope things continue improving in a upward spiral! :) *** Pam, I picture you and your husband living in your little fortress, just like we are! I'm really glad that Corona hasn't swept over the world and taken everyone out like the media suggested it would. Bad enough that so many have died...the horror of everything that's happened is too hard to look at but let's cross our fingers that things may actually be getting better! * Thinking of you with many hugs! * Explored on 4/15/20; highest placement #1.

(+4 insets!) (please enlarge!) (I hope you don't mind the excessive length of my posts, it's necessary to document the very beginnings of our unfolding RV trip!) Once again, busy, busy, busy! So many things to do lately it’s got Steve and me running all day! We had another RV dinner and sleepover last night and it was great! We cooked our dinner from start to finish there and the evening’s fare consisted of pan-fried steel-head trout topped with sautéed mushrooms and onions drizzled with a chili/soy sauce…YUM! The side was a repeat of yesterday's mushrooms, onions and asparagus stir-fried in butter...NOM! Needless to say, everything turned out perfectly! (By the way, Jenny wondered about our cold storage—we have a refrigerator topped with a freezer, roomy enough that hopefully we’ll be able to fend for ourselves for at least a week or so without needing to restock.) I mentioned yesterday that I needed to add our memory foam topper to my bed and that was the perfect solution! The hip I sleep on most is still tender but I’m now comfortable and it will get better in the next few days. What a wonderful night’s sleep I had! With all of the ferrying of items back and forth from our house to our RV I neglected to bring Pumpkin’s breakfast over last night. Since I wanted to wash my hair this morning and didn’t want to risk a cold-water catastrophe, I took Pumpkin over to the house with me and I showered there, returning to the RV with Pumpkin and her food. All of us enjoyed a very nice morning relaxing in the RV. I had a little time to do just a bit of commenting yesterday afternoon and this morning which was very nice. I do look forward to catching up as I can! We have been keeping an eye on the levels of our “grey” and “black” tanks and today we saw that our grey tank was registering full. A grey tank holds normal water flow from the kitchen and bathroom sink and fills up much faster than the black tank (toilet). In the next couple of days we’ll take the RV to one of the many places that provide grey and black tank dumping. In the time being, our overnight stays will be curtailed since we can no longer use our sinks. We will appreciate a break...we didn't actually plan on more than one night initially but realized it was a really smart thing to do. So we'll take a break but when the tanks are emptied we'll continue fine-tuning our RV camping! :) On another subject, today we went out and got a new phone and data plan for me. One of the things that’s very important when RV’ing is having unlimited data if at all possible. This allows internet usage without any concerns about running out of a set data amount for that month. The warehouse store we love, Costco, had a special deal that costs only $25/mo for new customers, and it was just too good to pass up. The only drawback is that I won't be able to tether my phone to a computer, but we have a solution for that too. Steve found an excellent deal which does include tethering to computers so we are now set when it comes to getting internet coverage! (Tethering means connecting your computer to your phone's internet data.) We’ve wondered how we would handle this important issue and it was wonderful to have the best deal we’ve seen drop right into our laps. The truth of the matter is that unlimited data plans used to be $100/mo at the very low end ($150-200/mo was common), and people actually sold their plans online or grandfathered them to family members because they were so rare and valuable. After all of our errands, I’m home fairly late so again my time is short…I haven’t processed many pictures in the past week but happily we will have a break from our RV overnight testing for a few days and things should settle down for a while! Oh! New birdies at the feeder today! I looked out and was delighted to find a pair of House Finches happily gobbling up millet! I giggled as I watched them through our binoculars--it’s pretty hilarious to see them with open beakies as they work on breaking the husks of the seeds! They were pretty happy about the treasure trove in front of them though and they stayed for a good ten minutes chowing down! :) It sure is nice to see those lovely birds back here. I’ve included an inset for you to see! :) Today I’m sharing another knockout from the dahlia exhibit that Steve and I visited a couple of years ago when visiting my dad in San Francisco. I have so many pictures to show but they all must take their turn! :D I've added three insets of other red dahlias I photographed there on my first visit there in 2011. Aren't they just a bunch of divas?! :) Pam, I wanted to find another travel picture of yours and found a beautiful image of Glastonbury Abbey Fish Pond with an absolutely gorgeous reflection of the cloud-filled sky and lined with lovely silhouetted trees. MAGICAL! Hoping all is well for you my dear, you are in my thoughts! *BIG HUGS* Explored on 4/4/19, highest placement, #2.

One of the most enjoyable aspects of photography is learning about the subjects I take pictures of. Most specifically, I love to learn the kind of animal or plant I've photographed. And more often than not, I am totally surprised or even amazed by what I learn. Take the dahlia for instance. Did you know there are 42 species that grow in the wild? What's really surprising is the number of hybrids. There are so many that nobody has a number...the closest figure that people can agree on is "countless"! As crazy as that sounds, I'm really not surprised. They come in a zillion colors, sizes and shapes. The thing is, you really do have to visit a dahlia exhibit garden in order to truly understand the staggering variety. Visiting the yearly display at the San Francisco Conservatory of Flowers is just insane. They pack in so many different hybrids that you simply cannot see them anymore after a while. You know how you can't spend too much time at a museum because you can't process what you see after a while? It's just too much and your poor brain blows a fuse. Well, the same thing happens when you go to a massive showing like the dahlia garden! I wish everyone could have the chance to visit because no matter how many pictures I share, there isn't any way to really show you the experience. I can't help trying though! Today's flower is a knockout pink beauty with lovely white striping. I actually tried to find the exact hybrid...lol...what was I thinking?! Let's just call it Pink Passion and call it a day! I hope you enjoy this lovely flower as much as I enjoyed photographing and processing it! Pam, I don't know if you've tried growing dahlias but I will warn you...deer love to eat them! I learned the hard way when I tried to grow them the first time. Just as they were about to bloom, some deer came by and ate every last one. I was so upset! Oh, and by the way, ground squirrels also love to eat them. The second time I tried to grow them, the ground squirrels broke through the deer fencing and gobbled them up just as they were about to bloom. Have you ever had any luck with these flowers? I won't try again until I live in a place that is protected from deer and ground squirrels! We live in wonderful places with lots of wild animals but they sure do like to eat our flowers! :D Explored on 1/2/19, highest placement, #5.

(Please view at full size!) :) (+1 inset) I was very pleased as I stepped outside this morning because I got to start my walk a little earlier than usual. I try to get out by 7:30am if I can but if I wake up before 7am I'm usually walking by about 7:20am. That's really nice. As much as I've been moaning about the darkness of the mornings, it does give me more of an opportunity to immerse myself in the world waking up around me. This really is a gift and I appreciate every moment. Especially because getting up voluntarily at this time was something I never did in the past. I've missed out on decades of these special times and I don't take a single moment for granted. It was still quite dim outside but ten degrees warmer than yesterday. At 36 degrees, it was positively comfortable in comparison and I began my walk in extra happy spirits. "Hoo-hoo.." I heard, followed by "Hoo. Hoo-hoo-hoo." I stopped in my tracks and stared across our valley across the main road to the neighbor's property beyond. "OWLS!!!" I shouted in my head and cocked my head to the side, listening intently. Again the two called back and forth, their hooting echoing back at me. "Hoo-hoo.." and "Hoo. Hoo-hoo-hoo." A beaming smile radiated from me in response. I simply love owls. Unfortunately, the only wild owl I've ever seen was a Tawny Frogmouth in Costa Rica many years ago. And the only reason I saw it was because our guide knew where this one slept and pointed it out to us. So perfectly camouflaged, it looked like it was part of the tree! What an odd but incredible looking bird that was. Steve and I still talk about that morning! Regarding owl photography, I have such admiration for anyone who gets pictures of these beautiful birds. I hope that someday I'll be so lucky. But for now I stood silently on our road. I listened blissfully to the sounds of these two birds calling back and forth to their hidden spots in the trees across the road. I felt so fortunate and overjoyed to get this awesome experience. After a while I started walking again and was happy to learn that my footsteps didn't disturb their conversation. In fact, they kept hooting until the sun lightened the sky and finally put an official end to the night. I whispered to myself, "That is so cool..." Today is perfect timing to share another dahlia picture! I hope that you are enjoying the show and aren't getting bored. I simply must post these images! The dahlias yell and scream for attention and if they had it their way, they'd highjack my photo stream and fill every day with piles of their lovely blossoms! But I won't have it! They don't understand that so much beauty must be doled out one at a time for the best appreciation! So, in honor of the colors of this holiday season, I bring to you a most dramatic red dahlia. It laughs at the poinsettias and amaryllis that dare to compare themselves to it. Holly berries? Pshaw! No, this dahlia takes the stage like a runway model. I am only here to share it with all of you. If she were a person, you'd surely find her sipping wine in Paris. :) Pam, I wish I could present this diva to you because then she would see what a true beauty is in this world. Thinking of you all the time... Explored on 12/24/18, highest placement, #6.

(looks best at full size against black) (Sorry this post is so long!!) 6:45am....it's pitch black. It's just so DARK! I do not get up at o'dark o'clock! But, I guess I do after all. My younger self would be horrified to know that I willingly get up at 6:45am without a blaring alarm clock. Just like the Grinch, I can see my younger self screwing her face up into a blackened scowl..."There is no moaning? There is no crying?! Why, you actually climb out of bed in a very happy mood... looking forward to the day?!" My younger self would scream, "BUT IT'S PITCH BLACK OUTSIDE! AND NOBODY IS FORCING YOU TO GET UP! WHAT IS THE MATTER WITH YOU?!!" LOL. I have to laugh because it really is crazy that I choose to get up so early. My younger self would never do it, but I'm happy to because it's so worth it! Pumpkin and I headed down to the kitchen after my shower and I deposited her onto the window perch Steve made for her. From that vantage point she watched the Mama Bird Show... While I whistle back and forth with Pumpkin, I turn on the espresso machine and the coffee grinder. Take my coffee cup from the cabinet and put it on the counter. It will take a couple of minutes to warm up...no worries, I've got plenty of other things to do! Pet Molly, grab her bowl and remove the board that seals the dog door to keep the cold out. Go to the kibble container, pour in a cup of food, add some warm water from the sink, get dog food from fridge, scoop some into her bowl, mash it all together and call Molly. She runs eagerly from the living room to her feeding station and begins chowing down. Take a tall glass from the cupboard, put it on the counter. Go to the spice rack, grab the red pepper flakes and the powdered ginger. While I'm over there, I open a different cupboard and take out the glass jar full of wheat berries. As I'm carrying these items to the counter I look at the plump wheat seeds and think, "Gee they look cool in there, I should take a macro of them at some point!" I take a ½ teaspoon of ginger and put it into the glass. Sitting on the counter is a partially full gallon of something that says "Apple Cider Vinegar Drink". I give it a vigorous shake and fill the glass with the ginger in it. I give it a good stir and then pop it into the microwave for 45 seconds so it's drinkably warm. While my drink is in the 'waver I open the fridge again and take out Pumpkin's veggie/fruit mix, a can of corn and two plastic containers--one which says "Pecans" and the other, "Chix bread". I grab one of Pumpkin's food bowls and add a big handful of veggie/fruit mix (carrots, peppers, celery, apple), and then a heaping forkful of corn plus a little more, and stir it up. I grab the ½ teaspoon and sprinkle a large scoop of wheat berries on top followed by a scoop of red pepper flakes. I open the two containers from the fridge and place a pecan on top and from the other I take out two 1.5" squares of bread (multi-seed wheat bread that's been cut into pieces), run them under the water for a second and walk over to the microwave. The 'waver is beeping at me right on time...I pull out my drink, pop in the two 1.5" squares and let it go for 5 seconds. I whisk them out, place one on top of Pumpkin's food and the other one in the food bowl of her perch. Pumpkin sees it, immediately walks over to her bowl and begins "gronking" joyfully as she dives into her warm breakfast treat. I take my drink over to the counter, open today's container of vitamins, pour them into my hand, stir my drink and swallow all of them as my drink goes down the hatch. Let's not forget the chaser...I get ½ teaspoon of red pepper flakes and pop them into my mouth, chomping happily. LOL, you think I'm crazy! Steve thinks I'm crazy too but they are a nice boost for your metabolism and have other benefits as well. Oh and what is an "Apple Cider Vinegar Drink"? A serving is 2 tablespoons of vinegar, 1 tsp of cream of tartar, ½ tsp of salt, 1 tsp of lime juice and water enough to fill a 12 oz glass. WHY would I actually DRINK that? Well, because it's full of electrolytes and potassium and it's an essential key to my ketogenic lifestyle. It's also quite yummy once you get used to it! I love it! :) Finally, I pull my shot of coffee, add water to make it an "Americana", and chug it down. I'm done! Pumpkin has thoroughly enjoyed the show and her treat, and now steps happily onto an offered finger. I grab her bowl of food, bring her up to her day cage, turn on her music and tell her I love her before quietly closing the door. Trotting downstairs, I grab my phone, headphones, put on my shoes, scarf, gloves and coat and then pop outside, stretch my legs and I'm off for my morning walk. WHAT A ROUTINE!! Today I'm sharing another dahlia from San Francisco. This pink blossom was starting to open up and I loved how its petals looked. I hope you like it! Pam, I hope this pretty flower will put a smile on your face and maybe give you a burst of energy too. I bet your day is full of crazy routines just like mine...we need lots of energy but I wish I could send mine to you right now to help you feel better soon. Thinking of you always! Explored on 12/20/18, highest placement, #4.

I like to spend an enjoyable couple of hours each day visiting contact's photo streams, appreciating a picture and leaving a comment. It occurred to me that everyone probably has a different way of doing this. What is your approach? How best do you utilize your time to visit others? The way that makes most sense for me is to go to my previous day's posted picture (2 days ago) and visit each person who's left a comment for me. I want to make sure to show my thanks to everyone who's taken time out of their day to look at my picture and let me know what they think. Do you do this differently? If I have extra time, I will often visit my main page that shows new contact pictures and take a stroll, leaving comments and saying hello. Or I'll visit Explore and visit some of the new pictures I see there. I returned to ipernity over a month ago from my long creative abyss, and in my absence I had forgotten how wonderful it is to be part of this community. There are so many genuinely sweet, talented and friendly folk who I simply love chatting with. The funny thing is how I usually carry on conversations! Someone will leave a marvelous comment about a picture I posted or the blog entry I wrote, and it invites a response. I don't prefer to reply on my photo's comments because I don't trust that they will actually see what I wrote. So instead, I will visit their photo stream, comment on their new picture and then add my reply there. (I know about the feature where you can follow comments you've left but it's too much work to keep up with that in my opinion.) This is a fun way for me to give them extra strokes and acknowledge what they wrote to me. The next time they comment on my newest picture, they often continue the conversation. It's awesome! I recently discovered the solution to a problem I'd been facing since I joined the photo-sharing community. Namely, sometimes I visit a person who's left me a comment only to find they haven't put up a new picture yet. What to do? My happy solution is this: I take a look at their photo stream and when I have gone back far enough, I'll find a picture I haven't seen yet! So, I dive in, enjoy their image and leave my comment. Then I go to their most current picture, leave a note to say that I've visited a picture I hadn't seen yet, and paste the URL so they can see my comment! I really love this solution because everyone enjoys having their pictures looked at, and this gives me the opportunity to see and enjoy more of a friend's photography! (I do know the feature that allows you to see who's been browsing your photo stream. However, I want to make sure that my photographer friend knows I've come by to say hello, instead of relying on them to check their browsing history.) Today it's icky outside, stormy, windy and cold, so I'm sharing another beautiful dahlia to brighten up this day! I hope it adds a little sparkle for you too! Pam, one of the things I've always admired about you is your generous spirit. I've always loved how many people you visit to give them strokes about their photography and to give your famous *hugggggggs*. Reading comments you've left for people is such a treat and I'm so happy that you've been able to stop by from time to time, even though you're not feeling great. I just want you to know how loved you are by all of us here at ipernity. I'm sending my *huggggggs* to you with hopes that you'll feel better and better in the coming days. Explored on 12/17/18, highest placement, #1.

It was a beautiful, misty morning and I drank in every sound I could as I tromped up and down our road today. Here and there were clusters of twittering birds that made me smile. I chuckled at the far-off sounds of our resident group of turkeys carrying on down in the lower forest. My opinion counted too so I tossed it in their direction, "Oh you silly birds!" I even heard the croak of a frog who was working on his early Romeo impression for the coming breeding seaon. Overhead I heard the caw-caw of a crow and looked up to see it flying by in its brilliant black attire. As it passed I heard the beautiful guttural purring conversational notes they make and soon I heard another crow's contact call. Stopping on the road, I stared up to the sky and watched not a "murder of crows" as a group would be called, but more like a "flow of crows." A spread-out stream of perhaps twenty crows flew over our property in ones and twos, all commenting occasionally in caws and purring croaks. I was happy they didn't roost here because the racket of a large group of crows was too obnoxious for even me to stand. However, their overhead calls were a welcome treat and I only began walking again after they'd all passed by. Settling into my walk I decided to listen to my favorite podcast, a wonderful science-based show called Radio Lab . This award-winning podcast presents fascinating and thoroughly entertaining topics directed at the general public. If you have any interest in nature or science, this show is for you! The shows are much more than just spoken words. They add music and sound effects that help us to understand and SILENCE so we can contemplate what we've just heard. It's a unique and outstanding production and worth your time, I guarantee it!! (I've listened to at least 100 different podcast shows so I'm fairly knowledgeable on them!) Today I listened to Dark Side of the Earth . It featured an astronaut who shared some experiences he had during the 168 days he's been in space, such as what it feels like to do a spacewalk and look blissfully out into the vastness of space with only a tether between you and the universe. Or what it's like to watch day turn to night and back to day within the course of an hour and a half...in fact they experience 16 days per Earth day! I encourage you to give Radiolab a try! Their topics cover a very wide range. Two other totally awesome shows that I recently listened to include Rippin' the Rainbow an Even Newer One , which is a glorious show that showcases which animal can detect the most colors...do you know which is the winner? This show even has a choir as background singing to illustrate the musical interpretation of ROY-G-BIV (color spectrum: Red Orange Yellow Green Blue Indigo Violet)! The other show was Smarty Plants which discusses the intelligence of plants by using several fascinating studies and entertaining experiments. Podcasts can be listed to in the background while you're processing your photos or you can take them on the go! Popular apps for downloading podcasts include Pocket Casts (for Android, it's what I use) and iTunes (for iOS), and this current article of the Best Podcast Listening Apps has links to all of them. Today I'm finally sharing a favorite dahlia picture from our past trip to San Francisco's Conservatory of Flowers. It's a picture I processed soon after returning home and I just couldn't get over how lovely this dahlia was. I hope you like it too! Gosh, if I was as pretty as this flower is, my poor husband would be fighting off legions of would-be suiters all day and night! Pam, I don't know if you are aware of podcasts but if you're not, it might be something to check out! It's another way of experiencing the wonder of our world, and the stories take you to another place of learning and understanding. I bet you would enjoy these as much as I do! *big hugs from Oregon* :) Explored on 12/12/18, highest placement, #4.

My walk was very nice today. The weather was sunny and beautiful but not too cold at about 36°F/22°C. The ground had thawed out so it was a normal walk with nothing terribly exciting going on. However, I did stop to appreciate the orchestra of many different birds twittering as they began their day. What a treat. How wonderful to live in this rural slice of heaven. I was born and raised in San Francisco in a nice neighborhood. In fact, our backyard sat on Mount Davidson, the highest point in the city, and a wonderful park for us to play on. There were lots of wildlife to see there, but my dream was to live in the countryside. I wanted to live where there were wide-open fields, farms with every kind of livestock, and nature right outside my door. I was so tired of the fog and wind, the weather that was rarely too hot or cold—I wanted four real seasons! My husband and I met back in 2000 and shared the same dream to move out of the crazy city environment. Our money pooled, we found this rural property on our first visit up to Oregon and it was love at first sight. 26 acres of mixed meadows and oak forest with a hill and ridgeline at the upper end and a magnificent view of the Upper Table Rock out the kitchen window. The house has two stories and more room than anyone could need. SOLD! Living in the countryside really is a dream come true for me. You'd fall asleep if I listed all of the plants and animals that live here or pass through, it's just wonderful! No surprise I found an urgent need to take pictures of what I discovered, so we got a Canon Elph to play with. Soon my passion for photography was born. I've never looked back. Today I'm sharing a macro of a dahlia I photographed in San Francisco. As it turned out, all of the pictures of this blossom had focus problems which prevented me from showing the whole flower. I was disappointed because the petals were so beautiful. Before I gave up in failure, I zoomed in on this picture and BAM. It turned out that I would be able to share the loveliness of the petals after all. I'm not always that lucky, but I was this time! I hope you like this floral abstract too—these flowers have such a delicate beauty. Pam, I hope that this week is going well for you. I think the details of this flower speak of you...gentle and soft, warm and beautiful, and a rareness of quality that is revealed only when the time is taken to look closely. Thinking of you every day my dear! Explored on 12/6/18, highest placement, #2.

Have you ever played with a Spirograph?! These flowers look just like some of the designs, don't they?! This image was taken during my trip to San Francisco during September 12-15, 2011.

Who is to say what is more beautiful: an open flower or a bud which is beginning to show itself to the world?! From beginning green bud to the point at which a flower has turned to seed...there are visions of perfect splendor to capture. This image was taken during my trip to San Francisco during September 12-15, 2011.

These colors are completely outrageous and spectacular, don't you agree?!! Can you imagine what it would be like to be faced with THOUSANDS of different flowers, all perfect?! I think I lost my mind back there! :D This image was taken during my trip to San Francisco during September 12-15, 2011.

It was really fun trying to get pictures of the many insects that were attracted to the dahlias. I got a really lucky shot here with what appears to be two different types of bumblebee! This image was taken during my trip to San Francisco during September 12-15, 2011.

(for those of you who are interested in seeing my San Francisco trip images, I have uploaded 10 pictures in this batch [98 in the past couple of weeks]. Thanks everyone for your comments and your visits to my photostream! I hope you enjoy the show!) The Conservatory of Flower's breath-taking Dahlia Garden was overflowing with thousands of absolutely perfect flowers! So many lovely blossoms, I wished I could have spent the whole day taking pictures! By the way, for those of you who may not know, there is a very fun, free Flickr competition site which you might like to take part in. It's called FlickrDuel and features dozens of ongoing competitions, or duels every day. You can enter your pictures into many different categories and vote on contests too. It's another way to enjoy your photography! This image was taken during my trip to San Francisco during September 12-15, 2011.