Janet Brien's photos with the keyword: Flower

Trip Talk: Eavesdropping and Fun Conversation at Butchart Gardens While Steve and I were enjoying our day at Butchart, I noticed a young girl concentrating on aiming her phone camera at a flower. Next to her was an older man and I heard her say, "Oh, look at this one!" The older man, I guess her grandfather, was watching with a smile on his face. "That's a beauty!" The girl replied, "Do you think mom and dad are going to be worrying about us?" Leaning into a flower for his own picture, he answered, "No, they knew what would happen if both of us went off with our cameras, there's only one Butchart Gardens!" I had to laugh as I meandered on…they got that right! While Steve and I were stumbling around in the Sunken Garden, Steve saw a couple taking pictures of each other. Whenever he sees this, he walks right up and offers to take the couple's portrait, and this pair was very happy that he offered. Steve gave them modeling cues and made a joke to get them to laugh for their photo. I was focusing on the imageI was taking but couldn't help overhearing their snickering and the happy chatter from the couple. We wandered down the path together and talked about the park and pictures until parting company at some point. Later on we ran into them again and it was fun to say hello. What an amazing place to be. Today's Pictures I had a really hard time choosing which picture should be my main one--they are all such a bunch of screaming divas! I finally just closed my eyes and picked at random. It turned out to be another Candy-Striped Gazania, this one in yellow and red with a very shallow dof. The enormous patch of gazanias we found threatened to shackle me to the spot…I just couldn't get enough of these ridiculously colorful flowers! (I've included an inset of the other gazania picture I shared) Inset 1: a pair of purple-blue Lobelia against a sea of flowers transformed into colorful bokeh Inset 2: a brilliant orange and red Marigold in front of many others Inset 3: a perfectly pink Impatien Inset 4: an ornate coral and white Impatien with a group of back-up beauties Inset 5: a hot-pink Impatien in a pack of others Inset 6: here's a punch-drunk honey bee crawling around on Lantana…there were so many insects enjoying the bounty offered by the Garden's millions of flowers! Inset 7: another glowing abstract of a Canna leaf Inset 8: more lovely curls from the succulent I saw when entering the park Inset 9: a carpet of colorful Coleus Inset 10: a human-sized chess set! I enjoyed watching this boy heft pieces around on the board. Apparently one of the pieces wasn't there judging by the sign, "We apologize for the missing chess piece. It is currently being repaired." Pam, have you ever tried growing flowers like gazanias? I'd like to at some point but won't bother until we can have a garden in a cooler setting and without critters I have to fight with! I hope you're having a good day. It's rainy and cold here today, not lovely like Butcharts! Explored on 10/04/19; highest placement #11.

(+4 insets!) (Please view large for best impact!) Since we got back from our trip, the floral extravaganza continues to explode here as it does every year. One of the plants that grows in massive carpets all over is Hairy Vetch, which is a member of the pea or legume family. This non-native plant is found all over the US because it is a favored companion crop in agriculture and livestock love to eat this healthy forage. It features lovely sprigs of lavender and purple blossoms that catch the light and glow like beacons. In the morning as the sun casts its beams across our meadow and road, thousands of Vetch flowers light up and glow warmly. Its wonderful translucent leaves glow as well, and looking closely, the tendrils can be seen grasping onto anything within reach. I have taken many pictures of these pretty flowers so I did my best to resist. This morning I finally caved to the irresistible beauty of this yearly show. And so I went inside and reemerged with my camera, relieved to finally give in to the calls from the flowers. I thought it would be a nice choice to share such a lovely sight for Mother's Day, and I'll be posting some of my archive pictures too, and a couple of other flower pictures to celebrate all of you mothers out there! Perhaps I fit in the mix too, even though I've never been a biological mom…I am certainly a mother to all of my companions through the years and nurture them with all the love any doting mother has! :) Pam, you didn't have anything for "Mother's Day" so I found a picture of a pair of your kids in "Paw Prints on the Heart". You are such a good mama, and this pair of rainbow pups sure did love you! :) HAPPY MOTHER'S DAY PAM!!! *BIG HUGS* Explored on 5/13/19; highest placement #6.

(+1 inset) (By the way, I have three articles for Part 8 on my Garden Adventure articles...ENJOY! Part 8a—Dreams of a Big Flower Garden, 1-Month Update: The Good Part 8b—Dreams of a Big Flower Garden, 1-Month Update: The Bad Part 8c—Dreams of a Big Flower Garden, 1-Month Update: The Ugly I have tried a few times now to grow tulips. The deer and other animals thank me for my efforts and eat them all before they bloom. Next year will be different because I'll have fencing around my garden but this year was another failure. I did get pictures of one brave tulip that managed to make it nearly to the day it would open! (See the inset) A couple of years ago, Steve and I got the chance to to to an Emu farm, and it was an experience I will never forget. Aside from the emus, the farm was complete with a vegetable garden, an orchard, and everywhere there were flowers planted, including this tulip. Thanks to my A-Z project, I finally got the chance to process this picture, one that I was so happy with and have wanted to share since I first saw it. :) Explored on June 3, 2014. Highest placement, #1.

(+1 inset, showing our metal trough planter full of flowers) Note: I just finished writing the first of a series of blog posts about my new garden! My New Adventure: A Raised Bed Flower Garden! (There are several posts now, the bottom of each links to the next) Last August, I asked Steve to bring home some seeds so I could conduct an experiment: I wanted to see if I could get a fast-blooming plant like a Zinnia to bloom before frost in November. He found a 25¢ deal on flower seeds and brought home a bunch of them. One of them was Sweet Williams. When I discovered they were "biennial", I thought they would never bloom, so I took a bunch and tossed them in my metal trough planter and some in my front flower garden, since it wouldn't hurt and I didn't think they would grow anyway. (The deer ate my experiments, boo!) This spring, something strange plants started growing in each garden. The tops were green and fuzzy, sort of like a Tribble on a stem. Having no idea what this odd plant could be, I waited and wondered. I specifically didn't look on the internet because I simply love flower surprises! One day, about three weeks ago, I saw a bud forming and I could see that the whole top would be covered with them. A couple of days later, the first flower opened and I could hardly believe the beauty of this gorgeous flower! It was a Sweet William, and I'd never seen one face to face before! Stunned by its beauty, I remembered they are in the carnation family, so I leaned in to smell... mmmmmm... sweet and spicy, the classic and unmistakable carnation fragrance! About then it suddenly ocurred to me: the metal trough was FULL of these "Tribble Tops", dozens and dozens of them, plus a couple in the front flower bed. I was in for a SHOW!! (See the inset picture) What a show it has been, and I am so dazzled by these flowers! They are a mix of colors ranging from white to purple, with varigated forms, and they are positively, drop-dead gorgeous. They are now among my favorite flowers, and I'll be sharing more pictures through the year! :) Explored on May 27, 2014. Highest placement, #1.

(Please be sure to see my next picture and the post I have with it!!) With a heavy heart, I'm writing this post to let all of you know that I'm leaving Flickr and will only be posting pictures to ipernity from now on. I will leave this picture and the next one up but I will be removing all others within the week. This is my home at ipernity: Janet Brien Photography I really hoped that Flickr would offer an option to choose a layout. More importantly, I also hoped that this site would speed up again. Unfortunately neither of these things happened, and sadly, my slow connection to the internet has made it impossible to comment in a reasonable fashion. I used to be able to reply to about 75 comments in an hour or so, but since Flickr has bogged down, I can barely reply to 25 in an hour. It's a deal-breaker, and I have absolutely no way to fix this problem. This slowdown is horribly frustrating and infuriating to me. The fact of the matter is that one of the most important aspects of Flickr is the number of friends I've made here, and the relationships I've made. I used to spend an hour every day bouncing around to all of your pages, seeing your awesome photography, and leaving comments to let you know what I thought. Those days are long gone. I can't even scratch the surface now because of the time-sink. This makes me mad, annoyed, and depressed to the point that I have been avoiding Flickr more and more. I feel so guilty and like a complete ass for not visiting or leaving comments. I feel sad because I miss you guys. It's like being on an island in a sea of tar with no way out. I've been putting off this decision since I got an account on ipernity and made it my new home. I don't want to leave Flickr. This decision was forced on me because I have no other choice. So, it's time for me to close this door. It breaks my heart. So many friends who I'll never see again. I just can't believe the enormous number of you that I must leave behind. It totally, utterly SUCKS. :( :( :( I would love to have your company, if any of you would like to join me over at ipernity! My next post explains why I think ipernity rocks and maybe what I have to say is all you need to push you over the edge! :) Saying goodbye sucks. I don't want to do it. So maybe I'll just say...see you later, Aligator...and you know the rest...

This image was taken during my trip to San Francisco during September 12-15, 2011.

How lucky is this shot! Though the one in flight isn't crystal clear, I was elated that I got this neat image!! This image was taken during my trip to San Francisco during September 12-15, 2011.

the Dahlia is a genus of bushy, tuberous, perennial plant native to Mexico, Central America, and Colombia. There are at least 36 species, some which grow up to 10 meters tall! Dahlia hybrids, of which there are countless types, are commonly grown as garden plants. The Aztecs gathered and cultivated the dahlia for food, ceremonies, as well as decorative purposes, and the long woody stem of one variety was used for small pipes. Dahlias are used as food plants by the larvae of some moths and butterflies, and are a favorite nectar source of bees. The dahlia is named after Swedish 18th-century botanist Anders Dahl.[5] In German the dahlia was known during most of the 19th century as Georgia, being named after the naturalist Johann Gottlieb Georgi of St. Petersburg, Russia. (Info from Wiki) If you would like to know more about dahlias, please visit this Wiki page: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dahlia 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 [88 in the past couple of weeks]. Thanks everyone for your comments and your visits to my photostream! I hope you enjoy the show!) This is the first of many pictures I took at the Conservatory of Flower's jaw-dropping Dahlia Garden. Never in my entire life have I ever seen such an enormous garden of absolutely perfect flowers! My friend Laura spotted them and in the end, she had to drag me away, kicking and screaming the whole way! There were dozens upon dozens of varieties to drool at, and I could have spent the whole day taking pictures of these intensely beautiful flowers. In the following days, you'll see lots of dahlia images sprinkled throughout my San Francisco: Golden Gate Park images...I hope you enjoy them as much as I did taking them! 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.

This lovely dahlia was facing into the garden and gave me a very nice opportunity to take a picture from behind the blossom. This also marks the last of my dahlia garden images! I hope you enjoyed them! This image was taken during my trip to San Francisco during September 12-15, 2011.

This image was taken during my trip to San Francisco during September 12-15, 2011.

This image was taken during my trip to San Francisco during September 12-15, 2011.

This image was taken during my trip to San Francisco during September 12-15, 2011.

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! Winner of FlickrDuel contest: +10 Wins: Color: Pink This image was taken during my trip to San Francisco during September 12-15, 2011.

Many of these beautiful flowers are so large that it was easy to fill the frame with a juicy, face-filling close up of utter beauty! :) This image was taken during my trip to San Francisco during September 12-15, 2011.

This image was taken on my property in Southern Oregon

This image was taken during a MeetUp hike to Mt. Ashland on July 30, 2011.

This image was taken during a MeetUp hike to Mt. Ashland on July 30, 2011.