Janet Brien's photos with the keyword: fruit

I found these berries the other day while searching for mushrooms, and every berry was dripping with water droplets! I wanted to get closer but if I touched anything that wiggled the berries, the droplets fell off the berries! However, because my camera takes 21 megapixel images, I was still able to crop in for a nice composition! :)

2 more pictures in a note above! :) It rained last night and this morning it was crisp and cool with the sun shining brightly to welcome the new day. I was very excited to look for mushrooms, but once I got out there, I realized it was too soon yet. We will need more rain and damp mornings before my little friends begin waking up again! :) However, there was a lot of magic in the air, which was fragrant with wet meadow grass, and I began creeping around quietly, looking at everything through the eyes of my inner child. First I looked under a piece of wood and found a sleeping baby lizard there! Cooing softly, I replaced the wood carefully so I didn't disturb my little friend. Then I explored the edge of the woods that meander up our hillside and found a deer trail heading up through the trees. Stepping along the narrow trail, I noticed the sun peeking over the ridge line and making the leaves glow. Seeing an uncommon tree with leaves starting to yellow, I spent a few moments looking for some special leaves to take pictures of. Then I spotted a wonderful, thick, wild honeysuckle vine curling around a branch, and started to take pictures. I wanted to move a vine out of the way and pulled it down to reposition it, and suddently gasped in surprise when I saw what was at the end! "OH WOW!! LOOK AT THE BERRIES!!" I said out loud in excitement, and instantly abandoned the vine wraping around the branch. You know, when you live out on a rural piece of property, there is always something new to discover, and though we've lived here for about 8 years now, I've never seen these berries before! I took some pictures and was playing around with different angles. Just then, the sun moved a little higher, and a beam of light shone through the trees and right through the berries! I was stunned at how pretty they were with the sun making them glow like Christmas tree ornaments! How amazing it is to discover such beautiful sights. There really was magic in the air this morning, and I'm so happy I was there to find these berries, glowing warmly in the morning sun! :) Heraclitus of Ephesus (c. 535 – c. 475 BCE) was a pre-Socratic Greek philosopher, a native of the Greek city Ephesus, Ionia, on the coast of Asia Minor. He was of distinguished parentage. Little is known about his early life and education, but he regarded himself as self-taught and a pioneer of wisdom. From the lonely life he led, and still more from the riddling nature of his philosophy and his contempt for humankind in general, he was called "The Obscure" and the "Weeping Philosopher". Wikipedia: Heraclitus Explored on September 19, 2013. Highest placement, page 2 (#33).

While walking around at Michael's place, I wandered down the sidewalk to the next house over, and found a bushy tree with all kinds of odd, prickly, brown fruit on it. Thanks to Leapfrog (Art) for identification, I can tell you this is a Buckeye seed pod, and they are totally COOL! I enjoyed taking pictures and then I looked under some branches to see what it looked like, and I found this poor, sad seed pod that didn't quite make it! :D Instead of being 3" in diameter like the normal seed pod, this dud was about 1", cracked and looking like a strange alien from another planet! Totally fabulous!!! :D Explored on September 15, 2013. Highest placement, page 5.

Thanks to Leapfrog (Art) for the identification, I didn't have a clue what this could be when I took a picture, but I was totally fascinated by the prickly exterior and fabulous texture! They range in size from 3"-4" in diameter. I didn't take any because it wasn't my property, but I wanted to see what they looked like inside! Maybe I'll see about getting one the next time I'm over there! :) Stay tuned for an interior picture in a couple of weeks! :)

Our friend Michael has a grape vine in his back yard and he's been giving us bags of grapes whenever we visit. I found this shriveled up grape at the bottom of the bag and thought it would make a great subject!

The grapes we get from our friend Michael are smaller than store grapes and round instead of oblong. They are deliciously sweet and though they contain seeds, they're not hard and don't need to be removed. We wolf these tasty grapes down by the groupful! :D Trivia question! Do you know the answer to this without looking it up on the internet? Who refers to a "bunch" of grapes as a "group" of grapes?! I never call them bunches ever since I learned this and I absolutely love it when people try to correct me when I say I have a "group" of grapes! :D WHO SAID IT?! :D

I had a lot of fun slicing a bell pepper in half and taking pictures! They are really gorgeous and interesting at a macro level! I also learned a lot. Most especially, I needed a deeper depth of field to get the pictures I was hoping for, so I'll retake them at a later date. I did get some nice pictures though, and I especially liked the way this one looks, like some strange orange cave with a stalactite forming! By the way, do you know the easy way to tell which is the right word: stalagmite or stalactite? I found a super page on wiki to explain! Wikihow.com: Tell the Difference-Between Stalagmites and Stalactites Use the term stalagmite when you are referring to the calcite deposits that build up from the floor. Think of ground, which starts with "g", which is also in stalagmite, to help you remember. Use the term stalactite when your are referring to the calcite deposits that build down from the roof of the cave. Think icicles, or ceiling, words which also have the letter "c" in them, to help you remember.

Have you ever noticed the condensation on grapes when you take them out of the refrigerator? This is what that condensation looks like when a macro picture is taken with sunlight hitting it! :D

This is half of the tomato I sliced up today. I put this tomato into ham, avocado and onion sandwich with mayonnaise and mustard on toasted torta rolls! They were absolutely INCREDIBLE!!!!! Isn't this a beautiful pattern?! I just love how pretty these tomatoes are! :)

6 more pictures in notes above! :) Every May, Steve and I go to the Jackson County Master Gardener's Fair, where people go to buy endless varieties of flowers and plants, and most especially, TOMATOES! By far, the most popular items sold at this huge plant sale are tomatoes...thousands upon thousands of seedlings and young plants of a dizzying variety are carted off by hordes of happy gardeners. If you don't know much about tomatoes, it will surprise you to discover that there are more than a few types of tomatoes. In fact, there are literally HUNDREDS of varieties, and just like wine, tomatoes vary greatly in flavor and characteristics. We picked out 4 types this year: Cherokee Purple Heirloom, Black Russian Heirloom, Sweet 100 Cherry, and the amazing variety shown here, the savory, mouth-watering Green Zebra. The Green Zebra tomato is yellow with beautiful green stripes when ripe. It's an oblong-round, 2.5" diameter tomato which has a unique, savory flavor that is slightly sweet, and will turn any sandwich into the very best you've ever had! Steve and I are CRAZY about this tomato, as it's unlike any we've ever had and we insist on growing it every year if we can find one for sale before they're all bought by rabid tomato junkies. When sun-dried, Green Zebras impart a delicious flavor to anything its added to, and provides a zing of deliciousness if popped into your mouth as a crunchy snack! Lewis McDonald Grizzard, Jr. (October 20, 1946 – March 20, 1994) was an American writer and humorist, known for his Southern demeanor and commentary on the American South. Although he spent his early career as a newspaper sports writer and editor, becoming the sports editor of the Atlanta Journal at age 23, he is much better known for his humorous newspaper columns in the Atlanta Journal-Constitution. He was also a popular stand-up comedian & lecturer. Wikipedia: Lewis McDonald Grizzard, Jr.

When I went out to take pictures of the smoky conditions, it occurred to me that I should take a picture of some Green Zebras on the plant for you to see! :) This picture shows a tomato that's one or two days from being ready to pick. The lower tomato will be another week. This plant is doing really well and has about 15 tomatoes growing right now...HOORAY!!!!! :D *drools in anticipation*

4 images in notes above!! :) Today was Steve's Sunday Brunch Ride, and we rode our bikes from our home around a beautiful valley nearby, and stopped at the lovely Touvelle Park on the Rogue River. After eating lunch, I wandered around taking pictures and was very surprised when I found a PLUM TREE growing next to the bank! AMAZING! (Thanks to Leapfrog Art for helping to point me in the right direction on identifying the species, I found a page about these plums here: Stringer's Orchard: Pacific Plum ) Aristotle (384 BC – 322 BC)was a Greek philosopher and polymath, a student of Plato and teacher of Alexander the Great. His writings cover many subjects, including physics, metaphysics, poetry, theater, music, logic, rhetoric, linguistics, politics, government, ethics, biology, and zoology. Together with Plato and Socrates (Plato's teacher), Aristotle is one of the most important founding figures in Western philosophy. Aristotle's writings were the first to create a comprehensive system of Western philosophy, encompassing morality, aesthetics, logic, science, politics, and metaphysics. Wikipedia: Aristotle Explored on July 15, 2013. Highest placement: page 2 (#38).

This is what we chop up for Pumpkin's main food every few days: carrots, colorful bell peppers, celary and apples! Our healthy girl loves her fresh fruits and veggies and munches on them all day long! She also gets Zupreems with ocassional treats of "seed treats", walnuts, pecans, bread, and nibbles of our food.

We live in rural southern Oregon. It's very agricultural and one of the prominent crops here are pears. I finally found an orchard with trees bursting with pears, so I stopped to take some pictures! YAY!! This photo was taken on October 21, 2011.

Another close-up of the crazy berries from another world! Winner of FlickrDuel contest: +10 Color:Square Format This image was taken during my trip to San Francisco during September 12-15, 2011.

I think either the owners of this dwarf apple tree forgot to pick their apples or they decided the worms needed them more... This image was taken during my trip to San Francisco during September 12-15, 2011.