Janet Brien's photos with the keyword: Explore on ipernity

2 more pictures in notes above! :) Yesterday I was delighted because a new flower is blooming in my little garden, and I was very excited to feature it for my Picture of the Day! In fact, I'd finished taking pictures and was appreciating the beautiful poppies that are all blazing away in red and pink when I saw a hoverfly zoom up to a poppy! I LOVE HOVERFLIES!!!! They make me hyperventilate in excitement, and I instantly zeroed in on my new best little buzzy buddy and started taking pictures! It was actually very mellow and let me take all the pictures I wanted as it crawled around and posed for the camera! "Do I look better from the left? Or from the right? Head in the pollen? Oh, I know, I'll hover for a second or two and give you a challenge!" :D :D I got lots of wonderful pictures, and I have another one to share today, as well as ANOTHER hoverfly just larger than a grain of rice! (This hoverfly was about 3/4" in length) Plato (BC[a] – 348/347 BC) was a philosopher in Classical Greece. He was also a mathematician, student of Socrates, writer of philosophical dialogues, and founder of the Academy in Athens, the first institution of higher learning in the Western world. Along with his mentor, Socrates, and his student, Aristotle, Plato helped to lay the foundations of Western philosophy and science. Wikipedia: Plato Explored on July 12, 2013. Highest position, page 4. Also Explored on Flickr on July 13, 2013. Highest placement: #113.

ACK!!! It's 11pm and I just got home a few minutes ago! Steve and I left the house at 7:45am and met our friend Michael and then drove 2.5 hours away to a lovely town called Cottage Grove, where we spent the day going on an amazing bike ride which took us to many beautiful covered bridges, around the edge of a gorgeous lake, and through sun-dappled forests! It was 35 miles of incredible scenery on a perfect day which we will never forget!! This pictures shows flowers called Queen Anne's Lace in the foreground and one of the covered bridges in bokeh beyond! WHAT A DAY...and now it's time for bed! No time for more pictures tonight, and I'll have to look at my pictures tomorrow! Brian Harold May CBE (born 19 July 1947) is an English musician, singer, songwriter and astrophysicist who achieved international fame as the guitarist of Queen. As a guitarist he uses his home-built guitar, "Red Special". Queen's albums include numerous May compositions, including "Tie Your Mother Down", "I Want It All", "We Will Rock You", "Fat Bottomed Girls" and "Who Wants to Live Forever". Wikipedia: Brian May Explored on July 13, 2013. Highest placement, page 3 (#68). Also Explored on Flickr on July 12, 2013. Highest placement: #405.

Today I was going to feature a prickly flower called a Spikeweed for my 365, but as I left the house, I saw this wasp on a leaf in a very aggressive stance, its wings held out rigidly as it stood its ground. I wondered where its nest was but I wasn't about to go looking around too closely! I had to set my ISO up quite high on this image and wasn't sure I'd be able to remove all the noise, but as you can see, Topaz DeNoise comes through yet again! Gautama Buddha or Siddhārtha Gautama Buddha, also called Sakyamuni, was a sage from the ancient Shakya republic, on whose teachings Buddhism was founded. He is also referred to as "the Buddha" or simply as "Buddha." Wikipedia: Buddha Explored on July 10, 2013. Highest placement, page 1 (#20). Explored on Flickr on Jul 9, 2013. Highest placement: #112.

3 more pictures above in notes! :) The poppy show is still in full swing over here, and this morning I was beside myself with excitement when I bounced outside to see what had bloomed. I'd been waiting for a certain flower to bloom and today was the day!! To explain, on the 4th of July, Steve and I had to be out of the house by 8:00 and I had absolutely no time to take pictures that morning. I just about cried when I saw that an enormous pink poppy had opened up and was positively glowing in the morning light. However, I knew that plant had several other bud-pods growing and I would get another chance to take pictures. This morning another one opened up and I was so excited and happy!! Audrey Hepburn (born Audrey Kathleen Ruston; 4 May 1929 – 20 January 1993) was a British actress and humanitarian. Recognised as both a film and fashion icon, Hepburn was active during Hollywood's Golden Age. She has since been ranked as the third greatest female screen legend in the history of American cinema and been placed in the International Best Dressed List Hall of Fame. Wkipedia: Audrey Hepburn Explored on July 9, 2013. Highest placement: page 2 (#43...) Explored on Flickr, July 8, 2013. Highest placement: #369.

2 more pictures in notes above! :) Today was Steve's Sunday Lunch Ride and it happened to be my favorite bike ride too, which is out in the beautiful Applegate Valley. 30 miles of beautiful farm country and wineries, forests and meadows, and very few cars. Absolute bliss! At one point the six of us rounded a curve and found ourselves staring at a garden of the most gorgeous coneflowers any of us had ever seen! Although I'd taken a bunch of pictures at our lunch stop, there was no way to resist these incredible flowers and I spent about 20 minutes taking about 200 pictures, and actually, I could have spent hours there, what a TREAT! I haven't even looked at all the pictures I took, but I'm sharing three that I really loved, and which are basically straight out of the camera! I hope to share bunches of other pictures, I got so lucky with countless winners, HAPPY DAY!!! :D Democritus (Greek: Dēmokritos, "chosen of the people") (c. 460 – c. 370 BC) was an Ancient Greek philosopher born in Abdera, Thrace, Greece. A pupil of Leucippus, he was an influential pre-Socratic philosopher who formulated an atomic theory for the universe. Wkipedia: Democritus Explored on July 8, 2013. Highest placement, page 2 (#40).