Janet Brien's photos with the keyword: buttercup

(Please click on the linked text to sing along with Oklahoma’s amazing Gordon MacRae) (and take a look at that incredible dapple grey he’s riding…yummy!) “Oh what a beautiful morning, oh what a beautiful day, I have a beautiful feeling everything’s going my way…” It is such a lovely day…there are puffy little sheepy-clouds in the bright blue sky and dew twinkling on every blade of grass…it’s one of those days when you open your arms over your head and twirl in the glory of it all. I stepped outside today and was immediately immersed in Spring’s vibrant and inescapable energy. How grand to be a part of it all! :) I have to say, it did take a long time for this morning to arrive. I lay in bed last night thinking about subjects that start the letter “S.” Why? Well, Saturday…HEY! That starts with S too!…is Saturday Self-Challenge and last night, just before going to sleep, I looked up the theme: “any subject beginning with the letter "S." Please remind me to stop doing that…I immediately began thinking about everything in our house that might start with “S”…I thought of what flora and fauna started with “S”…and then I was concerned that perhaps I might forget the different things I came up with. *groan* I rolled around for an hour considering all the ideas I came up with and even went so far as to wonder about botanical and zoological classifications which might begin with “S”. Seriously. (heh…S…) At one point I whimpered to myself, “Dear god just let me go to sleep, you freak!” I guess eventually I finally let it go … the next thing I knew my little feathered alarm clock was peeping at me as light peeked into the room. It will be raining this afternoon but for now the sunshine and glowing energy is fantastic to soak up this morning. I will need to pop outside for some pictures at some point today or this weekend because Macro Monday’s theme is “flower buds”…how fun to have another Janet-centric topic, hooray! Well, it ended up getting very stormy out with no chance for pictures but it sure was nice while it lasted! I'm sharing another buttercup picture that represents the amazing morning I had! Pam, I looked up “beautiful day” on your stream and found a picture of a glowing Gulf Fritillary butterfly on a zinnia that took my breath away! The lovely details are amazing and the bokeh is so perfect and really makes this gorgeous butterfly stand out. Incredible…what a visual treat! I hope that you had a nice day and that it was at least as pretty outside as it was here. :) Explored on 3/30/19, highest placement, #6.

(+10 insets!) Welcome to the first day of spring!! I cannot tell you how happy I am to have reached this wonderful day! I know that some of you are still waiting impatiently for spring to arrive where you live --> Ron Hanko is one who would like winter to please be on its way! I know there are many others who are frustrated by the cold and storms that don't want to leave. On the opposite side, spring arrived early for many and some didn't even get a proper winter. What a strange year for weather it's been. I've mentioned that we are about a month behind our normal spring schedule, and this seems very accurate. I went out today to wander around on our property and see how things were progressing. I found a bunch of new species to add to the list but a bunch of the flowers that should be in bloom are nowhere to be found. Hopefully when these flowers eventually bloom they will be properly pollenated. I ended up spending at least an hour looking around for flowers and I didn't actually look everywhere. We are so very fortunate to have 26 acres and a chunk of it is on a very steep hillside. Another part is in dark forest on the opposite edge from where I was. It can take quite a bit of time to walk from one side to the other when looking carefully for flowers along the way. However, I do know this place from living here for over 10 years. I am sure I've missed dozens of flower species but I'm familiar with what grows where so I felt pretty comfortable with my choice to come in after an hour. Definitely a balancing act to stop before you get burned out, and also, I needed time to work on my pictures and write my post! :) Today's image is a buttercup, and to me, it signifies spring perfectly! Bright and shining gold with lovely petals and such a joyful appearance. They can be a challenging flower to photograph because of their shiny petals. In direct sunlight, the shiny spots will blow out without artificial measures. But if a flower is photographed from below or behind, what you get is something very special…a magical view of what this lovely flower sees as it looks out upon its tiny world. :) I have to mention that I nearly went right back inside when I stepped out today. Though it was bright and sunny, the wind was gusting relentlessly. Looking over at the gorgeous daffodils waving around like dancing machines made me laugh. Pictures indeed…HAH! I didn't bother but I also thought that even if I didn't get a single photo today, it would be fun to see what was blooming on the first day of spring! I had an absolutely blissful time crossing our meadow and discovering buttercups. They were protected from the wind by bushes and yet were still in the sun. I was so happy. Then I found a gorgeous little hoverfly species with irridescent wings which hung around long enough for me to take dozens of pictures! YAY! From there I wandered here and there, discovering newly blooming species and feeling very connected to our land. It is so peaceful out there feeling as one with nature. What a gift. I am forever grateful that we live in such a pretty place with so many treasures to take pictures of. :) I didn't have time to process more than one picture today so I'll be sharing lots of neat images when I can…I haven't even had the time to look at the majority of them…to be honest, this was the very first subject I photographed and the fourth image of it! How's that for luck! :) Since I don't have other pictures from today I've added insets of some other buttercups I've photographed in the past. HOORAY FOR SPRING!! IT IS FINALLY HERE!!! HUZZAH!!! HUZZAH!!! HUZZAHH!! Pam, I did a search for buttercup and was totally amazed that you have exactly ZERO on your stream! Do you not get buttercups? I thought they were everywhere! But of course that's silly…so maybe you don't! Instead I found a wonderful image of a False Sunny from behind ! It's just beautiful and I'm so glad that you shared it for all of us to enjoy! I sure do hope that this wonderful day treated you well my dear! :) Explored on 3/21/19, highest placement, #1.

[best appreciated at full size against black] Have you ever noticed that depending on the elevation, you will see some kinds of plants and not others? Our property sits on 26 acres: the bottom quarter is the lowest, and is pretty flat. The middle half is also fairly flat but has some gentle hilly areas. The top area is on a hill that goes up to a ridgeline and over the other side a little bit. The elevation gain is probably about 100 feet. The point is that 100 feet makes a difference!! I wouldn't believe it unless I saw it for myself! This flower is a buttercup, and I know they grow on all elevations of our property....but right now, the first place they are blooming are about 1/3 of the way up our hillside! They aren't in bloom anywhere else but there! And, all over our property, there are little areas where certain flowers grow only in one spot! Isn't that interesting? Of course, it could merely be that the seeds just haven't spread to different areas, I'm no expert! :) In any event, I would like you all to meet the fourth flower I've found this spring, the beautiful buttercup! :D

I don't know exactly what kind of beetle this is, but I usually see it on buttercups. If you happen to know what type this is, I'd love to put correct information here! :)

[best appreciated at full size against black] We are so incredibly fortunate to live on 26 acres in the beautiful countryside of southern Oregon. It's a dream come true for me, something I've wanted all my life. However, when you put a macro lens on a camera, suddenly it seems like 10 sqiare feet is as large as an acre...that means that when I'm nosing around our property for pictures, our 26 acres is more like 113 acres!! Well, it certainly seems like it, there's just no end to the possibilities!! Now that it's warm, there are insects EVERYWHERE. I'm hoping to get lots of great pictures in the coming months, and I took this one just the other day! Here we have a flower fly, who is standing on a buttercup petal. He just got finished getting a meal of nectar and still has a mouth full! SWALLOW, you silly fly!! :D By the way, while writing up this information, it occurred to me that I've never actually SEEN buttercup nectar before. So...I looked it up! I found a very fascinating page by a gentleman named Brian Johnston, who took many extreme close-ups of three different buttercup flowers and gives a wonderful, easy-to-understand lesson about its anatomy, all the way to the microscopic level! Have you ever seen pollen grains at a microscopic level? You will really enjoy the pictures and learning more about these lovely little flowers! A Close-up View of Three Buttercups This image was taken in April, 2012.

[best appreciated at full size against black] I was taking pictures of Grand Hound's Tongue blossoms when I noticed there was something crawling around on this little buttercup. Because my attention was elsewhere, I just took this one picture, more for curiousity to see later on my computer. Imagine my surprise when I discovered there was an entire convention of tiny beetles having a party on this one quarter-sized flower!! How did I miss my invitation!! :D This image was taken in April, 2012.

[best appreciated at full size against black] There's an old, overgrown dirt road which parallels the gravel road up to our house, and this road travels next to the seasonal creek. It's shady and pretty here, and walking along one day I found a buttercup with a little friend atop it, feasting on the pollen! I got lots of cute pictures as it walked around and in the end, it turned away and flew off to another sunny destination! I hope you enjoy this collage! This image was taken in April, 2012.

It's frosty outside, with nature adding a bit of sparkle to the drab scenery outside. I thought it would be perfect to share a picture of a radiant buttercup to put a smile on our faces! :) Thanks to all of you who have visited and have left comments and favorites! I try to go to all of your pages within a day or two and is a highlight for me to see your beautiful photography! :) Explored on December 13, 2012. Highest position #489.

I really liked the interesting petals on this blossom and thought it would be a very nice textured image as well! Below is the original picture (cropped) so you can see how different a texture can make your subject appear! Texture by Nasos3

I really love how this buttercup is reaching for the sky! You guys would really have fun watching me take these pictures...it's not easy getting this low angle under a short buttercup! :D Henry David Thoreau (July 12, 1817 – May 6, 1862) was an American author, poet, philosopher, abolitionist, naturalist, tax resister, development critic, surveyor, historian, and leading transcendentalist.He is best known for his book Walden, a reflection upon simple living in natural surroundings, and his essay Civil Disobedience, an argument for individual resistance to civil government in moral opposition to an unjust state. Wikipedia: Henry David Thoreau

Steve and I are trying to make an effort to get to bed earlier, and even though I didn't sleep well, I still woke up at just before 8am and looked outside to see the world covered with frost and gleaming in the bright morning sunshine! Oh YAY!!! I couldn't get dressed fast enough! I bundled up and bounced out the door, intent on FROSTED BUTTERCUPS!! But the second I left the house, I slammed on the brakes...HOLY SPARKLING DROPLETS EVERYWHERE, BATMAN!! Down I dropped and got dozens of totally insane frosty droplet pictures! I went around the meadow and got lots of other pictures before heading up to the hillside where I found what I was intent on! This Buttercup is bristling with just-melted frost, and I couldn't resist making it my pick of the day. I got some other pictures with frost on the blossoms, and I have one to show below! Julia Caroline (Ripley) Dorr (1825–1913) was an American author who published both prose and poetry. She was born at Charleston, South Carolina, but moved early in her life to New York City, then to Rutland, Vermont. There she married Hon. Seneca M. Dorr. Her earliest published writings appeared in 1848. Mrs. Dorr is best known, however, for volumes of thoughtful verse. A collected edition of her poems appeared in 1892. Wkipedia: Julia Caroline Dorr

Here's a Buttercup covered with frost, just about to open! I would have liked a bit more light to make this flower glow but I was out of luck--the sun wasn't going to hit this spot for a while (behind a tree) and my feet were freezing, but I loved how this bud was covered with crystals!

I was so excited to get outside today because I had a mission! I knew that at this time last year, there were beautiful Western Buttercups beginning to bloom on our hillside and today I was out to get some pictures! I also remember that when I saw the first Buttercup, it was our real beginning of spring. It's true...there is an explosion of growth that is only starting. Last year I was completely blown away by the countless varieties of plants and flowers in every color of the rainbow. From today until about June, it will be wall-to-wall flowers and beauty here! HOORAY!!! Explored on Flickr March 5, 2013. Highest position: #196.

I was walking back to the house today and I saw this Buttercup. I couldn't resist taking a picture, and when I saw it on the computer, I just had to process it. Exactly one picture, and it turned out just right!

Hooray!!! It's the first official day of Spring!!! This is a buttercup I found on the way back from our hike up to the top of the Upper Table Rock. I really loved the petals on this flower and thought this would make a nice textured image! :) Thanks to Nasos3 for the texture!

This is a picture I took about a month ago when we were still getting a lot of morning frost. I got so many nice images of buttercups but I didn't want to post them all at once. This is one of my favorites!