Janet Brien's photos with the keyword: A-Z Project

(+9 insets above) This is a developing cluster of male pine cones surrounded by many needles, which are this plant's leaves. The pine cones we are familiar with are female cones. On a pine tree, male pine cones are usually found in clusters like this one, and are concentrated near the bottom of the tree, while the female cones are concentrated near the top. This arrangement helps to ensure cross-pollination between pine trees. There is another story here too, if you look closely. On the right side of the cluster, you will see a small spider, and if you look down below, you will see its newly shedded skin or exoskeleton. My apologies for posting so infrequently. I am busy working on my book, and now that the last day of frost has arrived, I have a garden to plant. And of course, there are a zillion other things going on...work, life, etc! :D Explored on May 6, 2014. Highest placement, #1.

(15 more pictures in notes on the image, all are clickable! Enjoy the show!) One of our first wildflowers is the bright and cheerful Buttercup! I discovered that we have several species here, but this one, the Western Buttercup, is the most common. Every year I end up taking far too many pictures of these pretty little flowers, and though I tried to resist this year, I simply could not refuse when I saw the light glowing through the petals of this gorgeous little blossom! Please be sure to roll your mouse over this picture to see the show of many clickable pictures of the buttercups I've photographed previously! They are such a wonderful subject! :) Explored on ipernity on April 1, 2014. Highest placement, #4.

4 more pictures above in notes! :) You can also find me on Facebook ! Every spring the wildflower show here on our property is just amazing to behold. One of the first species to arrive is the breathtaking and diminuative Henderson's Fawn Lily. Hundreds upon hundreds of these beauties bejewel the hillside and our lower forest, each worthy of an appreciative stare. This flower stands only a few inches off the ground with its face directed downwards, and for this reason, it can be a challenge to capture the beauty of this blossom. To get this picture, my camera was on the ground, tilting up at the pair. My contorted, upside-down position--and how I stuffed myself under a bush--would have had all of you in hysterics! :D I had seen these two a few days before and their loveliness stopped me in my tracks. I didn't have my camera with me at the time and when I got up onto the upper trail again, days had passed and I expected them to be wilted and fading away. However, when I discovered they were still in perfect shape, I was prepared to do anything it took to get a nice image of them! The Erythronium genus has 20-30 different species which can be found over the Northern Hemisphere. They are pink, purple, yellow or cream in color and are a very hardy, long-lasting flower. We have one species on our property, and just off the property on public land there is another kind, the Oregon Fawn Lily, which is a beautiful cream color. If you would like to know more about these pretty flowers, Wiki has a page here: Wikipedia: Erythronium or more specifically: Wikipedia: Henderson's Fawn Lily Explored on Sunday, March 23, 2014. Highest placement, #1.

You can also find me on Facebook ! Our little parrot, Pumpkin, is the silliest, cutest, most playful companion I've ever had! She loves to run after little balls like this green one, grab them, and throw them onto the floor! As they fall, she turns her head at an angle to watch, and is always extremely delighted when Steve or I pick the ball up and toss it for her to chase again! Her favorite toys have bells inside of them. She loves to shake them furiously before flinging them through the air and hopefully...on the floor! Much cackling and happiness ensues! :D Pumpkin has a wonderful sense of humor and finds hilarity in so many things, but especially loves to watch the dogs as they are being washed. This activity combines a favorite sound, water splashing, and what looks like a wonderful punishment for those horrible creatures, and she spends the entire time laughing her head off and throwing pieces of bread at their heads! :D She's just too cute! I couldn't resist putting up a second picture of Pumpkin with her ball! It shows more of her goofy, playful personality and I thought you might enjoy it too! Explored on March 11, 2014. Highest placement, #2.

I got a lot of really cute pictures of Pumpkin playing with one of her toys today. Caiques are known as the "Clowns of the Parrot World", and it's true. I've shared my life with 3 Caiques now, and have known several others...they are all extremely playful, silly, goofy, and funny birds, all of whom have great senses of humor and are always up for something hilarious! :) Explored on March 12, 2014. Highest placement, page 5.

You can also find me on Facebook ! I had so much FUN visiting everyone's photo stream over the past few days! What a joy it was to take a peek at what all of you are doing! It was simply incredible to me that I got over 150 comments on my previous picture (the Poppy) and it took several days to reply, but I thoroughly enjoyed every moment! I was sorry to see that many people have left ipernity because of the latest issues with groups being shut down, but I was happy to find that the majority of the folks I visited were still here. I'm certainly here to stay, because Flickr isn't an option for me, and I didn't have any issues with ipernity. I love my new ipernity routine! I put up a new picture, and in the days following, I reply to all the comments left on the previous picture, before I put up a new picture! This solves one of my biggest problems I had with my 365 project: trying to reply to the comments left on each picture. It was really hard to do, and yet, I think it's extremely important to repay the kindness of a visit, appraisal and comment by doing the same. I'm not sure how to phrase that, because I don't want commenting to seem like a chore or requirement. I think commenting should come from a desire to share one's feelings about an image, to offer encouragement and sometimes some constructive criticism, but only if it is asked for or stated in such a way that it's not destructive. I love that I'm no longer under pressure with my photography or ipernity. The stress that built up over feelings of guilt for not visiting people is finally going down, instead of up. I know there are countless people who've left comments that I haven't visited, but I hope that in time I'll be able to visit everyone once again! Today's picture was taken about 6 months ago on my birthday in September. My husband, Steve, presented me with some beautiful beads he bought at the company he works for, Fire Mountain Gems & Beads , where he works as a product photographer! I originally planned to use this picture for my Picture of the Day for my 365 Project, but in the end, I decided on another image instead. This picture, like dozens of others, sits in a folder just waiting for a chance to be seen! I am busy finishing up a work project right now so I just can't afford the time to take any pictures of Bees (CHRISSY!!), Boxers, Bassets, Birdseye Speedwell Blossoms, Beetles, Bugs, or any other awesome B subjects for this round! So I thought it would be perfect to share this neat image today! I hope you like it! And once again, I'll be visiting everyone in the next few days and I can't wait to see what you have to share with me! :) Explored on March 5, 2014. Highest placement, #6.

You can also find me on Facebook ! Well, it's taken me longer to get my gusto back, but as February has changed into March, the world around me is waking up and with it, so is my passion to capture what I find. I've been out to take pictures just twice now since the beginning of the year. The first was about 4 days ago, but I wasn't happy with my pictures, though they were not horrible. A couple of days ago I went out again, and there were many things for me to find on my little walk. At one point I was staring intently at the underside of a piece of bark and noticed an incredibly tiny snail shell, about 1 mm in size! I wanted to see if I could get it in focus, and while I was taking pictures, I realized that that shell had an owner, and it was slowly turning away from me! I couldn't even SEE the antennae! I got some other nice pictures too, including some cool mushrooms and other neat things. It was a lot of fun to discover that after two months without a single picture, I have been able to pick up where I left off! Hooray! :) I thought that the best way to get me back into uploading pictures on a regular basis again would be to start a new project, so I'm doing an A-Z project! It isn't going to be daily, but it will be fun to keep my eyes open for potential subjects!! :) Explored on March 2, 2014. Highest placement, #2.

Note: my latest article is up which shows my raised bed garden in bloom! Part 10: Dreams of a Big Flower Garden: An Explosion of Color!! I have finally arrived at the last letter of the alphabet, and this is one of the beautiful Zinnias that have bloomed in my garden! By the way, "zazzy" is slang which means, "a basic cross between zany , pizazz and snazzy to create an adjective suggesting that something is too great to be confined to one word." I have three sections devoted to Zinnias, each with a different kind. This section has Dwarf Zinnias, and I was really surprised to find that about two dozen seeds germinated for me. The plants took off like wildfire...that is, until Cucumber Beetles discovered them. The insects ate many of them down to the ground, and severely damaged the others. I had been so excited and happy because all of the sections of Zinnias were doing so well, and within a couple of days I lost many of them and was facing the death of all of them. I was desperate. Though the chili-garlic spray I was using worked a little bit, the seedlings continued to be damaged. I finally tried a insect powder which I sprinkled onto the leaves and it worked! Finally my Zinnias were left alone, and to my amazement, many of the seedlings that were basically dead came back and are now creating buds! Hooray!! My Dwarf Zinnias are almost all shades of pink, but there's one orange-red one too, and there are others yet to begin blooming, so there may be other colors as well. I'm so happy to share my first Zinnia flower with all of you, grown from a tiny seed, and what a nice picture to end my Alphabet project with! Explored on July 21, highest placement: #1.

My latest article is finished, "Ant Invasions!" If you've ever battled with ants, you will know how we felt! You can read it here: Ant Invasions! I would like to present the FIRST FLOWERS of my RAISED BED GARDEN!!! These flowers are very special to me, because I raised them from seeds that were sent to me by my friend Pam J after I told her how much I loved them. We ended up trading several types of seeds, and though I didn't have luck with some of them, these sprouted and so did bunches of Maximillian Sunflowers, which are currently growing larger every day. These flowers are called "False Sunflowers", and grow wild in the Midwest. I love them so much, thank you Pam! Explored on July 14, 2014. Highest placement, #3...

I thought it would be a lot more fun to find a natural "X" for my picture, and I found this one in my archives which I took in-between rain showers one day. Update: Things are getting better!!! My garden is beginning to explode into bloom! ► I have managed to fend off the ever-determined ground squirrels. ► I have beat back the bad bugs long enough for my plants to get large enough to survive and now to flourish and begin to bloom. ► The deer have never even considered trying to jump my fences. ► The one bird who was eating our tomatoes seems to have moved on. ► The ants have been eradicated from our house and are almost gone from my flowers. I didn't realize that all of this would affect me so much, but honestly, it felt like everywhere I turned there was a pest to deal with. I couldn't even sit at my computer without seeing ants. But finally, it looks like things are calming down. With that, I have more time for photography, posting pictures and commenting. Let's hope things continue to improve! It's horrible to feel like there's no place safe from some kind of infestation or attack.

(+4 inset images above) This is the elegant and beautiful Oregon Fawn Lily, which blooms here in March. The purple version, the Henderson's Fawn Lily, grows on our property, but to see the white species I need to walk along the ridge line trail behind our house. About a quarter mile away I find them here and there, and they grow fairly profusely about half a mile away, near the far end of the trail. These flowers range in color from a luminous off-white to a light creamy-yellow and grow only about 6-8" off the forest floor. Update: I was planning to do another A-Z project, but I'm going to put that on hold. My A-Z partner, Chrissy , suggested doing a series on different colors, but I also want to begin posting pictures from my garden. So far I have California Poppies in yellow and cream, a brand new cream Anemone, tiny purple snap dragons, and some little white daisies. To begin the show, about two weeks ago, "False Sunnies" began blooming, and these seeds were given to me by my friend Pam J ! Explored on July 5, 2014. Highest placement, #1.

I watched this beautiful ladybird beetle hunting for breakfast among the dew-covered poppy leaves one morning, and when it paused by a dewdrop, I got some pictures! My garden has many ladybugs in it and I couldn't be happier, because these predators kill aphids and many other insects that destroy my plants! More apologies for not being around lately. It has been a lot of work trying to keep ahead of all the animals that are trying to eat my plants, and though I am still keeping ahead of them, this has left me feeling desperate, frustrated, worried, and depressed. The insects have all but annihilated my dozens of Zinnias which were doing so well. I have them planted in three sections of my garden and they are all just tatters now. I'm fighting back with more and more unfriendly measures as my options are taken away. The ground squirrels are chewing and digging their way into my gardens and eating entire plants. My dill and basil are gone, and some of my beautiful and lushly growing sunflower plants. It seems that the moment I repair one hole, they've created two more. So, it's all-out war and this makes me very unhappy because I just want them to leave my gardens alone. I get it...they are oases of plants and water, and I knew there would be trouble. But I didn't realize that the ground squirrel population has exploded this year for some reason, and they are making me crazy. However, that being said, I've got lots of things doing really well, and just wait until I get to the letter "Y"! :D If Garden Wars isn't enough to keep me busy, there are two colonies of ants attacking our kitchen and we have been trying for about three weeks to get rid of them. They must be under the house, because perimeter ant block has zero effect on them. Whenever we take care of one spot, they find another way in. It's horrible and so annoying, especially when I think I've finally taken care of the last place of entry, and the next morning they are coming in another way. ARGH!! I've also been busy with work, my book, and other tasks. I have surprisingly little time for my photography, and unfortunately, my zest for sharing the wonderful things I see is severely damaged with all of the frustrating situations going on. I am working on balancing everything so that I can have some happy time with photography on a regular basis! :) Explored on June 24, 2014. Highest placement, #1.

Note: my latest garden article is up! :D Part 9—Dreams of a Big Flower Garden: We Have A Pumpkin Patch!! A few years ago, Steve and I went to a nearby county fair and we had a lot of fun taking pictures of the farm animals. One of the sows had an enormous litter of piglets and we spent a long time cooing at their cuteness! I learned something today about the word "Ungulate". I always thought it meant "hooved mammal", but that's not entirely correct. Wikipedia gives this definition: "Ungulates are a diverse group of large mammals, most of which use the tips of their toes, usually hoofed, to sustain their whole body weight while moving. The term means, roughly, "being hoofed" or "hoofed animal". As a descriptive term, "ungulate" normally excludes cetaceans, as they do not possess most of the typical morphological characteristics of ungulates; recent discoveries indicate that they are descended from early artiodactyls, and thus are directly related to other even-toed ungulates such as cattle, with hippopotamuses being their closest living relatives. As a result of these discoveries, the new order Cetartiodactyla has been proposed to include the members of Artiodactyla and Cetacea, to reflect their common ancestry; however, strictly speaking, this is merely a matter of nomenclature, since it is possible simply to recognize Cetacea as a subgroup of Artiodactyla." I had no idea that whales were considered to be ungulates!! My apologies for not being around much lately. The garden is keeping me very busy, along with everything else going on right now! Explored on June 11, 2014, highest placement, #2.

(+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.

These flowers have such lovely centers, don't they? :)

(+3 insets above) Note: I have a series of blog posts about my new garden! My New Adventure: A Raised Bed Flower Garden! (More posts are there now!) A couple of years ago, I got a really nice deal on end-of-season spring bulbs, and Steve and I spent many hours digging holes and planting them out in our meadow around the beloved Oak tree which stands guard there. We didn't have much soil to contribute, so we dug in the clay dirt, plopped in some potting soil, added the bulb and covered it up. We set up sprinklers and watered every day. In the end, not a single bulb flowered. We were so disappointed. Last year in April, I looked out into the meadow and saw something blue. No. Could it be? I ran out to see, and yes, it was an anemone!!! I got my camera and took many pictures because I expected that it would be eaten by the next day, and it was. It was the only flower to bloom. (See the insets above). This year, April came around and I looked at my anemone pictures to get the exact date. A few days before, I began making rounds, but the blue anemone didn't come up. Discouraged, I almost gave up the hunt, but decided to check the next day, just in case. As I approached, I saw something red and held my breath. Shouting in happiness, I bent down to look. "Ohhhhhh!!! A RED ONE!!" Again I ran for my camera and took pictures. Even though it lasted just a day, I am so happy I captured images of this lovely red de Caen Anemone! Explored on May 24, 2014. Highest placement, #1.

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! A couple of months ago, Steve and I visited a large public garden because we'd seen a friend's photography and hoped to see some of the same things. There was a huge variety of plants and flowers, and although we were too early for much of the show, we weren't late for the DUCK SHOW! There were two large ponds and many beautiful ducks, geese and other waterfowl to photograph. I managed to get very lucky with this shot, and captured this pair's lively discussion! :D (Thanks very much to Hawkeye (Art) for the extra information about the unusually colored duck on the left, it appears to be either a male Saxony or Leucistic Mallard, how COOL!) Early Announcement and Invitation: I have decided to do another A-Z project after this one is finished, and would like to invite all who are interested to join me! It's going to be about a month before I'm done with this current project, but I wanted to bring it up now so you can begin thinking about it to decide if you'd like to join in the fun! The requirements are as restricted as you want to make them: you can make it easy by having it like mine, "Anything that starts with the letter", or you can have a theme for your project, such as "A-Z Birds", "A-Z Flowers", "A-Z Insects". Keep in mind that a theme can be anything, such as photographic terms, or things that are a specific color, or items in your house or tool shop. The sky is the limit with an A-Z project, and yet, it's only 26 pictures, so it's not a project that will take over your whole life. Start thinking about it now, and if you want to join in, you can begin capturing and processing your pictures, placing them into a folder to upload as I upload mine! Explored on May 21, 2014. Highest placement, #2.