Janet Brien's photos with the keyword: huge

Hi everyone! I hope everyone is doing well, staying healthy and away from others! I've been getting a few notes from folks checking in on me so I wanted to let everyone know that both Steve and I are doing just great! Healthy, happy and doing just fine, our supervisor, Pumpkin (our parrot) is making sure we're doing everything right each day. :) All of this virus business is just really hard to deal with so we continue to keep our heads down. I also wanted to apologize for not coming around to visit. I feel very guilty. :( It's really hard for me because the moment I get to a person's stream I'm hit with a wall of concern and worry about each person and their family. I think maybe it's because I'm so empathic that this just totally immobilizes me and makes me hugely depressed and anxious. Please forgive my absence, I just can't handle the deep concern and worry that I feel about each and every one of you. I am sure that once the world turns the corner on this virus I will feel better but right now it's just too hard for me to be the social butterfly, even though I want to so badly. :( I continue to hide from the world's horrendous tragedies by playing the amazing and wonderfully innocent game, "Garden Paws."(link to review) It's hopelessly adorable, beautiful and really fun, full of animals so cute you just want to pop. You can raise baby farm animals to adults and then use their eggs, feathers, milk, etc. for crafting many things. Seeds you plant in your garden grow into flowers for bouquets, fruits and veggies for cooking and baking and you can pick them in the wild too. There are trees and minerals to harvest, a town to help develop, and about 10 zillion things to keep you running and happily distracted from the worries of the real world. I used to play another game like this called "Animal Crossing" but I am happy to say that this game is much better, in my opinion. If you are looking for a way to distract yourself in a world that is beautiful and full of fun things to keep you busy, it might be something for you to try! Today's picture was taken a year ago in the nearby town of Grant's Pass. They have a lovely riverside park which is the home to many semi-tame waterfowl and one day Steve and I stopped for a short visit. This darling Mallard hen is one of my favorites of the pictures I took and I hope that it makes you chuckle too. My, but isn't she WIDE?! Hilarious! I can't help but smile whenever I see this picture so I figured it would be perfect for my post! :) *** Pam, it's always so nice to hear from you and I'm glad to know that you guys are keeping healthy and have everything you need to keep away from the world for the most part. I know you're right--this will all blow over--but it's staggering to see this thing blowing up bigger and bigger... You are in my thoughts and I hope my virtual hugs make it to you! :) Explored on 4/5/20; highest placement #1.

Take a look at this guy!! WOW!!! All those prisms in its eyes are easy to see and you know, it was probably really getting tired of me blinding all of its zillions of prisms with my flash! By the way, compound eyes are composed of thousands of photoreceptors which are extremely sensitive to motion and fluctuation in light. (Did you know that spiders--which are also not insects--do not have compound eyes? They have simple eyes called "ocelli") If you would like to know more about compound eyes, this page was very informative: Compound Eyes

Look at the luxurious fur coat underneath this beetle! Isn't it pretty?!! It's very hard to see this hair just by looking--it appears to be velvety instead. I wonder it it is soft or bristley? I wasn't about to touch this guy--it was not too happy about getting flashed by my strobes, and I didn't want to stress it out even more. And well, do you think I would be brave enough to touch this guy?!! ARE YOU KIDDING?!!! :D :D This thing looks like it's straight out of a 50's monster movie!! :D :D

Last night I let the dogs out to do their business before bed, and as I went to close the door, I nearly put my hand on the biggest beetle I've ever seen in my life! [Insert lots of horrified expletives as I leaped back in shock] This guy was literally about 3" in length, and would you just LOOK at those antennae!?!! WOWY ZOWY, HOLY COWY!!! The second I saw it, I ran upstairs to told Steve to come down instantly and look what was on the front door...lol...he creeped over to the door and...[insert more amazed expletives from him :D :D]! While he was staring in amazement, I put the macro flash on my camera and I took pictures! I wanted to have the option of making this my Picture of the Day, so I checked back after midnight, and it was still there! I took more pictures, and this morning it had flown away. I discovered that this is a Prionus Root Borer, and it's one of the largest beetles in the Western North America (um, no surprise there! :D). These beetles play a very important role in helping to decompose old logs but they also diminish the value of salvage timber with the holes that they burrow into the wood. (Thanks to Leapfrog Art for helping to point me in the right direction on identifying the species!) If you would like to know more about these huge beetles, I found a very informative page here: Wikipedia: Prionus Root Borer Beetle