Explored on Flickr (103!!!)

I took the dogs out for a walk around the property before dinner and brought along my camera. When I saw this incredible glowing wild pea pod, I forgot everything else and lost myself in its radiating beauty. As I took pictures, I smiled warmly because this peapod represents the strong friendships I have with so many of my dearly loved "pod sisters/pod brothers" here on ipernity. With each of you, I have formed a common bond, each of us seeing eye to eye on so many facets of our photography, the way we think, how we feel, the closeness we feel to one another. To me, we are all connected through this tapestry of images and feelings. I love you all, and I am overjoyed whenever I find another "pea" to add to my "pod"! :D *big hugs and much love to my pod siblings* Augustine Birrell PC, KC (19 January 1850 – 20 November 1933) was an English politician, barrister, academic and author. He was Chief Secretary for Ireland from 1907 to 1916, resigning in the immediate aftermath of the Easter Rising. Wikipedia: Augustine Birrell Explored on Flickr on May 4, 2013. Highest position #6.

Today was another Sunday Lunch Ride with Steve and the Velo Bike Club, and we put in 30 miles by day's end! Before the ride I had a minute or two to take pictures and found a bunch of California Poppies! I got a bunch of nice images and this is the one Steve liked the best! :) Victor Marie Hugo (26 February 1802 – 22 May 1885) was a French poet, novelist, and dramatist of the Romantic movement. He is considered one of the greatest and best known French writers. In France, Hugo's literary fame comes first from his poetry but also rests upon his novels and his dramatic achievements. Among many volumes of poetry, Les Contemplations and La Légende des siècles stand particularly high in critical esteem. Outside France, his best-known works are the novels Les Misérables, 1862, and Notre-Dame de Paris, 1831 (known in English as The Hunchback of Notre-Dame). Wikipedia: Victor Hugo Explored on Flickr on May 5, 2013. Highest position #188.

No time to chat today! Eek! :D This tiny natural bouquet of wildflowers is a favorite of mine, and is called "Changing Forget-Me-Nots" because the blossoms change from white to yellow to blue as they age! Each flower is a mere 1/16" in diameter! Ralph Waldo Emerson (May 25, 1803 – April 27, 1882) was an American essayist, lecturer, and poet, who led the Transcendentalist movement of the mid-19th century. He was seen as a champion of individualism and a prescient critic of the countervailing pressures of society, and he disseminated his thoughts through dozens of published essays and more than 1,500 public lectures across the United States. Wikipedia: Ralph Waldo Emerson Explored on Flickr on May 6, 2013. Highest position #200.

I am constantly surprised at the amazing sights I find on our property, and this is one of them, which I was delighted to find this morning! This is a top-down view of a flower called a "Blow-Wife", and the orange bits around the outside are its blossom petals. The odd inner parts are tightly closed "parachutes" of the seeds. When this flower is pollinated and the seeds inside form, the sepals will fold back and an enormous seed ball of glimmering silver "snowflakes" will be exposed. It's amazing to see. For more pictures showing the "snowflakes", click on the side view image below! John Harrigan is a British film director, producer, screenwriter, actor and occultist. He is the founder and Artistic Director of FoolishPeople and co-founder of the Weaponized Imprint. Harrigan's work centres around the creation of film, ritual theatre and immersive events which aim to raise a numinous experience within the witness. He founded FoolishPeople in 1989, taking its name from The Fool major arcana of the tarot. Wikipedia: John Harrington Explored on Flickr on May 8, 2013. Highest position #346.

Last fall I bought a bunch of bulbs from Tulip World and this spring I've been rewarded with a riot of beautiful flowers, including hyacinths, daffodils, and now, these gorgeous allium flowers! Did you know that all onions are in the allium family? They are resistant to animals like moles or deer, unlike the tulip bulbs I planted, all of which were feasted upon by moles, boo hoo! Oh well, I'm so happy with these flowers, and we are also getting beautiful traditional irises blooming now too! Hooray!! Explored on May 9, 2013. Highest position #438.

This morning I went out to see what new flowers were growing, and though I found many pretty blossoms, when I saw these tiny, colorful, shimmering seed pods, I knew I had my pick of the day! Who knew that seed pods could be so beautiful?! I found a similar seed pod up on the Table Rocks a few months ago, but these look like a tiny, colorful money plant! Each of these seed pods is only about 1/8" in diameter and glowed in the morning sun! (Note: I believe these are called "Sand Fringepod" flowers!) Deborah Anne Boone (born September 22, 1956), better known as Debby Boone, is an American singer, author, and actress. She is best known for her 1977 hit, "You Light Up My Life," which spent a then record ten weeks at No. 1 on the Billboard Hot 100 chart and led to her winning the Grammy Award for Best New Artist the following year. Boone later focused her music career on country music resulting in the 1980 No. 1 country hit, "Are You on the Road to Lovin' Me Again". In the 1980s, she recorded Christian music which garnered her four top 10 Contemporary Christian albums as well as two more Grammys. Throughout her career, Boone has appeared in several musical theater productions and has co-authored many children's books with husband, Gabriel Ferrer. Wikipedia: Debby Boone Explored on Flickr on May 10, 2013. Highest position #419.

HAPPY FOURTH OF JULY!!! Today has been a blur and I'm running as fast as I can! This image is in response to an invitation to a new group on ipernity called Bokeh Thursday, and the theme this week was "Clothespin". I wanted to try something different than what I've seen in the past, so I tried stacking a few and putting some sparkly tinsel in the background to add some colorful bokeh in addition to the bokeh of the clothespin itself! I hope you like it! In about 30 minutes, Steve and I will be leaving to go take firework pictures, but I won't be back soon enough to put one up for my 365, which is why I'm in such a rush to get this done before we leave! :D Emile Cioran (8 April 1911 – 20 June 1995) was a Romanian philosopher and essayist. Wikipedia: Emile M. Cioran Explored on July 5, 2013. Highest position: Page 4. Explored on Flickr on July 4, 2013. Highest position: #180.

1 text note and 1 more picture in a note above! :) Steve and I live in sunny southern Oregon, and it gets very hot here during the summer. Therefore, if anyone wants a garden, daily watering is vital. Every morning I go out to visit the flowers and I usually take pictures before I water them because it seems a little bit like "cheating" to sprinkle the flowers before taking pictures but I also think it's fine as long as you tell people that you did it! :) (On the other hand, I think that removing things like sticks, dirt, postprossessing elements out of the image is fine and often necessary. What do you think? :) ) Our water is very "hard" and will leave spots on the petals when they dry, so if I hope to get pictures of the blossoms, I must take pictures before I water them, since it's next to impossible to keep water off the plants. (I really should see about putting in a drip system!!) Also, even though I have the setting at a light "shower", the flowers will often fall over. When I saw this flower, I first thought, "Awwww, darn it! And THEN I took a closer look and immediately dropped the hose and ran into the house for my camera! :D Laozi or Lao Tzu; also romanized as Lao Tse, Lao Tu, Lao-Tsu, Laotze, Laosi, Laocius, and other variations) (fl. 6th century BCE) was a philosopher of ancient China, best known as the author of the Tao Te Ching (often simply referred to as Laozi). His association with the Tào Té Chīng has led him to be traditionally considered the founder of philosophical Taoism (pronounced as "Daoism"). He is also revered as a deity in most religious forms of Taoist philosophy, which often refers to Laozi as Taishang Laojun, or "One of the Three Pure Ones". Wikipedia: Lao Tzu Explored on July 6, 2013. Highest position: page 1 (#20). Explored on Flickr on July 5, 2013. Highest position #278.

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.

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 pictures in notes above! :) Steve and I decided a while ago that we need to start getting up earlier and we've slowly worked our clock back so that now I am getting up before 7am, and sometimes as early as 6am! How insane for a nightowl like me! But I've always loved the early morning when I'm up, so I'm getting a wonderful reward every time I get up. This morning I stepped outside and found at least half a dozen poppies that were open or in the process of doing so. In shades of pinks and also red, I even noticed a little ruffled white one accented with a bit of pink blush that was shyly opening its face near the ground. I took many pictures and then gave all the flowers water as the sun peeked over the hill and began to shine rays of warmth upon all of our faces. Once again I got my camera and took another set of pictures, and as I walked back and forth around the plot, I watched the way the sun made the petals glow and how the whole impact could change with just one step forward or back. Crouching low, I looked at the poppies from under the petals, and the angle of the sun created magnificent lens flares which magnified the amazing scene I was witnessing. I got many pictures, and I'll show another favorite in a week or two! Scott Bourne is a new media producer, consultant, photographer, author, lecturer, teacher and technology enthusiast. Wikipedia: Scott Bourne Explored on July 11, 2013. Highest position, page 2 (#30). Also Explored on Flickr, highest position #176.

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.