Janet Brien's photos

(+3 insets) What a crazy day for weather. It started off very cold and frosty. Then the sun rose and melted everything. I heard the frogs singing during the day and then I looked out later, stunned at the big change. Along with the large and beautiful group of ten does and fawns nibbling at the grass in the meadow, angry storm clouds had moved in overhead. They looked like they were about to pour cats and dogs and I expect to hear rain on the windows at any moment! It's like that a lot here in southern Oregon, especially during spring. I think the weather is starting to practice! Today's picture is a feather I found on the road one day. I noticed something twinkling on the ground and kneeled down to see what it was. It took a few seconds to recognize that it was a feather because it was positively covered with droplets! I couldn't get my camera fast enough! I have also included two extras as insets: one is a close-up that shows some really cool details and the other is from above that shows the whole feather. That picture was taken with my flash and the appearance is kind of intense but you can see how crazy it looks. I'm also including another panorama to show the intense but lovely weather here! Pam, I looked for "feather" on your photo stream but only found a picture I've mentioned on another post—your lovely peacock feather and "Silence" poem. So I looked through the search and picked a picture that I loved...an absolutely adorable pair of fledgling chicks that I couldn't stop cooing at. How amazing that you were able to climb up a ladder to get that picture! I hope that you are having a good day today!! SENDING HUGGGGGGS!!! Explored on 2/20/19, highest placement, #6.

(+14 insets!) (my apologies, I misunderstood the concept so I did the project twice!) I woke up to another very light dusting of snow which melted quickly as the sun rose over the hills. It's been very cold today but bright and sunny. What a nice change from the dreary grey days we've been having lately! In case you didn't notice, it's Macro Monday! This week's theme is "Advertising" and today I learned the lesson, "Understand the specific rules of a challenge." As in…I didn't. The rules state, "Advertising challenge: a branded product known in your country, so close that you hardly recognize it anymore. But if possible in such a way that you can guess it." I totally misunderstood. I thought the idea was to take a picture of advertising at a macro level. With this in mind I got a bunch of pictures of advertising around the house. Then, for an interesting twist, I found some ads online which I then took pictures of so they would be macros. I was happy with what I came up with but something told me to look at the rules again. Which I did at 3pm on Monday. Oops. Once I realized I misunderstood the directive I grabbed my camera and tried again. We're not supposed to say what the subject is so you'll just have to try to figure it out! I took pictures of three very well-known company logos, and a fourth one worked from my photo shoot yesterday. I'm also including all of my misunderstood pictures so you can see what I came up with originally! I hope you can stand all of the insets! :D Pam, what did you do for your career? I am a graphic designer so the subject of "advertising" is burned into me. I hope you had a career that made you feel satisfied. Doing graphic design is really fun for me but only when I can stand behind what I'm involved in. Thankfully I have only worked for companies that essentially make people happy, which is a driving force in my life. Sending *BIG HUGGGGS* from southern Oregon!

(+1 inset!) (please view large to see the snowflake better!) :D There was a very light dusting of snow this morning which began to melt as I walked up and down the driveway. It was so nice to hear the birds doing their thing. I couldn't help hearing several Acorn Woodpeckers being loud and obnoxious but I love to hear them yelling at each other! They are so rude! :D We also have two kinds of noisy jays. Stellar's and Scrub Jays both vie for the title of "Most Obnoxious" along with the Acorn Woodpeckers. It's always fun to see them though, such pretty birds. Today I've decided to share a couple of snowy sporophyte pictures to go with the light dusting of snow this morning. I took them a couple of weeks ago when I woke up to a world covered in white. I really hoped to get some unusual macro pictures and I sure got lucky with these images! At the time, I had no idea that I'd captured actual snowflakes until I looked at them on the computer. Two of the pictures needed to be tightly cropped so I made them into a collage. I hope you enjoy them--the buried sporophyte makes me laugh! (I provided two sizes so you can see the inset snowflakes better) Pam, you made a beautiful snowflake artwork which I admire every time I look at it. It reminds me of kaleidoscopes, something I always enjoyed as a kid. Maybe that's one of the reasons that I love abstracts so much! I hope you are having a good day Pam!! *BIG HUGS* Explored on 2/18/19, highest placement, #1.

(+1 inset!) (full size is recommended!) :) WOW!! Can you believe I've been working on this project for 100 days?!! It's been wonderful and I look forward to the next 100! YAY PAM!! :) With the dreary, muddy, sloppy, and rainy weather, it's hard not to want spring to arrive sooner. I'm really happy that we've been getting all of this rain, but at the same time I'm ready for warm, sunny days! That being said, I cannot resist posting this picture today! These flowers were growing in a planter outside our Air B & B apartment in Nice, France. It was beautiful, sunny, and warm almost every day of our trip and waking up in Nice with the sun shining in the windows was such a treat. We'd arrived at the apartment the previous evening so I couldn't wait to grab my camera and take pictures of where we stayed. I stepped out onto the tiny landing that lead to the stairs down to the enclosed courtyard and stopped in my tracks. A planter overflowing with beautiful little pink flowers was positively glowing in the sunshine and I had to stop and stare. I took a bunch of photos before heading down to the courtyard to take a picture of our abode. I'm including an inset of the tiny landing and front of our apartment. You can see the flowers in one of the planters! Above us lived a Russian couple who were quiet but we could hear them walking around above us with creaky floors to tell us where they were. I really enjoyed the little private courtyard and took many pictures before we left, so I'll share some of those when I get to them! :) Note: if you would like to read my first France post, it's here: www.ipernity.com/doc/290645/48132924 If you would like to read my third post, it's here: www.ipernity.com/doc/290645/48183152 Pam, since it's been raining all day, I looked in your photo stream for rain-related images. I found an outstanding picture of a droplet on pine needles that I really loved!! By the way, I loved reading about where you've travelled, thank you so much for sharing! I have not been to Spain or Hong Kong but those are both on our Bucket List so we'll have to see if we get there at some point! *Sending HUGGGGGGS from southern Oregon* :D Explored on 2/17/19, highest placement, #1.

(+3 insets!) We went to France. Back in the end of April, Steve and I travelled to the Provence area of France for two weeks. It was the first overseas vacation we'd had for years and both of us were so excited! What a surprise we were in for... We made a lot of mistakes. We packed too many places into our itinerary. We tried to do too much. We planned everything--even down to the exact route we'd drive. Classic mistakes that we should have recognized. We didn't. Both of us were sure it would be The Best Trip Ever! Unfortunately the end result was that we came home unsure if we ever wanted to travel again. Yes, we did have a lot of fun times, saw so many cool things. Got gigs of pictures. But for me, just MENTIONING France put me into a tailspin of depression full of miserable memories and swirling emotions. There was a lot of bad mojo on that trip. Worst Trip Ever... Time passed. It's taken a lot of effort to understand everything that went wrong on that trip. The problems were more than just about travelling together. But I'm happy to say that Steve and I are in a much better place and we have been for a couple of months now. We have learned a lot about ourselves and both of us have grown so much. It's been really great...and the icing on the cake is that we can finally look at our France trip and remember all of the fun we had! The proof that I'm truly happy again is that I can FINALLY look at my France photos! And my, oh my...the pictures!! THERE ARE SO MANY of them! Where in the world do you begin? You start at the beginning. If I don't go through my pictures this way, I'm going to miss stuff along the way, and by looking through them in order, I'll remember more too! I'm going to add pictures from our trip to France into my mix of photography, so stay tuned for more from France! :) My main picture was in the first few that I took once we got into our Air B&B apartment in Nice. It was such a cute place and I grabbed my camera as I wandered around appreciating the details. In the bathroom I found a really cool mirror with a lovely bezel around it. I thought, "Let's take a selfie just to say that I'm in France at the beginning of this awesome adventure!" At the same time I took a picture of the cool bezel. You'll see an artistic abstract in one inset and another inset which shows what the bezel looked like. Fun stuff! Note: if you want to read my second France post, it's here: www.ipernity.com/doc/290645/48136884 By the way, I woke up to snow on the ground and ran out to take a picture before it all melted in the bright sunshine, and I've included that as an inset too! Pam, where in the world have you travelled? I know you are originally from England...but did you live in several places there? Where else have you been? I love to travel and I've had the chance to go to a lot of different places in my life so far. About a dozen States, Mexico, Belize, Costa Rica, Nicaragua, England, France, Netherlands, Switzerland, Lichtenstein, Austria, Belgium, Germany, Italy, Greece, and Australia. What about you? I hope you guys are doing ok...right now a windstorm is shaking the house and a big storm is headed our way...SENDING SOUP YOUR WAY! :D Explored on 2/16/19, highest placement, #1.

(+2 insets!) I have definitely reached the point of being tired of cold, stormy weather. I don't want to go outside at all and bundling up with a warm cup of tea or coffee is much more enticing to me right now. When I see pictures posted on ipernity of spring-related images, it makes me very happy! Several people have been howling about wanting winter to be over with and I heartily agree! I'm ready for spring to arrive!! On top of the fact that I'm looking forward to my favorite season, you might not know or remember that I began my Pictures for Pam project way on November 9th. When I started, I *forced myself* to take pictures. I had no drive, no motivation, and my passion for everything was just GONE. I hadn't taken pictures for at least six months. However, soon after I started this project I found my passion again and my creative engine has been purring at full-speed ever since. That being said, it's been a long time since I've had the chance to take pictures of spring-related subjects and I'm so excited! Spring just can't come soon enough! If you read my posts regularly you know today's drill: it's Thursday in the US but Friday in Europe so I like to post my Happy Fence Friday picture today to cover all bases! Last week enough snow fell one night that in the morning I was treated to a lovely carpeting of snow all over everything. I went out with my camera and got lots of neat imagea--one of them was this picture of our gate with its chain and padlock. At the time I didn't realize how perfect it would be for HFF, but when I saw it on my computer it hit me...IT'S EXACTLY WHAT IT NEEDS TO BE!!! (I'm also including another picture I took at the same time...look at the way the snow piled up on the wire around the fence post! NEATO!) (Also a panorama of the crazy and dramatic view this morning!) Pam, I did a search on your photo stream for "snow" and found this totally awesome picture of a gorgeous cardinal with snow falling around it. So beautiful, adorable and magical. I love it! I hope your Valentine's Day turned out nicely, Pam...we stayed in and told each other how much we love one another and talked about some of the fun and romantic things we've done through the years. *BIG HUGS FROM SOUTHERN OREGON*!! Explored on 2/15/19, highest placement, #2.

(+3 insets!) Another cold, wet, and dreary day greeted me today and I simply didn't have the heart to go outside in the mud and icky weather. However, I did have a lot of fun looking through some of my archive photography and found the perfect picture to post for Valentine's Day. It's officially tomorrow for all of us in the United States, but since so many people on ipernity live in Europe, it's a better idea to post this picture today! Steve and I live near the town of Medford, Oregon, and a large company called Harry & David is located there. They have a huge public garden and specialize in endless species of roses. We've gone there for photo shoots a couple of times and my mind is always spinning by the time we leave because I've photographed so many incredible blossoms. This one in deep, rich red, is the classic Valentine's rose, and so it's my pick of the day. I hope you like it Pam! :D I'm also including some past Valentine cards I've posted. (If you'd like to see more pictures from the Harry & David garden, click on the album to the right and you'll see what I've posted so far.) I hope that everyone has a wonderful and romantic day! Pam, I looked on your photo stream for Valentine's Day pictures and found a lovely golden crocus that bloomed that day in 2014. What a wonderful gift! I wonder if it bloomed for you this year or did it get eaten like all of ours did? Anyway, I hope that you can find something pretty to enjoy on your Valentine's Day this year! *BIG HUGGGGGS* from southern Oregon! Explored on 2/14/19, highest placement, #1.

{+6 insets!} Photography is a bottomless pit of learning opportunities. We are constantly reminded that it's easy to make mistakes but it's also easy to learn from them too. A few days ago I went out to take pictures of the snow that blanketed everything on our property. I brought my flash attachment and had a lovely time finding fun subjects with snowy hats or otherwise adorned with snowy fluff. I have lately been swapping between my macro flash settings and my aperture priority settings and if I'm not paying attention I will end up with dozens of garbage pictures. Like I did the other day. *groan* When I'm in my usual set-up, aperture priority, I use my index finger to raise or lower the F-stop. I take sets of pictures with a range of apertures so I automatically do this as I roam around. However, if I'm in manual mode, for flash images, that same index finger movement switches the speed, not the aperture. If I'm not paying attention, I'll take a set of pictures and what I end up getting are a bunch at the same F-stop but at different speeds, and therefore blown out or too dark. AKA: junk. The way to adjust the aperture in manual mode is with my thumb on a radial dial on the back. Once again, if I'm not paying attention, I'll use my thumb to adjust aperture when I'm in aperture priority and that adjusts light balance...to the tune of +4 exposure compensation...which, once again, equals junk pictures. Sometimes I can recover enough detail in one of those pictures that it's ok to use but there's no getting around the fact that the whites are blown out. I am especially annoyed with myself because I got lots of really neat pictures of wasp galls, acorns and oak leaves with snow balanced precariously on top. Almost all of these pictures are disasters. It's not like it snows on a regular basis around here so I'm pretty unhappy about this. Granted, the bites that really hurt remind me not to do that again but the pictures are still garbage. I am going to see if any of these pictures are savable. We'll see. I'll finish this post later and let you see what I come up with. Well, I managed to get some nice pictures from the pile of +4 exposure compensation monstrosities! Some turned out better than others but I'm pretty surprised that I was able to recover any of them at all. Most of these pictures were almost WHITE from careless overexposure. However, since I use RAW image format, I can recover a lot of detail. It's not a miracle worker--if something's totally blown out or too dark, there's no way to add detail if there isn't any at all--but It can be astonishing the power you get with more pixels to work with. I needed to work on the backgrounds and make sure the subjects were properly lit to the best of my ability. I know a couple are kind of "meh" but I am happy with what I came up with. :) (Of course, this means that we will get several days of lovely snow falling where I can retake all of these pictures properly…if I didn't try to fix these, it would never snow again until we moved! MURPHY'S LAW! HA!!) I am sharing six insets to go along with the main image--a pair of acorns that decided they didn't want to fall from the tree! In case you were wondering, the background has been replaced! Pam, as I've been wandering around in your archives, I find myself extremely attracted to your collages. From where I sit, it looks like you sometimes begin with an image that's too busy but it's got a lovely subject. So then you get to work with artistically messing with the surrounding area to soften the busy aspects, and then you add more pictures to create a truly beautiful display. I love that you aren't willing to abandon an image just because it has some challenges, and that's what I did with my pictures today too! :) I hope your day is going as well as can be! *BIG HUGGGGGS* Explored on 2/13/19, highest placement, #2.

(+5 insets!) (enlarged is best!) Today is just icky...blustery, cold, grey and inhospitable. In fact, as I am listening to the wind howl against the windows and shake the door, I admit that I haven't stepped outside even once! All the snow is gone except a little patch in protected areas, but it may get cold enough for more snow in the next few days. I am so glad that Steve made a huge pot of mushroom soup for our dinner, it's perfect for this chilly day! And now...we all know what day it is...it's Macro Monday! Hooray! This is my day to stray from my usual nature photography and play around with inside subjects! This week's theme is "Spots and Dots"...I immediately thought about ladybugs, beetles or flowers with spots on them, but vetoed the idea. Discovering indoor solutions is a fun challenge and I was sure I could find something perfect if I looked. I realized that fabric would be a wonderful place to find spots and dots so I dove into our closet and found a treasure trove! Shirts with tiny dots in the pattern, colorful buttons, and lots of pretty spotted fabrics too. I still have some of the beautiful clothes I would wear when Steve and I went out dancing many years ago. With the pretty sheen and cool bokeh I got I knew they'd be the stars of this show. My main image is a pink leopard velour fabric used in a little halter top. The insets show some other pretty fabrics that turned out nicely too. Naturally I couldn't resist changing the colors on a couple of them for fun! :) Pam, do you guys ever have wind storms? They can be really distressing to me because big gusts can shake the whole house. I don't like the mournful sounds either which make me feel very out of sorts. And...with intense wind storms we sometimes get power outages that can last hours before the downed lines are found and fixed. Not so bad when the weather is warm but when it's freezing it can be really bad. We know this first-hand with a winter power outage that lasted two days a few years back. After that, we bought a small generator and it's come in handy several times. Peace of mind is priceless. Well, I'd love to teleport some of our yummy mushroom soup to you but I haven't gotten the kinks worked out! Here's a virtual *HUGGGGGGGG* instead! Keep warm my dear! Explored on 2/12/19, highest placement, #8.

(+5 insets!) (please view large!) Oh what a lovely surprise when I woke up this morning! I peeked outside and OHHHHHH!!!! The world was white with snowfall everywhere!! A beautiful, soft blanket covered everything and it was sooooooo pretty!!!! I could hardly wait to get outside and take pictures! I wasn't sure if I had it in me to get my proper camera but I had my phone with me and I marched right up to the top of the hill where I take my pictures and snapped away. Such a lovely sight! I took pictures of the pond and some other pretty views as I walked up and down the road, including the snow plow as it passed by! I decided that before I began my third lap I'd tuck into the house and grab my camera. I'm so glad I did. I marched down to the gate and got many, many interesting pictures on the way back up to the house.... Snowflakes on sporophytes... snowflakes on moss and lichen... snow precariously balanced on oak leaves that never fell from the tree... spider webs with snowflakes on them that moved gently in the morning's puff of breeze... metal posts with snowy hats... wasp galls crowned with snow... weeds capped with white... so many pretty things to capture! (I got some really nice pictures, I'll share them in the next few days!) :) Finally my feet told me We Were Done. Awwww...shucks. My hands seconded the motion and as I made my way back to the house, they took turns yelling at me for ignoring their plight. What a bunch of babies. I feel ganged-up on by my own extremities! :D As I sit all snuggled up in bed with blankets tucked around me, the sun is shining at 11am and the snow is melting quickly. It sounds like rain as it drips from the roof. Part of me wants to run out and take more pictures. But I haven't even looked at the pictures I took today and I also have my Macro Monday pictures to take so...NO MORE pictures of the snow, even if it's melting and...what If it doesn't snow any more this season! LOL...such a silly photographer. :) It's later now and I decided that I would post snowy views for my pictures today and the star shows part of our "thistle army" at the top of our meadow along with a view of the Table Rocks in the distance. I have five insets that I hope you'll like which include my first track of footprints down to the gate! Pam, I hope this day has treated you well. How fun it would be to wander around in the snow together and take pictures of the cool things we see. I thought about your dogs and how much fun they would have in this snow. And of course I thought about our dear Moosie and Zoey and I sorely missed them as I remembered them frolicking like silly fools in the snow. Sending a snowball fight and a big *HUGGGGG* your way!

(+5 insets!) As I type now it's 8:45am and SNOWING! When I first got up at 7am it was only wet out but no rain. As I got my day started I looked outside at about 7:15am and huge, soft, puffy flakes were drifting down from the sky. I could hardly wait to get out there to experience a heavy snowfall! Have you ever walked in falling snow? It is a delightful experience. Soft flakes come down and land on your clothes and in your hair. If you're lucky, you can stick your tongue out and catch a flake there too! Depending on the dryness of the snow, you can often wipe it off of you before it melts. This morning's snow was extremely fluffy and though I had my umbrella with me, the flakes drifted down and under it and I got snow all over me! The snow was falling so thickly that I couldn't wipe it off fast enough before I was covered with snow again. It landed on my umbrella with a steady fluffy patter of "plump-plump-plump" and piled up so that I could actually feel my umbrella getting heavy with the snow sitting on top! I walked up to the top of the hill where I take my panoramas and somehow managed to hook my umbrella into my clothes so it didn't fall to the ground while I held my phone and took pictures. I hoped the pictures would show the falling snow…and as you can see from the insets, I was successful! (The last inset I just took a few minutes ago--late afternoon--there is snow on the far hillsides and snow is coming down too!) Walking down the drive to our gate, I considered turning around and going back inside because I would be soaked in no time if the snow continued to fall heavily. But 30 seconds later the flakes became much smaller and no longer drifted under the protection of my umbrella. I loved walking along this way, looking out at the snow falling down across the property. There is a very special peace when you walk in the snow. You hear the squeak of snow as it compresses under your feet but other than that, it's silence, serenity and a sense of peace in this beautiful scene. I discovered a long time ago that if you want to truly experience a type of weather, you must be in it--not merely looking out at it. Every kind of weather has a different feeling. Walking in snowfall is the most special feeling to me because of the peace that comes over me. It's similar to walking under an umbrella in the rain but 10 times better. :) After returning to the house, I kept an eye on the snow which continued to fall for the next hour or so. Then it stopped, the sun came out and just like that the snow melted and disappeared. We are supposed to get more snow in the coming week and maybe it will finally begin to stick. I would love to be able to walk around in drifts of snow. A proper snow shoot would be super but I'm not holding my breath. It's not getting cold enough and not likely to. But I really enjoyed my adventure today and walking in the heavy, fluffy snow was magical! Today's main picture was one I discovered in my archives the other day. I really love the way the pine needles look like a porcupine! It's another one of those surprises that makes you wonder how it wasn't processed to begin with! In fact, the whole folder is full of snowy gems and hope to get at least some of them finished for show-and-tell. :) Pam, speaking of porcupines, have you ever seen any around your property? I haven't but I know they're out there. When Molly and her puppy found their way onto our property, we didn't immediately make them indoor dogs. We fed them and provided a very comfortably furnished Dogloo on the porch to sleep in. The pair would sometimes wander onto the BLM property nearby and one day the 8-month old pup came back with a bunch of porcupine quills on his nose and a few on a paw. Thankfully we were able to remove them ourselves. Until that day we didn't know there were porcupines in the area. It's amazing how many animals live around us that we aren't even aware of. Well, I sure do hope this is a pleasant Saturday for you my dear! *BIG HUGGGGGGS*!! :) Explored on 2/10/19, highest placement, #3.

(+1 inset!) There's a big storm brewing in southern Oregon...I looked outside this morning and found ominous signs of heavy clouds overhead. Last night I read a report that warns of heavy snowfall over 2,000 feet for the next few days. We are at 1,500 feet though and it's doubtful that we'll get snow. But the forecast does suggest snow probability for the next week. Who knows. Predicting the weather is such an iffy proposition. Although it wasn't horribly cold (32 degrees) I did my 15-minute minimum walk this morning and dashed inside before I was overly affected by the temperature. It's nice to retain feeling in my fingers and toes! I did managed to take a picture of the storm clouds and you'll see this as one of my insets today. I spent a very pleasant morning visiting contacts here on ipernity and then I finished up some sporophyte and moss pictures I'd taken a couple of days ago. Isn't it wonderful to find lovely subjects in unusual settings? The combination of sporophytes, moss and snow was very exciting to me. Even better, many of my pictures turned out well! Even though I do my best to post quality pictures, I'll be the first to say that I delete piles and piles of images for every one that is a "keeper." Those pictures are crisp, have proper focus and the potential to be an eye-catching image when I'm done with it. Sometimes I'll work on a picture and realize that it's not worth the effort to process. More rarely, I'll go to delete a picture and discover that it's actually quite special. I love that. So often we are taken by surprise at our pictures! Today's image is something unusual...I call this one Kung Fu Moss! As I was cruising around taking pictures of sporophytes and bits of snow, I kept my eyes open for moss that I could capture. I was hoping to find something different and interesting and then...look at that! This moss was growing in such a unique way and I loved its funny shape! I was reminded of the classic kung-fu stance with arms up, legs spread and ready to leap into action! Pam, I was reading about left-side neglect today...I am guessing that the exercises they suggest haven't helped you at all? I wonder if, over time, you will find improvement. I sure do hope so. The only thing that's happened to me where I can relate to you in this regard is the optical migraines I get sometimes (I haven't had one in a few years). They only happen when I am under a lot of stress and very exhausted. I become aware of a rapid shimmer in my vision that becomes more acute over about 10 minutes. I then notice that my peripheral vision is just GONE. It's terrifying, especially the first time it happened because I didn't know what was the matter with me. This blindness lasts for 30-45 minutes but usually doesn't include a headache at all despite the name of this affliction. Whenever this happens to me, I immediately stop what I'm doing and go to bed. I take an hour-long nap and when I wake up I'm ok again. The difference is...yours isn't going away. It really sucks, Pam. I hope that you will eventually get your sight back...I feel so sad for you my dear friend. *big, big HUGGGGGGS* My thoughts go out to you.

(+4 insets!) (view large!) :) Holy Toledo it's cold out there today, YIKES!! A mere 27.6°F/-2.4°C--that's the coldest it's been all winter! Maybe that's not Polar Vortex Cold , but my fingers and toes have a prominent opinion about it: One Lap is the Limit! Heh…I managed to get up to the top of our hill for a lovely sunrise picture with my phone and down to the front gate to grab our garbage can (pick-up was this morning at 0'dark hundred). There I saw a pool of water that froze in several stages. The appearance reminded me of white malachite and out came my phone for another picture! Then it was up the drive with the garbage can, the handle burning cold through my gloves into my complaining hands and then I flung myself into the house and became one with the heater to warm my hands up. (You can see an inset of the pool of water along with another frozen pool I photographed a while back with a neat formation) What the heck's the deal with extremely low temperatures?! It's just crazy how fast cold can affect you if the temperature is low enough. This begs the intellectual question: how much more does the temperature affect us when things become extreme? What I mean to say is, there's basically no difference to us when the change is in our comfort range, say 60-70°F/15.5-21°C. Big deal, who cares…we can tell there's a change but it doesn't really matter. But as we get further away from our comfort zone, how much more does this mean? For instance, does the difference between 30 degrees and 29 degrees affect us 1%, 5%, 10%, etc. Do lower numbers make this difference more extreme? Does 10 degrees and 9 degrees affect us 5%, 10%, 20%? I should look this up. I bet there is a difference because 27 degrees is FIERCELY COLD and 30 degrees is not NEARLY as cold to me. I found a partial answer! It depends a lot on how much fat you have stored on your body and how well-adjusted you are to that temperature. So, someone who has more padding is going to be much more comfortable in the cold than a lean, athletic person. I didn't find the exact answer I was looking for but I did find a very interesting article that talks about what it feels like to be in -50 degrees vs. -20 degrees. My opinion: I would like to NOT be in those temperatures, thank you very much! :D I was kind of surprised the frogs weren't singing since they seem to enjoy these ridiculously cold temperatures. However, all was quiet down at the pond this morning. In amusement, I pictured froggy popsicles, each with a "ribbit" ready to go but their vocal sacks were frozen so no noise came out. Give them time…it should warm up to 32 degrees down there soon enough and they'll be able to squeak something out! LOL. Tenacious little buddies. :) Since it's so cold AND because it's the day to post my Happy Fence Friday pictures, I'm sharing an image of a very frosty fence, featuring a gossamer necklace touched by Jack Frost. This I found on our deer fencing a month or so back when we had a lovely day of heavy frost. I'm also sharing another frosty barbed-wire picture from my photo shoot last week. :) Pam, can you remember the coldest weather you've walked around in? One year it got down to 8 degrees I think, and venturing outside was a very shocking experience. We wanted to know what it felt like… and then we didn't! Out…and yep, that's REALLY COLD…and inside again! :D What about you? For me, it's a struggle because I know the photography opportunities are amazing the colder it gets but there really is a potential danger of frostbite. I hope you've never been in a situation where frostbite was a real issue for you. I've been lucky in that regard but I've also never been stuck in a place that's too cold and I can't get out of it. Sending a nice, warm *HUGGGGGG* your way on this very cold day! :D Explored on 2/8/19, highest placement, #1.

(+7 insets!) (please view large!) Last night I poked my head out our upper deck door and couldn't believe what I heard. Frogs singing. It's below 30 degrees out there and there are so many froggies singing at the pond that I can hear them loudly all the way up here! I told Steve and he didn't believe me until he opened the door and listened. We are amazed. Those frogs just don't care if it's ski season for them, they're determined to find dates for Winter Froggy Prom! I woke up today and looked out to see a lovely dusting of snow over everything. How beautiful it was. And COLD! It's not supposed to get over 40 degrees today, and when I stepped out for my walk it was 27 degrees again, brrrrr!!! At the beginning of my walk I took a picture of the snow in our meadow, the golden glow of the sun trying to warm the world up. You'll see this as a panorama inset which I thought turned out very nicely! It was so pretty to see the snow lightly blanketing everything as I walked up and down the driveway. I was only doing three laps today because it's just too cold, but I also knew that I needed to brave the cold for another 15 minutes. The fact was that I really did need to take pictures. Snow is forecast for several more days this coming week but I've noticed that reports are usually wrong. So, if I wanted pictures, I had to take them right away. Even now, at 8am, I could see that the snow was already melting. I didn't have a moment to waste! I was ready to go in five minutes, swapping my shoes with my rubber boots and adding knee pads. I already had my macro flash on my camera in preparation, so out the door I went, bee-lining it to the burned shed as I'd planned. My my my...all the cool pictures! I scoped the scene and immediately found a screw with a snowy hat! Snow balanced on a burned hole in the plywood! A lovely whorl of knot-centered plywood with a dab of snow balanced precariously on an edge...a rusty nail sticking out with a frozen droplet on it...many other wonderful things to take pictures of too, it was fabulous. I will need to go back for more, many interesting opportunities but not enough time! Time...fifteen minutes came and went...and I was away in my photographic dream. I knew I'd passed my time-limit when my toes started yelling at me. But...I heard the gentle call from the sporophytes rising out of the moss on the nearby Oak trees...and I couldn't resist them. I strayed from the shed and drifted into the woods...so many lovely pictures to take...so many wonderful scenes to find. My toes were hurting more with each passing moment but...there were little mounds of snow on the moss with sporophytes topped with droplets! How could I not take pictures? Finally after about 45 minutes my feet refused to go anywhere but towards the house, yelling and screaming all of the way. My hands were also cold, though the rest of me, bundled up nicely, was comfortable. Immediately upon entering the house the boots flew off and I stuck my feet on the heater. If they had a voice they would be groaning with pleasure to feel that warmth directly applied to them. I know, I know...I should be ashamed of myself for being so mean to my poor frozen feeties! Well, they warmed up just fine...it took fifteen minutes of frying them on the heater but finally they were warmed up again. Heh. I'm horrible. But what can I say? Sometimes I am but a mere puppet controlled by my passion, without a choice in the matter! :) Today I'm sharing a bunch of pictures from the burned shed--I hope you enjoy the show! (I got some wonderful sporophyte pictures too, but they will have to wait for another day!) Pam, I bet you know all about what it's like to lose yourself in your passions. I can see the "creative crazy person" in many of your presentations...when we make things like this I think you have to lose yourself in the moment! It's a wonderful feeling though, isn't it? To just "become" part of the passion that drives you...it's a delicious thing. Kind of like being on a different level or dimension...I don't know. It can't really be described in words but all creative people know what this is and we all crave it! I hope that you are able to get some creativity into your life, Pam...the conditions have to be right but I sure do hope you have them or get them sometime soon! *BIG HUGS FROM SOUTHERN OREGON* Explored on 2/7/19, highest placement, #2.

(+3 insets!) It's really and truly snowing outside this morning! I checked during the night but only rain greeted me and I wondered what I would see upon arising. Peeking out first thing...nothing but a wet world. Boo. Still, it was going to be extremely cold today and there were storm clouds overhead. The perfect recipe for snow. At a freezing 27 degrees, I decided that I'd only do my minimum walk of 3 laps (15 minutes) today. I'm tired of returning to the house with frozen fingers and toes no matter how hard I work to keep warm. There are days that I feel cold for hours unless I take a long, hot shower or sit in front of the heater for ages to warm up again. It's no fun to feel so uncomfortable. I do love those showers though--except for the part where I have to get out at some point! If you can believe it, frogs were singing their hearts out down at the pond! Perhaps they didn't get the memo...IT'S FREEZING OUT HERE! The fact of the matter is that they are on an evolutionary timer and they know it. Our pond dries up at the beginning of June so they must find mates and produce eggs as early as possible. Those eggs must then hatch, the tadpoles must grow up and transform into froglets before the pond evaporates. Frogs who sing the earliest have the best chance of finding mates sooner, and thus, the best chance that their babies will grow up and produce the next generation. Survival of the fittest is a real thing and out here in the "sticks", we see the reality of living and dying based on tactics like these. Still, I must say it's pretty incredible to hear frogs singing when it's snowing! By the end of my 15 minutes there were itty bitty flakes falling and I was happy to get inside because I was already getting very cold despite marching up our hill three times. After another fifteen minutes the snow was coming down in bigger flakes and managed to cover the ground somewhat. I enjoyed looking at the contrast on the tree branches of white against dark brown. The snow continued for maybe half an hour and then petered out. The sun tried to break through the clouds and though it failed, the warmer temperatures melted all of the snow and now I look out and wonder...did it really snow or did I just imagine it? I didn't get any snowy pictures today except from my phone and they aren't worth posting. So I decided to dig around in my archives and process a few images I'd taken a while back...I have so much photography which deserves my attention. It's just incredible the piles of pictures that I don't have time to process! My main image is a snow and droplet-covered rose cane in heavy silhouette. I also found a picture of a day we had heavy snowfall a few years back. And I couldn't resist posting an adorable picture of our dear Basset Hound, Moosie, when he was just over a year old. How we miss that sweet boy. A picture of Zoey is here too, our adorable Boxer who we think of every day...our home feels so empty without them. :( Pam, has it been snowing much your way? Hopefully the weather isn't too bad. We're expecting more snow in the next few days but it won't be much. I did a search on your stream for "snow" and found a picture I loved of your beloved Flicka on his birthday. Maybe our dogs have met over the Rainbow Bridge. Our sweet pups…how we miss them. Sending *hugggggggggs* your way! Explored on 2/6/19, highest placement, #4.