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3 more pictures and a note above ! :) Today Steve and I went out for a special sushi lunch at our favorite Japanese restaurant and as we ate, I told Steve about Remembrance Day and how it related to my poppy picture from yesterday. I told him the wonderful things that people wrote and how I changed my quote and whole direction of my post and all that I had learned. It really is amazing how enlightened I have become because of my interest in photography and all of the friends I've met first on Flickr and now on ipernity. My life has been so enriched and I am ever thankful and happy for the opportunity to grow in so many ways. *hugs all around* After lunch we went to see Ender's Game (mixed reviews, but I liked it overall). and as we were driving home, we saw the sun sink lower and lower and become prettier and prettier. When I got home, I grabbed my camera and the 17-40mm wide angle, and we zoomed back down the road where we thought the sunset might look extra special. We stood there enjoying the lovely day's end and taking pictures, and I also thought about how lucky I am to be free. When we got home, the sun had set, but as I continued to glance out the window, the colors suddenly got brighter and brighter, with hot pinks and oranges, red and yellow, against the darkening blue sky. I opened the window in the downstairs bathroom, stuck the camera out, aimed and fired! This is that picture! I took several more, and I also went outside, but this was the peak of brilliance and I was lucky enough to get the picture! It might just be my favorite sunset I've captured yet, hooray!! :) Patrick K. O’Donnell is a critically acclaimed American author who has written eight books on military history. He received the Colby Circle Award for Outstanding Military History for his best-selling book, Beyond Valour. As an unpaid, volunteer combat historian, O’Donnell spent three months in Iraq in uniform and conducted oral histories of U.S. troops in battle. On a later tour to Iraq, he also served as a war correspondent for Men's Journal and Fox News. His writing has also appeared in Military History Quarterly (MHQ), WWII Magazine, and a number of well-known blogs. Wikipedia: Patrick O'Donnell Explored on November 13, 2013. Highest placement, page 8.

3 more pictures above ! :) Last night I went to let the dogs out before watching our evening show and going to bed. As I always do, I looked up to the left side of our doorway where Roscoe, my wonderful orb weaver friend lives. Exclaiming in surprise, I burst out, "OH ROSCOE!!! YOU'RE MAKING AN EGG SAC!!!!" I charged upstairs to yell excitedly to Steve, "ROSCOE MADE HER EGG SAC!!!!!!" and before he could barely utter a surprised, "WOW!!", I zoomed back downstairs to continue watching her work, totally transfixed. Moving slowly all over her enormous egg sac, Roscoe dabbed strands of sticky silk. "Wow...you must have been working on this all day," I murmured to her affectionately. "It's so beautiful and HUGE!!" In fact, her egg sac is larger than she is, and I also noticed two more things. Roscoe was so skinny now--instead of being huge and plump, she was now empty of all the eggs that had been growing inside her bloated abdomen. And I also saw how exhausted she was. "My dear, dear girl," I cooed softly to her. "What a masterpiece you have made." She moved so slowly, dabbing and dabbing more silk to finish her grand achievement. I got my camera and flash and took a few pictures, but I waited until midnight to get the picture here so that I could make it my Picture of the Day. The following image (both insets) were taken before midnight, while she was still finishing the last touches of her egg sac. One of the insets shows her dabbing silk onto her sac, which was very interesting to watch. I have known Roscoe for over a year now, from when she was barely a quarter inch in size, and I've watched her go through hibernation (brumation) and grow into a magnificent, beautiful lady, with an abdomen of almost 1" in diameter! I know that these spiders only live for one season, and I was feeling very sad because it looked as if she wouldn't be producing eggs, though I saw two different suitors visit the area. As September turned to October, and then to November, I watched her with quiet worry. My concern was unfounded, because she has just finished her gift to me...hundreds of unborn Roscoe babies who I will adore as much as I have adored her. I know that Roscoe's days are now truly numbered. She could live another day or maybe as much as a month...but I expect she will die within a week. I will miss her terribly, but I will be there to take pictures of her babies and maybe some of them will stay, just like Charlotte's children!! :) I will keep you informed as the days pass... Charlotte's Web is a children's novel by American author E. B. White and illustrated by Garth Williams; it was published in 1952 by Harper & Brothers. The novel tells the story of a pig named Wilbur and his friendship with a barn spider named Charlotte. When Wilbur is in danger of being slaughtered by the farmer, Charlotte writes messages praising Wilbur (such as "Some Pig") in her web in order to persuade the farmer to let him live. Wikipedia: Charlotte's Web Elwyn Brooks "E. B." White (July 11, 1899 – October 1, 1985), was an American writer. He was a contributor to The New Yorker magazine and a co-author of the English language style guide, The Elements of Style, which is commonly known as "Strunk & White". He also wrote books for children, including Charlotte's Web, Stuart Little and The Trumpet of the Swan. Charlotte's Web was voted the top children's novel in a 2012 survey of School Library Journal readers, not for the first time. Wikipedia: E.B. White Explored on November 13, 2013. Highest placement, page 9.

2 more pictures above ! :) Yesterday it was rainy and drizzly, overcast and foggy, and I wasn't outside for very long. Today I awoke to a glorious sunny day, and I was definitely going to take advantage of the beautiful weather! "Zoe! Moosey! Molly! Atten-HUT! We will now be climbing to the top of the hill and examining every square inch for all things cool and fun!" Up the hill we scrambled and along the ridge we ambled, having a marvelous time for the next hour and a half! The mushrooms are simply exploding out of the ground right now! White, tan, brown and chocolate brown, in many shapes and sizes, and appearing in singles or groups of two or three! This time of year is my arguably my favorite for photography because I am so crazy about mushrooms. They are so unique and interesting to me, though I admit that trying to identify them is a total nightmare. If you remember the trio of mushrooms I shared a few days ago (and the younger version a few days before that), the pair above were growing right next to that log. (By the way, I checked on the trio, and they are shriveled up now and gone...but no worries because my pictures will keep them alive forever! :) The second I discovered these two, I knew I had my Picture of the Day! It's very hard to top a pair of mushrooms that look like they are in love! :) Philip St. John Basil Rathbone, MC (13 June 1892 – 21 July 1967) was a South African-born British actor. He rose to prominence in the UK as a Shakespearean stage actor and went on to appear in over 70 films, primarily costume dramas, swashbucklers and, occasionally, horror films. Wikipedia: Basil Rathbone Explored on November 15, 2013. Highest placement, page 8.

2 more pictures and a note above ! :) Yesterday I took the dogs out on a quick walk around the lower forest and as I walked, I looked to see if there were any new mushrooms. Holy cow, yes there were! I found some very large orange ones pushing their way up through leaves and moss and put those on my list for pictures today. This morning I took the dogs with me down to where I found the mushrooms and began excavating them. They were quite large--caps about 4-5" in diameter, and I relaxed and took my time, carefully removing leaves, pine needles and moss. Because they were pretty low to the ground, I decided to carefully move some moss around them so I could take a better picture. As I moved the moss to the side and continued brushing dirt out of the way, I saw something blue in the dirt under the place where the moss had been. "Hmm, I wonder what that is?" I thought to myself as I leaned closer...and closer, and..."NO. NO WAY. BLUE MUSHROOMS!! I FOUND BLUE MUSHROOMS!!!! AHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!" These are some of the most amazing fungus finds yet!!! HOORAY!! Laying in the dirt, growing under the moss, were several small clumps of these blue-green mushrooms. They were covered with dirt and some of them were so impossibly tiny that I had to be very, very careful when attempting to pick them up. I was so excited that I wanted to stop what I was doing and run up to the house with my amazing find so I could take pictures. But I didn't. Instead, I finished clearing my "stage" for the orange mushrooms and took pictures of them. (I'll be sharing that picture in the next couple of days...I showed Steve and his response was, "WOW!!" so hopefully you will all like it too! :D) Once I was pleased with my images of the orange mushrooms, I tucked the moss back around them and finally I carried the blue mushrooms back to the house. I was worried that the heat of my hand would affect them so I rolled them onto a bit of moss I had with me for "stage dressing". I first took pictures without washing them off, in case water would hurt them somehow or make them even dirtier. Looking at the pictures, I had to laugh...flecks of dirt show up like boulders at macro scale...I needed to wash the dirt off! So, I took a spray bottle and gently spritzed each little group. The next set of pictures was possibly more awful because the water made the mushrooms look really gross! YUCK! So, I let some time pass, allowing the water to dry and I tried again. Success! This group, if you can see, is four mushrooms--one of them grew in a folded-over position and is slightly buried in dirt. The tallest pair stand about .5 inches tall, or a bit more than 1 centimeter. What strange looking mushrooms! One of them that I didn't photograph had changed to a more tan color like the cap of the one on the left, and it was a bit larger, about .75" or just under 2 cm. (By the way, I added some light texturing to the background to give this image more depth) I have a friend, Ken Dies who's very experienced with mushrooms, and he explained that these mushrooms are not actually blue or green. They have been attacked by a fungus, which gives them that color! Thanks for the information, Ken! :) Henry Taube, Ph.D, M.Sc, B.Sc, FRSC (November 30, 1915 – November 16, 2005) was a Canadian-born American chemist noted for having been awarded the 1983 Nobel Prize in Chemistry for "his work in the mechanisms of electron-transfer reactions, especially in metal complexes." He was the first Canadian-born chemist to win the Nobel Prize. Taube completed his undergraduate and Masters degrees at the University of Saskatchewan, and his Ph.D from the University of California, Berkeley. After finishing graduate school, Taube worked at Cornell University, the University of Chicago and Stanford University. Wikipedia: Henry Taube Explored on November 19, 2013. Highest placement, page 3.

2 more pictures and a note above ! :) It rained off and on all day long, and as I sit here typing, the rain continues to fall. At one point it was coming down very lightly, and I risked a few minutes to step out onto our back deck for some droplet pictures. We have a tea rose bush growing next to the stairs, enthusiastically growing through the cracks in the boards and pushing through the railings. I know I should cut it back but I don't want to! I love its beautiful red-edged leaves, the beautiful thorny stems, and of course the roses! The leaves which turn yellow and fall off are pretty too. Rain drops are gorgeous on any part of it, and the same goes with dew, frost and snow. The only problem with taking pictures of droplets on these leaves is that I have a hard time stopping! With so many wonderful possibilities, I could easily capture hundreds of images! However, I could only stay for about 5 minutes because lightly or not, it was definitely raining. After looking through my selection, I have three choices for today. What...NO mushrooms?!!! LOL, I have PLENTY of those pictures to share, but figured it would be nice to spare you for a day! :D John Richard Vernon was a writer, most well-known for his 1826 book, "The Beauty of Rain”. Vernon earned his MA de­gree at Hert­ford Coll­ege, Ox­ford, and be­came Rec­tor of St. Au­dries, Bridg­wa­ter, Eng­land, in 1872. As of 1881, he was Rec­tor of West Quant­ox­head, Som­er­set. Explored on November 20, 2013. Highest placement, page 3.

2 more pictures and a note above ! :) I planned to choose a mushroom image for my Picture of the Day, as I'd gone out this morning and gotten pictures of a bunch of different mushrooms. However, as the day was coming to an end, I looked outside and once again was overcome by an amazing sunset! Then came the argument with myself: "Oh, it's such a pretty sunset! I should take a picture!" "No, I've got plenty of sunset pictures!" "But it's so pinky-red and gorgeous!" "People are going to get sick of my sunsets!" "But this one is different!" "Oh alright...I'd better hurry or I'll miss it!!" Once again, I somehow managed to capture the most brilliant colors with my first picture, and each one after was less striking. The next picture I'm sharing this evening is the same sunset pointing to the south, showing dramatic clouds with a splash of color. It was taken a couple of minutes later... look at how the colors have faded! Still pretty, but it's not the same eye-popping color palette. I've got one mushroom picture to share along with the other sunset image...wow, I'm really starting to pile up the mushroom images and I can't catch up with all the processing! Well, hopefully I'll be able to get them all done so you can see them as time permits! (Now is the time to start laughing...because I have some really neat mushroom pictures that I haven't gotten to...and they're from last spring!! Too many pictures, not enough time! :D) Thomas Kinkade (January 19, 1958 – April 6, 2012) was an American painter of popular realistic, bucolic, and idyllic subjects. He is notable for the mass marketing of his work as printed reproductions and other licensed products via The Thomas Kinkade Company. He characterized himself as "Thomas Kinkade, Painter of Light," a phrase he protected through trademark but one originally attributed to the English master J.M.W. Turner (1775–1851). It is estimated that 1 in every 20 American homes owns a copy of one of his paintings. Wikipedia: Thomas Kinkade Explored on November 21, 2013. Highest placement, page 2 (#40).

5 more pictures in notes above ! :) This year I really noticed that it's been warmer, and I kept waiting for frosty days to arrive and they just didn't. We got some very early morning frost on a couple of days but it melted quickly, and then nothing at all. Last night it was finally extremely cold and I could tell it would be frosty today. When I got up, I looked outside, and the world was twinkling with sugar coating everything! Hooray!!! (I was amazed to find out that the last day Medford, Oregon's weather has recorded frost was March 24. That's 240 days, the longest nonfreezing period since the weather service started keeping Medford records in 1911! And the last record was LAST YEAR, which was 230 days...can you say global warming? *sigh*...) I bundled up in my warmest sweaters and a coat, donned a hat and pulled rubber boots on over my thickest socks, and out I went like a kid running into a candy store! Where do I start? Everything is so gloriously sparkly!!! Crunching gleefully over the frosted grass, I began heading for a metal fence, since those are always such fun to capture frost on. But of course I was stopped in my tracks by a beautiful frosted mushroom. Walking past the oak tree in the meadow, I stopped to take a picture as it stood cloaked in the frosty fog, so beautiful. (see the inset above) Then I captured some leaves bristling with frosty crystals, and finally meandered over to the fence. No more frost, but no worries, because I spotted some frosty nails that I couldn't resist! Then I looked up and saw the moon, and got a picture of that too! I heard some geese fly by quite close by, and readied my camera, but never did see them in all the mist! I decided it was time to head back, though truthfully, it was my frosted toes that made that decision! As I began walking back, I looked down and found a great prize! One of nature's most unusual fungus species happens to grow on our property, and it's called an earthstar! Related to a puffball and round when first growing, the outer layer opens up and splits, creating the "legs" you see, which eventually raise the puffball-spore sac above the ground to help disperse the spores when it opens! Is that cool or what?! I carried it over to some moss and was pleased to get frosty images of this interesting fungus for my Picture of the Day! Finally, as I was walking back, I found another pair of frosty mushrooms that I'm also sharing a picture of tonight! William Shakespeare (26 April 1564 (baptised) – 23 April 1616) was an English poet and playwright, widely regarded as the greatest writer in the English language and the world's pre-eminent dramatist. He is often called England's national poet and the "Bard of Avon". His extant works, including some collaborations, consist of about 38 plays, 154 sonnets, two long narrative poems, and a few other verses, the authorship of some of which is uncertain. His plays have been translated into every major living language and are performed more often than those of any other playwright. Wikipedia: William Shakespeare Explored on November 22, 2013. Highest placement, page 2.

3 more pictures in notes above ! :) The forecast last night said it would be cold this morning...they weren't kidding! When I went down to the gate at 7am to open and close the gate for Steve as he left for work, it was 27°F (-2.8°C)!! We stepped outside and the cold just hit me in the face. WOW, take a step back, Jack Frost, you're freezing my face with that frosty breath of yours!! I was bristling with sweaters and a coat, warm socks, hat, boots, gloves, and I had my camera with me too as I waved goodbye to Steve. I wanted to get some images of frost while I was down by the fence that borders the main road. However, I also knew I didn't have much time, because no matter how bundled up I was, that cold would find its way in through my worst defenses: my gloves and rubber boots. Knowing the clock was ticking, I quickly went to the fence and started snapping away, admiring the amazing crystals on the barbed wire along the top of the fence as I moved this way and that. Soon, my fingers started to tell me they were cold. Then I noticed the frosty pine needles on the Ponderosa Pine tree nearby and challenged myself to try for some good dof images. (Fail!) Looking down I saw pine cones with frosty edges and managed to get some nice pictures (I'll share that picture in the next few days!). At that point, my fingers were really beginning to hurt and my toes were beginning to yell. Making my way back up the drive way I stopped to take pictures of frosted gravel (I got a really great picture but...the gravel looks too much like...frosted doggy doo...*cackle*...so I can't use it! :D), and on the way I couldn't resist a few more pictures of frosted barbed wire, and then I couldn't stand it anymore and rushed up the hill and into the house, and got my hands under hot water to warm them up again...I can't believe it. I was out there for TEN MINUTES and my body was screaming from the cold!! Unbelievable!! It took a long, hot shower to completely warm up again. Totally crazy cold out there!!! Robert William Service (January 16, 1874 – September 11, 1958) was a poet and writer who has often been called "the Bard of the Yukon". Service is best known for his poems "The Shooting of Dan McGrew" and "The Cremation of Sam McGee", from his first book, Songs of a Sourdough (1907; also published as The Spell of the Yukon and Other Verses). "These humorous tales in verse were considered doggerel by the literary set, yet remain extremely popular to this day." Wikipedia: Robert Service Explored on November 25, 2013. Highest placement, page 2 (#41).

3 more pictures in notes above ! :) Yesterday I wandered up one part of our hillside, and today I decided to take the dogs with me up the other side and then along the ridge line trail. I'd originally planned to take better pictures of a lovely little lichen I found yesterday but I decided to explore instead. The dogs and I went up behind our shop and disappeared into the forest above the house, the oaks almost all devoid of leaves now. As the dogs nosed around, I puttered along, looking under logs and examining everything that looked interesting. So many cool subjects to photograph today! I found some beautiful amber droplets under a log, a cute little insect nymph of some sort, and ten different mushrooms in singles and doubles! :) Creeping off the trail and examining rotting logs, I looked down and suddenly found the magnificent, huge pair that you're looking at. Easily 4-5" in diameter, they were just barely poking up through some leaves, so I spent 10 minutes carefulling excavating around them, pulling off leaves and twigs, clearing out the fore- and background to get a clutter-free picture. Regarding this pair, I think that just about every mushroom out there is pretty, but some of them are truly magnificent. To me, a frilly cap and lovely gills are just so amazing and I will never tire of a sight like this! :D (I've included another view from above to see the color of the cap: inset image only) Khalil Gibran (full Arabic name Gibran Khalil Gibran, sometimes spelled Kahlil; (January 6, 1883 – April 10, 1931) was a Lebanese artist, poet, and writer. Wikipedia: Kahlil Gibran Explored on November 28, 2013. Highest placement, page 4.

3 more pictures and a note above ! :) It rained most of the day but I kept checking to see if it stopped, and finally it did, if just for a short time. I left the house without the dogs because I didn't want to spend 20 minutes drying them and wiping off mud! And since I was off on my own, I made a bee line for the lower forest, since I won't take the dogs because there's no fence to the main road. As I left the house, I knew it was windy, but I didn't realize that stray droplets were coming down and spraying everywhere, so I ran inside to get a plastic bag to cover my camera while I crossed the smaller meadow, bracing myself against the chilly draft. Immediately upon entering the dark and moist lower forest, the wind dropped down to a slight breeze, and I was comfortable again. Ah, macro heaven! Where do I look first?!! :D I immediately began finding little mushrooms, but they were buried in leaves and were too much work to excavate, so I moved on. I found some beautiful moss-covered stumps with wonderful sporophytes and pretty lichen. Then I found some beautiful Orange Jelly fungus and some itty bitty baby shelf fungus, and also some interesting white fungus that looked like rows of molar teeth! FASCINATING! I took pictures as I went along, and then arrived at a favorite area with many rotten logs and plates of bark. Everything was bristling with tiny fungus, moss, and lichen species, and when I found a large chunk of bark, I dropped down onto my knee pads and carefully turned it over. "OHHHHHHH!!! Look at all the little white mushrooms!!! WOW!!! SO AMAZING!!! All over one section of this bark were dozens of extremely tiny shell-shaped mushrooms in various stages of development. I spent moments slowly gazing at all of them without my glasses, delighted at this stunning microscopic show I was able to enjoy. I noticed that many had miniscule, period-sized dew drops on them, and suddenly I found a droplet on the edge of an absolutely perfect, heart-shaped mushroom! Happily, I took many pictures from various angles and apertures, hoping I'd get that impossibly tiny droplet in focus. When I got back to the house, I discovered that only a few were in focus, but to my delight, the one I was most hoping for was exactly right!! HOORAY!!! :D Aristotle (384 BC – 322 BC)was a Greek philosopher and polymath, a student of Plato and teacher of Alexander the Great. His writings cover many subjects, including physics, metaphysics, poetry, theater, music, logic, rhetoric, linguistics, politics, government, ethics, biology, and zoology. Together with Plato and Socrates (Plato's teacher), Aristotle is one of the most important founding figures in Western philosophy. Aristotle's writings were the first to create a comprehensive system of Western philosophy, encompassing morality, aesthetics, logic, science, politics, and metaphysics. Wikipedia: Aristotle Explored on December 3, 2013. Highest placement, page 3.

2 more pictures in notes above ! :) The weather forecast said it would be cold this morning. REALLY COLD. They were right!! It was 14.5°F when we got up, and it was all I could do to force myself out the door into nature's freezer! But I simply HAD to see what happened to the frost when it was that cold, so I bundled up like little Randy in "A Christmas Story" and out I went with Molly at my side. She couldn't be happier in her thick double coat and had a grand time frolicking about while I marveled at the world around me. At first I didn't see anything all that special, but then I saw some boards with screws in them and could hardly believe my eyes!! The frost looked like miniature Christmas trees! So huge and detailed!! I knew I had only about 15 minutes before I would be forced to get back inside, but in the end, I refused to go back for 30 minutes because I was enjoying the beautiful frosty sights so much! I found many "furry" screws like the one above, frosty planks, twigs, and leaves. and even I found a mushroom in the grass that was looked like it was covered in diamonds! I saw so many cool frosty things that by the time I got back to the house, I was very glad that I forced myself to go out into the cold! You all would be snorting in laughter to see me sticking my feet, one at a time, into a hot sink of water to get the feeling back into my toes! :D :D Too funny!! :D Henry Ford (July 30, 1863 – April 7, 1947) was an American industrialist, the founder of the Ford Motor Company, and sponsor of the development of the assembly line technique of mass production. Contrary to popular belief, Ford did not invent the automobile nor did he invent the assembly line. Ford however was the first to develop and manufacture the first automobile that many middle class Americans could afford to buy. In doing so, Ford converted the automobile from a relatively unknown invention into an innovation that would profoundly impact the landscape of the twentieth century. His introduction of the Model T automobile revolutionized transportation and American industry. As owner of the Ford Motor Company, he became one of the richest and best-known people in the world. He is credited with "Fordism": mass production of inexpensive goods coupled with high wages for workers. Ford had a global vision, with consumerism as the key to peace. His intense commitment to systematically lowering costs resulted in many technical and business innovations, including a franchise system that put dealerships throughout most of North America and in major cities on six continents. Ford left most of his vast wealth to the Ford Foundation and arranged for his family to control the company permanently. Wiki: Henry Ford Explored on December 5, 2013. Highest placement, page 3.

This picture shows a close up of a blackberry vine, complete with frosted thorns. Crazy, isn't it? I've never seen such well-defined crystals before! Explored on December 12, 2013. Highest placement, page 7.

2 more pictures in notes above ! :) Yesterday when I braved the cold to look around and take pictures, I discovered some really cool icicles adorning our shop's eaves. They are an interesting shape, being very broad and thick. Though I took pictures yesterday, I came back today so I could make this my Picture of the Day! :) Today I have two other pictures, one shows blackberry thorns with frost crystals, and the other shows icicles dripping down blackberry leaves! :D ENJOY! (Sorry for the short posts and lack of comments, I'm buried in a project!) Joseph Addison (1 May 1672 – 17 June 1719) was an English essayist, poet, playwright, and politician. He was the eldest son of The Reverend Lancelot Addison. His name is usually remembered alongside that of his long-standing friend, Richard Steele, with whom he founded The Spectator magazine Wikipedia: Joseph Addison Explored on December 12, 2013. Highest placement, page 4.

I want to apologize for being completely offline lately--my current projects and other stuff has me totally tied up. I apologize, and look forward to getting back to my regular schedule! :) Because I was buried in work and a million other things today, it was after sundown before I had a moment to take pictures, so I decided it was time to feature a cool pair of carved Angelfish that we display in our livingroom. I love the character of these two and whenever I see them I am reminded of the amazing Queen Angelfish I have visited when scuba diving! John Ruskin (8 February 1819 – 20 January 1900) was the leading English art critic of the Victorian era, also an art patron, draughtsman, watercolourist, a prominent social thinker and philanthropist. He wrote on subjects ranging from geology to architecture, myth to ornithology, literature to education, and botany to political economy. His writing styles and literary forms were equally varied. Ruskin penned essays and treatises, poetry and lectures, travel guides and manuals, letters and even a fairy tale. The elaborate style that characterised his earliest writing on art was later superseded by a preference for plainer language designed to communicate his ideas more effectively. In all of his writing, he emphasised the connections between nature, art and society. He also made detailed sketches and paintings of rocks, plants, birds, landscapes, and architectural structures and ornamentation. Wikipedia: John Ruskin Explored on December 16, 2013. Highest position, page 6.

2 more pictures above in notes! :) It was just below freezing today so the frost stayed around, which was very pretty to see. I initially planned on finding something like frosted grass for my Picture of the Day. However, when I stepped out the front door, I noticed the mesh "cage" that I have around our metal feed trough (which I use for a large planter) still had snow and frost on it. I wondered if there would be a nice picture there... I did find a wonderful frosty subject to photograph on the mesh itself, and though I originally planned to make it my Picture of the Day, one look at my Irish Eyes plant instantly shoved that picture to second position! This particular flower was hiding near the ground and I almost missed it. One of the things I try to do when taking pictures of a subject is to walk all the way around it, and that's how I found this flower! :) Every time I see this plant, it makes me smile with happiness. My friend Robin gave me an Irish Eyes seedling back in April, and it grew large enough to flower by July, and continued to flower all the way until the flowers FROZE some weeks ago. What a productive, wonderful plant!! On top of that, the flowers which were in bloom are now dried and stunning, adorned with frost and a wonder to behold. I've taken so many pictures of the countless blossoms since July, and once again I am just amazed at how beautiful the flowers are! :) Richard David Bach (born June 23, 1936) is an American writer. He is widely known as the author of the hugely popular 1970s best-sellers Jonathan Livingston Seagull and Illusions: The Adventures of a Reluctant Messiah, among others. Bach's books espouse his philosophy that our apparent physical limits and mortality are merely appearance. Bach is noted for his love of flying and for his books related to air flight and flying in a metaphorical context. He has pursued flying as a hobby since the age of 17. In late August 2012 Bach was badly injured when on approach to landing at Friday Harbor his aircraft clipped some power lines and crashed upside down in a field. Wikipedia: Richard Bach Explored on December 17, 2013. Highest placement, page 8.

I went out today feeling rushed and frustrated, not in the mood to look for pictures, but knowing there was something special going on outside. Things were frosty...but...everything was extra white, and that spelled something different. I was right. The frost was particularly long and extremely fine, which you can just see on the droplet and leaves. I spent more time than I could afford taking pictures because this was a rare frost and I wanted to capture it in as many images as I could to process later. I'm really glad I did because I found some very cool and amazing sights! This frost-covered droplet is dangling from the curled, dried leaves of a teasel plant. Amazingly, I was able to get the frosty droplet and leaves in perfect focus with a teasel dropping away into bokeh behind! For me, that's insanely lucky, because something usually always messes up that kind of an attempt. But today, everything lined up just right! :) Ayn Rand (born Alisa Zinov'yevna Rosenbaum; February 2,1905 – March 6, 1982) was an American novelist, philosopher, playwright, and screenwriter. She is known for her two best-selling novels, The Fountainhead and Atlas Shrugged, and for developing a philosophical system she called Objectivism. Born and educated in Russia, Rand moved to the United States in 1926. She had a play produced on Broadway in 1935–1936. After two early novels that were initially unsuccessful in America, she achieved fame with her 1943 novel, The Fountainhead. Wikipedia: Ayn Rand Explored on December 18, 2013. Highest placement, page 3.

1 picture above in a note! :) I've had my eye on the pine tree next to the house for weeks now. Every day I see frost on the needles and I am dazzled when I look closely. I've taken a few pictures but not too seriously because on each occasion, I already knew what picture I'd be using for my Picture of the Day, and I could tell that these pine needles would need "first billing" when the time was right. With my crazy schedule as of late, I really have to shake my tail when it comes time for my daily photo session. If possible, having an idea of what I'll be photographing is very helpful for speeding up the process when I'm too busy to just drift around, so today I got my camera and went right to the pine tree. Oh my. So much to see, so many interesting angles! There was frost on the pine needles and frozen droplets too, and I managed to get quite an assortment of neat images. I don't have time to share more than two of them tonight, but this one is my favorite! The second picture is a perfect pairing, showing one of these frozen droplets close up and from the side, where you can even see the trapped air bubbles inside! SO COOL and amazing to me that it's possible to show such tiny, beautiful scenes in a full-sized image to share with all of you! :) Ernst Haas (March 2, 1921 – September 12, 1986) was a photojournalist and a pioneering color photographer. During his 40-year career, the Austrian-born artist bridged the gap between photojournalism and the use of photography as a medium for expression and creativity. In addition to his prolific coverage of events around the globe after World War II, Haas was an early innovator in color photography. His images were widely disseminated by magazines like Life and Vogue and, in 1962, were the subject of the first single-artist exhibition of color photography at New York’s Museum of Modern Art. He served as president of the cooperative Magnum Photos, and his book The Creation (1971) was one of the most successful photography books ever, selling 350,000 copies. Wikipedia: Ernst Haas Explored on December 19, 2013. Highest placement, page 4.

2 picture above in a note! :) Today it was much warmer than it's been for weeks, about 35°F, oh my! :D It's amazing how long the snow has stuck around, since we got nearly 4" about two weeks ago but none since. It's been cold enough that it hasn't melted in the shady areas, which I like because it's pretty. I went out without the dogs today and headed down to our dark and shady lower forest. I really hoped that I'd be able to find some mushrooms, but quite frankly, I was pretty sure there was no chance because it's been so cold. So instead, I thought I'd just cruise around and check things out. Crossing the tiny, seasonal stream that's dry, I approached a fallen oak tree that I'm very careful around. You see, the top half of the dead tree broke off and fell to the ground, but it was caught in two younger trees on the way down, and this monstrous thing hangs precariously in the air, with much of the weight held up by its dead branches that fork the ground like legs. The two, much smaller, unfortunate trees which have been holding up the rest of the weight are strained and groaning under the mass. It is only a matter of time before gravity wins and the 3-foot thick, 10-foot long trunk come crashing down. So, I am careful to keep my distance. Today I approached warily to look for interesting subjects to photograph. The first thing that caught my attention was an interesting insect egg case which looked similar to a praying mantis but wasn't the same...very fascinating! It was adhered to a pair of poison oak stems clinging to the main tree trunk. (I will show pictures of the case another day. :) After that, I continued peering around, looking at the branches, the trunk and the leaves. When I followed the main tree trunk down to the ground, I saw a patch of snow at the base of the main trunk. Then I did a double-take because I could hardly believe my eyes! Smack-dab in the middle of the snow was a mushroom poking a hole through and looking around! MY WISH WAS GRANTED!! The fact of the matter is that I've been hoping to find exactly this sight since I began this project. I have a tiny, snow-capped mushroom that is actually my very first 365 image, but I have always wanted to find the opposite: a mushroom in a field of snow. And today I found it. It's a dream come true and I'm so happy I can hardly contain myself! :D (I am also including another picture to show the mushroom at a slightly different angle so you can see the hole it's poking through!) When I worked my way around to the opposite side, and got the picture you see here, I saw a flash of beige on green and took a look: NO WAY! ANOTHER ONE!! On one of the branches that was holding up the massive trunk, a wee mushroom was growing in a sea of moss. HAPPY DAY!!! And in fact, there were even more mushrooms on the ground, but I already had pictures of these two and it would have taken a lot of work to clean up the area. More importantly, it would have meant spending a lot of time near this potentially deadly area, and there was no reason to put myself at risk. Literally, this trunk must weigh hundreds of pounds--and I don't want to be around when it falls! James Russell Lowell (/ˈloʊəl/; February 22, 1819 – August 12, 1891) was an American Romantic poet, critic, editor, and diplomat. He is associated with the Fireside Poets, a group of New England writers who were among the first American poets who rivaled the popularity of British poets. These poets usually used conventional forms and meters in their poetry, making them suitable for families entertaining at their fireside. Wikipedia: James Russell Lowell Explored on December 20, 2013. Highest placement, page 5.