Janet Brien's photos with the keyword: Steve Brien

(+1 inset!) Oh my, it's been another crazy day…it's just amazing how the hours just disappear. I got up at 6:45am this morning and I am just now sitting down to relax for a couple of minutes before dinner and more running around. Today I did a lot of cooking and meal preparation for our upcoming trip. I simply don't know how the hours drain away but after all is said and done, we now have 15 breakfast egg, onion, cheese and sausage muffins, a couple of quarts of faux-tato salad (made with cauliflower...it's 10x better than potato!), and a bunch of other things are sorted out and ready to go. Whew! The best part is having Steve try each of my creations and then wanting to eat them all! :) I'm bummed that I haven't had time to visit contacts on ipernity or leave comments. It's frustrating but time is so short that I don't even have time to work on my pictures. A shame. I haven't been able to process very many images from our past trip but what are you going to do when life is throwing a million tasks at you? I do apologize for not visiting—I feel guilty when so many have stopped by to say hi and I've not been able to reciprocate. I'm not sure what I can do about this problem...I can barely comment when we're away on our trips and when I get home I'm swamped with a million things to do. I would love some advice from you busy folks who manage to fit commenting into your day! This is also Saturday, and that means Saturday Self Challenge! When I read what the topic was a few days ago, I wasn't sure that I'd be able to get out for pictures of a subject for "Statues and Monuments". However, as luck would have it, Steve and I went out a couple of days ago and there was enough time for a picture of a particular statue I loved. In downtown Medford we have the Ginger Rogers theater—she lived here for all of her later life! Outside the theater is a square called Vogel Plaza. It's nothing special, though it's been used for protests and demonstrations through the years. The one thing that does make it special in my eyes is the awesome sculpture located on the far side of the square from the theater. There sits a bronze gentleman who is pondering his next chess move. Opposite to him is an empty bronze chair which tempts anyone nearby to sit in it! The artwork is fabulous with awesome details, an obvious understanding of proper anatomy and of course, a brilliant idea and execution. I asked Steve to pose for me so I could have a fun picture to share—I couldn't be happier with the wonderful mirror image he created for me! I also have an inset today...it's ME sitting in the empty bronze chair back in 2013! What fun! :) Pam, do you like to play chess? I love it but chess is a game which takes such a long time to play. I participated in online matches for a while but eventually I grew weary...I just don't have the time to contemplate all of the moves and look forward to the following possibilities, etc. It is a great intellectual pastime though! And my father—with his math-bent genius IQ—taught me as a kid and heh...beat me all the way up until he passed away at age 87. What a mind. Playing chess with my father made me feel like I was a cornered mouse being toyed with by a cat who likes to play with its food! LOLOL...well, I think it was nice that the smarts I got from my parents is all of the creative sort! Hope your day was a good one my dear! *BIG HUGS* Explored on 6/9/19; highest placement, #1.

(+4 insets!) Sun shining into my cozy little nest woke me up at 6:30am this morning. Pulling out my earplugs, the world was filled with the songs of waking birds in the trees and geese in the distance. It was so fabulous! (see my first inset!) I went up front to snuggle with Steve for about 15 minutes--we both slept very comfortably and felt great! Then we got up to the sound of Pumpkin peeping happily at us. As for our showers, we discovered that if we put her into her plexiglass travel cage, it sits perfectly on the toilet seat while each of us showers…perfect! Pumpkin adores the sound of splashing water so this way she can be in the bathroom with us, whistling and carrying on like the silly girl she is. :) Because we'd done a "trial run" of staying in our RV on our property, there were absolutely no problems with taking showers and getting our day started…how awesome is that?! :) Once Steve had dressed, we set Pumpkin up in her cage and took Molly out on her leash and I took my Sony with me to get some early morning pictures. What a lovely day it was!! Wisps of clouds dotted the bright blue sky and the rippling water twinkled with sun shining on it…so pretty!! I walked out onto the floating dock down to the far end and sat down to soak up the atmosphere. The singing of the birds in the trees was so wonderful to hear. I could see the thick marsh not far off that was a din of birds making all variety of noises. It sounded like an over-booked convention and I looked forward to getting a closer look either today or tomorrow in a canoe. For now, I took pictures of a coot which was swimming around in the reeds, a pair of mallards and some too-far-away ducks I'd never seen before. Got a few pictures of grebes too. None of the birds were really close enough though. I'll cross my fingers for better pictures at some point during our stay. (my last inset shows where I sat!) (By the way, last night I got some really nice pictures of some Brewer's Blackbirds and I hope to get those processed and posted at some point. There is a flock that lives at the resort so getting pictures is a simple thing.) It was the perfect temperature to just sit and enjoy this amazing place…how fortunate we were to have this chance to stay at Upper Klamath Lake! What a pleasure. After enjoying the lovely solitude and beauty for a while, I made my way back to our home away from home and at noon we had a brunch of eggs and sausage with avocado on the side. YUM! Steve is now performing a bit of minor repair to Pumpkin's small hiking cage. We'll take her with us on a little walk along the shoreline while Molly guards the homestead. :) We won't go too far but it's sure to be great fun. :) We just got back from our walk! There was no trail along the shore…much too rocky…but there was a road which followed the lake and there are no cars so it was peaceful and beautiful. We wandered for about a mile or so and stopped at a pretty resort where we all enjoyed some snacks at a picnic table overlooking the lake and its little marina. Pumpkin had a lovely time with us and enjoyed the attention of some folks who came by, totally amazed that we took our parrot with us in a hiking cage! :) When we told them that she's been to Yosemite and loves Tuolomne Meadows and the famous Mist Trail they were properly impressed! :) Our girl's been around and she loves it! :) Well, the barbeque is heating up and we'll be having steak for dinner so it's time to close this report for now! :) My main picture is a view down one side of the RV park's dock with Steve at the end, hands behind his back, appreciating the view. I love this picture because it shows the amazing view of the lake, the dock, and Steve, who was largely responsible for making this dream come true for us. He is content and happy. Everything has worked out perfectly. We did it right. We took our time. This is our reward. How cool is that? :) I'm including a number of insets: PiP #1: My view as I peeked out the window of my "nest" this morning! (This image is poor quality but the view isn't! :D) PiP #2: A beautiful view just a few feet from our RV out onto the lake first thing this morning! PiP #3: A pretty view of the left-side dock with a framing of trees PiP #4: This is where I sat at the end of the dock this morning, drinking in the beauty and serenity of this place. Isn't it amazing? :) Pam, I am sending my happiest wishes your way! And thank you so much for your lovely comments about my trip so far! We're having a lovely time! *BIG HUGS* Explored on 4/24/19, highest placement, #1.

(Invitation to my next project info at the bottom AND I have a new group for our projects: Janet's Photography Projects [temporary name]) I've got folders brimming with finished pictures that I'd like to post at some point, and while I was looking for images which contained numbers of objects from 1-10, I discovered this one, which is among my favorites since it also has a story to go with it. One morning Steve and I got up and he went down to the kitchen to get breakfast, when I heard him exclaim in surprise. Pulling my clothes on, I dashed down to see what the excitement was alll about. Pointing to our aluminum recycling can, he said, "Janet, there is a garter snake in that corner behind the can!" He continued his story as we both moved to each side of the can, explaining, " I came into the kitchen and turned on the light, and I found it in the middle of the room! The second it saw me, it raced to find a place to hide...how in the world did it get into the kitchen???!" I shook my head in wonder. "I have no idea...maybe there is a small hole under the cabinets?" Steve moved the can while I guarded one side, and quickly and gently, Steve reached in and grabbed the harmless snake behind the head to keep it from possibly biting and lifted it up, supporting its sinuous body in his other hand. It tried to escape, but like me, Steve's owned snakes and we've caught many wild garter snakes as kids and know how to hold them safely and securely. It calmed down quickly when it found it could not get away, the rest of its body intertwined around Steve's fingers. We appreciated its lovely markings for a moment and then I traded with him so I could hold it too. Snakes feel wonderful to hold. They have lovely textures and it's amazing to feel them moving along with thier muscular, ungulating bodies. Steve got my camera and took some pictures of me holding it, and then we walked outside and released it about 100 feet from the house. From the time we discovered it to the time we released it was only about 10 minutes, because we wanted to cause it as little stress as possible. I am delighted by this image and am so happy that I can use it for my final picture in my 1-10 Project! A big thanks to my Project Buddies: Chrissy , Valfal (Valerie), Jenny McIntyre , Rachel , and Lynne , it was really wonderful having you along on this adventure! Great creativity and lots of fun!! This 1-10 Project was Chrissy's idea, and she also thought about doing a series of colors. The other day, Lynne approached me with a color theme too, with the addition of a rainbow scheme with enough colors that a weekly project will carry us through nearly to Christmas! I would like to extend an inviatation to anyone who would like to join us on this project! Let me know if you're interested and I'll add you to the list so that folks can see what you've come up with for each week too! Next project: Color Wheel! Next Week will be a pictures that features any shade of Red. The following weeks will be any shade of Pink, Orange, Yellow, Green, Blue, Purple, Brown, and then the non-colors of Black and White. You can restrict yourself to a single subject or you might like to have a theme, like flowers, things that are a certain shape, or whatever. It just needs to be the color of the week! :) I hope you'll consider joining us! Photography projects are a great way to be inspired and keep the creative juices going! Explored on September 30, 2014. Highest placement, #2.

This image was taken at the Josephine County Fair on August 20, 2011.

This photo was taken on July 2, 2011, while on the MeetUp hike to Lost Falls, near Ashland, Oregon

I was looking out our kitchen window and noticed some movement that didn't look like a bird. I looked again...and then I gasped and exclaimed to my husband, "Be very quiet, but look out the window! There's a FOX out there!!!" He then crept upstairs and opened the window to take pictures! You may notice that this fox is blind in its left eye and shows trauma to the surrounding area.

Photographed on the Rogue Gorge Trail, near Union Creek, Southern Oregon

Photographed near our bird feeders

This image was taken by my husband, Steve!

[best appreciated at full size against black] Last year I found a beautiful green moth on our porch, attracted by the light, and I took a picture with my older Canon camera. I wasn't really happy with the image but I had never seen a moth like this before, so I eventually cleaned it up and put it in my photostream. Last night I let the dogs out to take care of business, and when I turned to go back in again, LOOK WHAT I FOUND!!! This image (and the first one below) are fun because I was the "director of photography." Steve offered to help set up the tripod and flash, and since the moth was so high up, we got a chair and he stood on it to position the camera exactly as I wanted for each of these two shots. He then took the images using a special flash technique which tells the camera to meter the light on the moth, not for the whole image. A normally flashed image wouldn't work because the porch is white and the moth was coming out too dark. But this way the images turned out great! I hope you like them!! :D This image was taken on February 10, 2012.

Wow! Back to back TIME CRUNCH challenges! It's not 11:45 like last night but it's still 10:45 and I'm about to collapse! :D Today was Steve's 50th birthday!!! Such an important, wonderful day! Steve wanted to celebrate this day by setting a 50-mile challenge on our trikes, and that's exactly what we did! We did the first half as part of Steve's Sunday Lunch Ride, which was an absolutely beautiful ride around our greater neighborhood--we rode out to a nearby grocery/convienience store and met the group of 7 other riders, and did 25 miles, stopping in the middle for lunch at the beautiful Touvelle State Park, which is on the Rogue River. After the ride we rode home, relaxed for an hour, had a cup of coffee and took off again, for another 25-mile ride! The second ride took us over to Rogue River Drive, another very pretty road which we really enjoy. It was such fun and we were conditioned enough for the distance because neither of us was overly tired when we got back to our front gate! How wonderful to do something so good for us and such a super challenge as well!! After jumping in the shower for the third time today, we got ourselves dressed and out the door quickly so we could make it out to Medford in time to have dinner at Outback Steak House...mmmmm....what a tasty feast we had, and a perfect finish to a perfect day! HAPPY BIRTHDAY STEVE!! I'M SO PROUD OF US BOTH!!! :D Marie Dressler (November 9, 1868 – July 28, 1934) was a Canadian-American actress and Depression-era film star. She won the Academy Award for Best Actress in 1930-31 for Min and Bill. Wikipedia: Marie Dressler

Steve and I celebrated our 4th year wedding anniversary a few days ago, so we went out to see a movie (Moneyball, it was great!). Afterwards, Steve saw one of those silly photo booths and dragged me in for some fun! As you can see, we had a great time! As you can also see, the quality of the printing for these photo booths has decended into the darkest pits of Hades! WOW...we couldn't believe how awful the quality was. The paper was thin and crappy, the images aren't even full color, and the resolution, exposure, EVERYTHING, is so horrible as to be laughable. However...the pictures turned out cute anyway! Just imagine if the quality was even a little bit better! I'll be posting pictures a little bit later, but until now, this will have to do!

This is my next set of 5 images from our trip to Tunnel 13. Here is my husband, showing how silly he can be! :D By the way, if you haven't visited, Steve would love to share his images with you! Take a peeky here: www.flickr.com/photos/steves-visions Thanks to all of you who have left comments and fav'ed my images! I appreciate them all! If you leave a comment, I try very hard to return the favor on the same day. I consider it both a compliment that you've taken the time to tell me what you think about my image(s) and an invitation for me to come see your photography as well! For those of you who may not know, there is a very fun, free Flickr competition site which you might like to take part in. It's called FlickrDuel and features dozens of ongoing competitions, or duels every day. You can enter your pictures into many different categories and vote on contests too. It's another way to enjoy your photography! This image was taken on Saturday, November 12, 2100.

Steve and I got the opportunity to go on a private tour of the High Cascade Emu Ranch back in May, and we even got to visit the nursery! In fact, everyone who wanted to hold a baby Emu was given the opportunity, and we were allowed to hold our chick for as long as we wanted! Kay, who is one of the owners of High Cascade Emu Ranch , gently picked up one baby after another out of the brooder and nestled each into our protective hands. Then the room was full of cooing and sounds of pure bliss and peeping babies. Here is a picture of Steve cradling his baby, lost in love. Below you will see a picture of one of the photographers, Amanda Richter , and a picture taken by my friend Nancy Magruder , of me, showing us in pure bliss with our little babies!