Taking in Life Around Me.....#Sundaystills....Theme: Monthly Color challenge-Red

This #sundaystills challenge is hosted by Terri from Second Wind Leisure. It's a great themed photography challenge that you'll enjoy. I love seeing the other participants interpretation of the theme each week...it causes me to think outside the box. I joined in hopes of it pushing me to get out and take more photos...I have to some degree, but I also like that Terri is okay with us finding photos in our archives, which is also a lot of fun. So check out my photos and then head over to Terri's page to participate or visit other's posts. There are some awesome contributors who always inspire me.

This weeks theme is a monthly color challenge and since it's February, the color is any shade of red. I actually took some time to go out and take some pictures. I went one morning before work, and as I was driving, I saw a few more places I wanted to take pictures of but I didn't have time. The next morning I completely forgot where I had seen them...I mean, I live in a small town for crying out loud...how could I forget. Oh well. I also went and a pulled a few from my older photos. I am definitely attracted to the color red. 

Our town is split in half by I-5..the west side would be considered Woodland Proper, though the boundaries of the city limits have been pushed to the east side of the freeway as well. But this is old town woodland with it's old original buildings, and mostly smaller businesses. I noticed a few weeks ago they had put up these banners on all the light posts lining the main street. At night there are red lights around the poles as well.  

Above and below photo are from the coffee shop my daughters work for. This one in the old part of town is just a drive through. Both of my girls worked here for awhile and when they built a cafe further south in town, my youngest moved to work at that one. Our oldest now works remotely, mostly doing hiring and managing their social media. The owners are Canadian (hence the maple leaf), but moved to Washington over 20 years ago and started this business..they now have 6 stores.

This little Mexican restaurant has been many things over the years I lived here...It was once a pizza place that changed hands a few times and was rumored to be selling pot from the back...haha...I don't know if that was ever true, but now it's a Mexican restaurant. We can't pronounce the name, we always get their Asada Burritos, so we just call it The Burrito Place.

When I was taking my granddaughter to the bathroom at Fred Meyer's last week, these caught my eye. There were about 4 or 5 of them lining the wall. 

Of course the Valentine displays were out in full force. I'm not a huge fan of roses, but they were pretty. I like the mixed bouquets the best. 

A few older ones...I loved this dahlia I grew many years ago. Red is definitely one of my favorite colors. 

Tulips are another favorite flower, right up there with dahlias. These were from the Wooden Shoe Tulip Festival in Woodburn, Oregon. 

In NYC we found these two...what would you call them, sculpture/statue/piece of art...anyways, Love, and hope...we wondered if there was another one with Faith on it somewhere else in the city. Probably not. 

Of course on that trip to NYC, we hopped on a ferry over to Hoboken, NJ and went to Carlos bakery, decked out in Red!

Here in our little town is the home of Holland America Bulb Farms. The owners immigrated here from Holland probably over 40 years ago and started this wonderful little farm, that has grown immensely. Each year they would host a tulip festival. It has changed quite a bit over the years, but I still like going down and browsing the rows in the "show garden". They used to have vendors, etc...but have since had to stop that part of it all.This tulip caught my eye with it's interesting red center. 

Red Rhubarb stalks at one of the Portland Farmers markets. This one located on the campus of PSU is huge and we love going to it. 

My daughter in red, in Venice, Italy, doing what she loves, taking photos. 

So much red in various shades to be found in Italy and Switzerland. 

I spied a few of these signs while on our trip to the NE states. They caught my eye because I can honestly say I haven't seen a sign like that around. here. I don't drink coca cola anymore, but loved the sign).

We came across a few red covered bridges on our trip east, and I will at some point do a post on all of the bridges we saw...I'm just trying to finish my posts about our trip...I'm on day 5. We were gone for 10 days, though 2 were mostly travel.

We stopped at The Magic Wings Butterly Conservatory in South Deerfield, MA and it was so cool. So many unique butterflies, moths, and other animals. I could probably do a whole post just about that place. 

Finally, this firehouse in Boston caught my eye with it's red doors and red brick. Too bad there wasn't a truck in that open bay.

Hope you enjoyed the photos this week. I can never seem to just narrow them down to one or two. 

With Joy Unquenchable,

Kirstin