Taking in Life Around Me.....#Sundaystills Theme: Monthly Color Challenge: Pink/Double dip with #WQ

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.

Well it's the monthly color challenge and the color is Pretty in Pink!! Pink is a color I like, but rarely wear. I don't have it in decor, but I love it in nature. 

I am going to double dip this week and include #WQ by Marsha over at Always Write, since her theme lines up with Terri's. The theme there for this Wednesday is Flowers/Pink. I'm thankful I got to meet these two gals in person and I love these two challenges. 

Our town has both a bulb farm and popular lilac gardens. Over the years, the Holland America Bulb farm has downsized it's public viewing garden and no longer have a festival which is sad, but I still try to go and look at the show garden. 

This is one of my favorite quotes from a poem by Emerson. I can just envision the earth laughing with joy as flowers emerge. 

The Hulda Klager Lilac Gardens are very popular. This year I went for the first time in many many years. 

The Rhododendron (which I can never spell) is Washingtons state flower. I took this one on a recent walk on our road. I used to hate them growing up because I had to go out and pull off the dead flowers, which were sticky! Right now we are on a weekend trip on Anderson Island, Wa and they are all over the place here.  

Okay, I know these pictures are NOT good, but how cool are these fish. Last Wednesday, the grandkids wanted to go to the pet store. I just couldn't leave without a picture. WOW!

These pink flowers are in one of my daughters outside planters. So pretty. I don't know what they are called.

What a beautiful quote..I had to look up what she possibly meant by that quote. One reference in Bloom Magazine UK said: Pink connotes nurture, power, love, and desire, and Hepburn ensured these traits and feelings were available for mid-century women to achieve and obtain.

The site The Successful Spirit, says that the mention of pink could be interpreted as a symbol of courage and positivity. 

Perhaps it is simply that pink makes you feel pretty and feminine. 

We can't leave out these cute tie dye shirts my daughter made with the kids. Tie Dye makes Pepper very happy. She loves it. 

Years ago when we were developing our property, I had planted some dahlia bulbs...amazingly they grew into some beauties. I was armed with my first DSLR and a kit lens that I actually grew to love. The above 3 photos were ones I took one day after it had rained. I had some red ones too. 

I thought I'd throw this one in above...I took it at our county fair quite a few years ago..it was a fluke it turned out like this. My hubby had it made into a canvas. 

These tulips were ones from the Wooden Shoe Tulip farm..I love them. 

Each flower is so unique, so special, sometimes we don't know what it will look like until it blossoms.

If I saw a pink house in the US, I might question the sanity of the homeowner..actually, our house growing up, when we first moved in was salmon pink...now I need to go find a photo. Anyways...not a fan of bright colored houses.....unless I'm on the islands of Murano and Burano, Italy. THEN, they are absolutely stunning! Bright house colors take on a whole new meaning. 

This is how I feel the houses in Italy were...they exuded an attitude, a culture, a confidence! They had a purpose. You also just felt happy when you walked by them. 

My daughter taking pictures. 

A cottage garden in Switzerland. It was so beautiful. 

This mural was in the town of Littleton, NH. I love murals.

Inside an awesome toy museum in Queechee, Vermont. 

Sunrise off the Kelley's Island, Ohio beach on Lake Erie. 

Two of my favorite things in nature are sunrises and sunsets. I always say that God paints the most beautiful pictures in nature! 

Catching a sunset in Plymouth, Mass. So beautiful. 

With Joy Unquenchable,

Kirstin