Taking in Life Around Me....Sunday Stills

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.

Wow. Has it really been a month since I've posted to Sunday Stills? Life has been just a bit crazy and I just couldn't make posting happen. 

This weeks theme is leaves of autumn or spring. I may not go crazy with fall decor (I have two tubs compared to about 8 Christmas ones). However, I do ABSOLUTELY LOVE fall leaves. Not the rain, and gloom, and losing daylight in the afternoon, but fall leaves, I adore! This year they seem to really be popping around here. Brighter and more in number than I've seen in a long time. Several other people have commented the same. Most of my photos this week are from past falls, but I do have some recent ones. 

I loved these leaves stuck in between the trees. 

A road somewhere in SW Washington. I went with a friend several years ago to find fall leaves to photograph. 

Battleground Lake in Battle Ground, Wa is beautiful in fall. 

The leaves in the NE states were amazing. We hit peak season. 

One of our local lakes in Longview is stunning in the fall. I haven't gotten around to it in awhile so I'm afraid I missed the peak colors this year. 

The leaves on the grape vines during my visit to Ohio were so pretty and vibrant. 

Our hill going up to our house is my favorite in the fall. I love watching the leaves change colors each week.

The lake in Longview again..taken several years ago. 

Okay, so I found these as well. They were taken 17 years ago when my hubby and I went to Leavenworth, Wa for our anniversary. We are actually heading there this coming Saturday for 4 nights. It was supposed to be a surprise for me, but hubby accidentally spilled the beans. I felt bad for him. He was so mad at himself. Leavenworth is so beautiful. 

When I spied this photo I laughed. One thing I've been wanting to see after joining some hiking pages, etc. were larches. Larches are a deciduous pines as opposed to an evergreen. Teri has shared some on her page. Their leaves/needles turn from green to gold and then drop. Knowing we were heading to Leavenworth, I wondered if we would see any. As I looked up more about them, I was crushed to learn that the leaves drop and I would probably never see them. Jump ahead to looking for photos for this post. I found this one from a hike we took on that long ago trip to Leavenworth. I spotted that tree in the distance and thought "WHAT! I HAVE seen a Larch, and didn't even know it." I never really paid attention. Isn't that funny how life works. Isn't it a little sad that we don't really pay attention to everything around us. Side note..my hubby looks excited because we didn't think we'd ever find this lake, we thought we might have gotten off track. 

With Joy Unquenchable,

Kirstin