Dogwood Tree Blossoms
Terri Webster Schrandt

Sunday Stills Monthly Color Challenge: Tickled #Pink

June’s monthly color challenge is any shade of pink. Aren’t you tickled pink by that news? I’m sharing the color collage one last time.

Gemstone colors
Original Photo by Karolina Grabowska on Pexels.com

Meteorological summer may have started in the Inland Northwest, but Spring is still hanging around a bit although temps are warming into the 70 F range. This time last year, we were enduring a rare drought and heat into the 90s and 100s! Cooler temps are the norm, and occasional scattered rain showers happen during summer. As you can see, recent evening thunderstorms made for interesting sky colors.

pinks stormy skies
Crazy pink evening!

“Pink is a beautiful color, because it is one of the colors that the sun makes at twilight and in the dawns.”
― C. JoyBell

Here in the Inland Northwest, May and early June are months where spring is a riot of pink flower blooms, tree blossoms, and even pink weeds. Let’s take a look at those fabulous pink florals.

Going to the Dogwoods

The first time I saw the pink dogwood tree in Spokane in May 2015, I knew I needed one of my own.

Dogwood Tree Pretty in Pink
Dogwood Tree Pretty in Pink
Dogwood Trees bloom in May

Hubby and I did some volunteering at a local nursery/farm last fall for which we received 8 trees of our choice. We planted the 4-foot tall baby dogwood in the front yard in early April! Its blooms were waning by the time we got it but it will soon grow to look like the blooms on the right and the trees above.

Dogwood Tree Blossom
Our Dogwood Tree Blossom
Dogwood Tree Blossoms

Around the Neighborhood

Lot’s of pink to be seen in the neighborhood. Even these weeds are tickled pink this spring with all this rainfall! Sadly, many of these weeds are going to seed and causing eye allergies for my little dog Aero.

Weeds are tickled pink
Weeds are tickled pink

Not exactly pink, but lilac bushes are everywhere. If you get close enough to breathe in their scent, you will see the dark pink colors of the buds.

Local Lilacs
Lilacs!

While walking around my daughter’s neighborhood in San Diego in Fall 2020, I was excited to see the pale pink plumeria, so common in her area.

pink plumeria
Pale pink Plumeria

Pretty in Pink for Family Time

I was tickled pink when we hosted my brother and his partner over the Memorial Day Holiday Weekend. They had never been to the Spokane area before. We also visited the historic town of Wallace, Idaho where my brother-in-law has a long-time friend. Because Montana was only 12 miles away, we stepped foot into the town of Saltese, all in one day!

Family time in Wallace, Idaho
Family time in Wallace, Idaho

We were also excited to show them our two area hydroelectric dams that create Lake Spokane (aka Long Lake) from the Spokane River. With all the extra rain and snow, the thundering water and mist from both dams could be felt and heard from the road!

“Just find your way, like a river settling into its bed, and the sigh of the wind over a lake, light but restful… content with the joy in the arc of an arm throwing a ball for a dog to fetch.”
– Jay Woodman

Long Lake Dam Overlook, Spokane WA
Visiting Long Lake Dam
Long Lake Dam at Overlook area

You’ll notice the pinkish color of the brick on the hydroelectric pump building, as well as my pink shirt and Brodie’s pink tongue.

Road Trip Travel Prep

If we were having coffee this week, I would ask some forgiveness as my next set of Sunday Stills posts will be brief. We are preparing for a month-long road trip that involves pulling our travel trailer, packing for two dogs, loading and unloading, and taking time for recreation. Hans is busily getting the truck and trailer in ship shape for travel. We will drive through a total of six states as we visit family and friends and will likely log over 2600 miles. Luckily we do not have to pull the trailer past Northern California, so the fuel sticker shock will be a little easier to handle. Gas prices have risen to nearly $6.50 per gallon in most of California and have already climbed to $5 per gallon here in Eastern Washington.

During my trip, I will only be taking two days off from hosting Sunday Stills. I will continue to approve, read and share your fabulous posts. Visit the Sunday Stills page for details.

We hope to spend time with fellow bloggers in San Diego and Phoenix areas, so if you live in those areas, please reach out, if I haven’t already contacted you!

Photo Challenges this Week

Each week I am inspired by my fellow bloggers’ photo challenges. I find it fun to incorporate these into my Sunday Stills weekly themes when possible and hit the jackpot this week!

Sunday Stills Photo Challenge Reminders

Sunday Stills weekly challenge is easy to join. You have all week to share and link your post.

  • Remember to title your blog post a little differently than mine.
  • Please create a new post for the theme or link a recent one.
  • Entries for this theme can be posted all week.
  • Tag your post “Sunday Stills.”
  • Don’t forget to create a pingback to this post so that other participants can read your post.
  • I also recommend adding your post’s URL to the comments.

This Week’s Featured Bloggers

Thank you for your consistent readership and link-ups to Sunday Stills! I get an average of 25-35 links for each post and I’m thrilled with your engagement. Below are this week’s links from bloggers who tickled me pink with their pink-themed photos.

Join me next week as we celebrate the Summer (or Winter) solstice.

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128 comments

  2. I so love dogwoods…one of those trees that just always catches my eye! I hope your trip goes well and I know full well how much work is involved in getting ready to depart. I would’ve love to meet you as you’d be passing right thru our area in So Cal to get to San Diego. But we won’t be back til August timeframe. Looking forward to hearing more about your trip. Have to agree with @photobyjohmbo that the pink sunset pic is amazing.

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    • Thank you so much, Cheryl. I will have to pick your brain about long road trips! We’ve had some amazing sunsets here lately. Last night, we drove home from South Spokane area at around 8:30 and the sunset was molten gold surrounding gray thunderheads. I was driving and didn’t get a decent photo, but it was a delight to the eyes! I’m sorry to miss you, but perhaps one of these days!

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  3. So beautiful Terri. I love dogwoods and want to get one for my yard. On a recent walk with my grandson I showed him one and said it was a dogwood (trying to teach him names of things)….I asked him if he remembered what it was called and he said “dog bones”…lol. Too cute.
    Marsha mentioned you ladies coming to the portland area later this summer…I hope I’m able to connect with you. How fun to go on a month long road trip. I think I would love that.
    https://troyerslovinglife.blogspot.com/2022/06/taking-in-life-around.html

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    • Thank you, Kirstin! I saw your link early and already included in the early bird round-up! Dogwoods are amazing, and so many trees deliver amazing colors twice a year! It would so fun to meet you in person if you can swing it! I think our road trip will be a bit exhausting, LOL!

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  14. Wow Terri – a pink sky! That’s pretty amazing. Enjoyed your series this week as our pink flowers are all but gone by now. Have a wonderful trip, drive safe and ignore the sticker shock of the petrol. Remember our European counterparts have lived with it for years!

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    • Thanks, Tina! Almost every day during our “spring” there are some fabulous photo ops in the skies. Many of the pinks around town have dissipated too, but for some reason they are hanging on a little longer in our micro-climate zone. One good thing about our travels plans is we can leave the trailer in Sacramento and drive without it for the southern part of the trip. We have two empty credit cards at the ready!

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  17. Beautiful pinks, Terri. I love the dogwood and lilacs, and I wish plumeria grew in our area. The weather has been unseasonably chilling, but the warm days will come. So glad you had time to enjoy with family. And have a wonderful time on your up and coming trip! Sounds like an adventure. 🙂

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  22. It is always so nice to see WA wake up in the Spring. There is a reason everything grows there. I love the plumeria from your daughters neighborhood, that was a welcome sight from 2020 for sure.

    Spokane. is always a great place to visit. Nice you had family with you. Enjoy your continued travels. Donna

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  23. Terri,
    Real men love pink, and you can count me among them. I love the color and wear it all the time. Your pictures are great and the sky is my favorite although I’m partial to pink Dogwoods. Your trip sounds great and I am eager to see the pictures. If you get to see Ingrid and Al, please tell them hello for us. My contribution is a picture of some hot pink Rhododendrons we spotted in Klamath, CA. Have a great week. Joe

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    • Thank you, Joe. I can get my hubby to wear “salmon” pink (he’d rather eat it)! The skies and dogwoods have been amazing in their pinkness lately. Wow, those rhododendrons! We hope to meet a variety of bloggers on this trip!

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  25. You hit the jackpot with pink. Next year, if I’m still doing WQW, we need to align our colors. However, is this your last color shot? The pink evening shot looked amazing but I think I like to gorgeous color of the dogwoods. We didn’t see too many of those in CA, but tons in OR. I missed them. There are a few here, but it might be a little dry here for them to flourish. I’m getting so excited about your trip. Are you going to stop to see Anne Sandler in Sacramento? You are going to have so much fun. I can almost taste it! (It’s pink like cotton candy!)

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    • There was so. much. pink, LOL! I still have the rest of the year for colors since I’m doing one per month. I tried to line up with birthstones, but not completely. Jude was doing a color challenge in 2021 and it worked out the last half of the year when I discovered it. I’m trying to work ahead and schedule post. At least I got my July themes worked out after several attempts! Sacramento will be tricky to see too many people. I will literally have to wait for the wind, so if Hans windsurfs a few hours a day, I’ll drive from the delta to Sacramento (about an hour’s drive) to see some folks. It will go by so quickly. I’ll call you this week!

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  33. Terri, believe me, or not, I got unfollowed your blog. I got you back from Marsha’s blog. The link sky is something. I studied the light and colors of different hours in the day but forgot what caused the link sky. I love the lovely pale plumeria. So glad you had a wonderful family time. Thank you for contacting Diana about our get-together. She looks forward to our meeting. Would you send me an email so I can have your email also? mhurdle7@gmail.com

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    • That unfollow glitch has happened to me as well! Glad you reconnected, Miriam! I had plumeria plants when I lived in Sacramento, but the were dark pink. I kept them in pots and rehomed them to my daughter in San Diego. She had two of mine in her backyard and of course, all over her neighborhood! I will email you!

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  35. It sounds like you are enjoying as fabulous weather and beautiful days as we are here 🙂 70F is so much more enjoyable compared to 90-100F. I envy your upcoming roadtrip, how fun! Everything except perhaps the gas prices.. Your photos are beautiful. Have a lovely trip!

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  40. I love Dogwood trees too Terri, and when I left work my colleagues bought one for me as a farewell gift. It will take a few more years before it flowers but I’m prepared to wait. Your pinks are all lovely and I too am in the pink as I’m visiting with my daughter and grandson. Also I love the beautiful pink sunset, captured beautifully.
    My post mentions Sunday Stills briefly! https://debs-world.com/2022/06/12/may-was-a-busy-month-icymi/

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  52. Fabulous pinks, Terri! I love the pink dogwood trees and the lilacs are gorgeous! Hope you have a wonderful road trip, despite the price of gas! 😄 We paid the most ever in April on our road trip, on the central California coast, 6.50 a gallon! Yikes! Still, it was worth it! Enjoy the sunshine! 🌞

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  55. What fabulous ping skies you have, Terri. Glad to hear the temps are not as hot as they were this time last year. I like my late springs to be warm with chilly mornings but not too hot and humid.

    So pleased your brother and his partner enjoyed their stay with you. It looks like you visited lots of places with them.

    Here’s my entry for this week.

    Do you have these old-fashioned sweetshops in the U.S.A? They stock all my old favourite childhood sweets.

    I am looking forward to hearing all about your long trip. It sounds like a fantastic upcoming adventure.

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    • It rained all day here yesterday, Hugh, and washed all the pink away 😉 Thank you, I was happy to capture the crazy weather–we have so many windows in our house, outdoors is hard to miss.
      Love that image you shared of the sweet shoppe–our closest shops are donut shops, but I remember an old fashioned shop in the Old Sacramento Waterfront area that had taffy and other old-time delights. As of today, Hans is off work as a substitute, and we have much to do to get packed and ready for the trip!

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  56. So much pretty pink! We took lunch to my aunt yesterday, and since she’s always up for an experiment, we made a beet potato soup…which was pink. And a cherry pie, also kinda pink. And pink was Katie’s color. So I’m enjoying all your pink-ness!

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  64. These sure are pretty in pink pics Terri. That Dogwood tree is gorgeous. I can’t say if I’ve seen one before. I thought we had one years ago with green and white leaves here at the house, but I am sure I would remember it blooming. Lucky you to take this trip. A fellow blogger and her husband and their pets (two dogs and a cat) left Montana to head home to Michigan yesterday. It is a 5,000-mile trip, but wait … they have been on the road since last September and logged 8,000 miles from Michigan out to Montana, with many stops along the Gulf Coast. A trip of a lifetime – her husband just retired a few weeks before they embarked on their trip, a large RV and hauling their Jeep behind them. She is a birder and photographer and saw/photographed 150 birds along the way!

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    • Thank you, Linda! Pink dogwoods are everywhere here. Most have leafed out now and are just a stunning green. We are using our 27-foot travel trailer to sleep in on our journey south, but will park the trailer with a friend in Sacramento before we head south to San Diego and Phoenix since we can stay with family in those cities. Then we drive back to Sacramento to get the trailer and head to Reno, NV for a camping/visit for my Dad’s birthday in mid-July. Last leg puts us in Boise Idaho on the way back to Spokane. Talk about logistics! I do all the planning, hubby just drives, LOL! Your friends sound like they have the life! That’s a lot of mileage!

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      • Your agenda is ambitious Terri! Hubby does the driving for my friends’ trip as well. They took bicycles for on the trails they visit, plus had the Jeep for bigger trips, so they really got around!

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  72. Can almost smell those lilacs. And aren’t they delicious? Interesting how all those of pink-ish blossoms are very similar in shape and size. I went to college in Knoxville, Tennessee where they have a dogwood festival every spring. The city is alive with the beautiful trees.

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