Painnt Filter Forest
Terri Webster Schrandt

Sunday Stills: June is Great #Outdoors Month

June is Great Outdoors Month, according to the National Park Service (NPS).

Spending time outdoors not only yields many health benefits, but social and economic benefits as well. Sources tell us it takes 60-70 days until a new habit becomes automatic. Walking, hiking, and cycling outdoors are fairly easy habits to begin and sustain. If you start now, just think, in 60 days you will have a new, healthy habit that you will want to keep doing.

National Trails Day, held on the first Saturday in June, and National Get Outdoors Day, held on the second Saturday in June, are also ways to celebrate the great outdoors in June and all summer. And it can be anywhere.

Rural Mountain road

“You’re off to great places, today is your day. Your mountain is waiting, so get on your way.” – Dr Seuss

For my southern hemisphere friends who are enjoying winter, I know you have many ways to enjoy the outdoors this time of year; skiing, snowshoeing?? Tell us more, or show us your favorite summer outdoor places.

In the great outdoors, what activities do you enjoy? Hiking, cycling, birding, swimming, paddling, gardening, camping, fishing, BBQ-ing? The list is endless!

Let’s start in our own backyards.

Being in the Great Outdoors isn’t only all about the big, grand national parks. Most folks live in some kind of dwelling that has a yard, maybe both front and back, or at least access to a neighborhood park or walking trail. I have been fortunate to have nice backyards in which to sit, unwind, feel the breeze or sunshine, etc. Maybe your own backyard is enough outdoors for you.

“If ever I go looking for my heart’s desire again, I won’t look any further than my own backyard. ~ Dorothy Gale, The Wizard of Oz

Birding and Gardening then…

Although small, the backyard of our former home in Sacramento had 5 large redwood trees that I planted from seedlings, multiple sunflowers, and plumeria, …

sunflower and garden view
Backyard View
Reading and lounging
Reading with Brodie
Plumerias
Plumeria
Backyard textures
Backyard Deck

… and of course lots of bird visitors, including Annas’ hummingbirds and black-headed grosbeak!

Michigan Bluff Annas Hummingbirds
Annas Hummingbirds
Evergreen hummingbird
Is a hummingbird really ever satisfied?
Hummingbirds' quest for food
Grosbeak Feeder

…And now…

When we made the move to Eastern Washington, I never imagined how wonderful the rural lifestyle is. Neighbors are close enough for a friendly wave but far enough away if you know what I mean. Living on 3/4 acres gives us lots of creativity to plant veggies, trees, and flowers. Hubby built these planter boxes out of scrap lumber. The quaking aspens on the right are over 12 feet tall in just 18 months.

Rural Backyard
Backyard with dog photobomb
quaking aspens
South View of backyard

This May I added many more potted flowers including petunias.

purple hydrangea
New purple hydrangea
Purple Night Sky Petunia
Night Sky Petunia
Red petunias
Red Petunias
Barn door with decor
She-Shed Decor

My neighbor had too many irises and gave me a bunch. One bloomed!

Purple iris budBudding purple iris
I have a budding Iris! Stay tuned!

“There is nothing quite so delightfully mysterious as a secret in your own backyard.”
~ Patrick Rothfuss

We have lots of bird visitors, including robins, swallows, hummingbirds, and ravens to name a few. We live close to the lake so bald eagles flying overhead are not an uncommon sight.

Feeding Hummingbird
9 Mile Falls Hummingbird
Western Bluebird
Bald Eagle circle Lake Couer D'Alene
Bald Eagle hunting
Robin scanning for tasty treats
Robin scanning for tasty treats, a bug maybe?

Bugs Like Our Backyards, Too

If there are flowers and birds in your backyard, guess what? Insects and spiders live there, too. Here are a couple of new ones, and a favorite oldie.

Ladybug loves Lupine
Ladybug loves Lupine
Dotted Blue Butterfly
Oh, Hello! Dotted Blue Butterfly
yellow bee sunflower
Incoming!

“The world of your photography is limitless–just like your backyard.” ~ Nick Kelsh

Are you a fan of your own backyard, or would you rather explore the great outdoors on a grander scale?

Challenges I’m Inspired By this Week

Each week I find inspiration from my fellow bloggers’ photo challenges. I enjoy incorporating these into my Sunday Stills weekly themes.

Sunday Stills Photo Challenge Reminders

The Sunday Stills weekly-themed photo 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

Sunday Stills is a wonderful community of bloggers, poets, and photographers who desire to connect with one another. Below are this week’s links from bloggers who shared their photos of The Great Outdoors. I add these all week as new links are posted.

Last week we focused on waterscapes. For those of you who don’t get around water much or if you missed posting last week for the water theme, please hop in this week with your waterscapes! They’re outdoors, right? Now get outdoors and enjoy!

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Join me each Wednesday in June as we celebrate more outdoor fun. Have a great week!

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142 comments

  6. Lovely outdoors Terri! But need to be prepared with hat and water which I wasn’t yesterday, and so came back after just 2 hours of walking in the sun 🥵.
    Here’s my post about an exhibition about outdoor activity 😂https://flightsofthesoul.wordpress.com/2023/06/06/travel-tuesday-boats-in-a-hall/

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  12. Lovely to see the trees, flowers and birds in both your old backyard and current home 🙂 We don’t celebrate those days here but your challenge comes at a great time for me as I’m just back from spending a week in Norway, much of it out of doors. So thank you for the excuse to share some of my favourite shots of the stunning landscape north of the Arctic Circle: https://www.toonsarah-travels.blog/gallery-in-the-land-of-the-midnight-sun/

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  16. Gee, where to start on the beauty of Summer … you have captured it all Terri, from your backyard in Sacramento, to your backyard here in Eastern Washington. The birds are delightful, especially the sweet little Hummers. I have never seen a Bluebird – maybe someday. We do have them in Michigan. Right now I have a surplus of meal worms as the Cardinals were not keen on them (wet or dry) – maybe I can coax a Bluebird to my house. Summer can be jam-packed or relaxing too … after all the snow you got this past Winter, beginning in November, I can see how you will want to enjoy every minute of this season!

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    • Thanks so much, Linda! Both backyards (had) have their own charm. When my first husband and I moved into the Sacramento house in 1988, there was a lot to do. It was mostly weeds. We divorced in 1995 and I slowly got outdoor projects done like the original deck, planting the redwoods, all that, over many years. Once current Hubby came along he did a mountain of work, plus we added on to that house. We thought we would stay there forever but nope. We got the itch to move. In any case all that improvement got us an amazing deal to help with our current home. Lots of work to do but when you’re retired, you can take your own time. As for the birds, we just installed a Cement birdbath and two doves have been visiting regularly. So fun. We opted for relaxing more this summer since we had that 3 week road trip in the spring.

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      • I am mixed on what to do with my backyard which was once my paradise, then I lost everything during the back-to-back Polar Vortexes in 2013 and 2014. Then my shed blew over in a big windstorm exposing a huge bare spot of cement on the easement. A quarter of the yard was burned from the downed wire in December. When DTE, our energy company, came to trim trees the day after the fire, they hacked up my two trees, so I have a tree cutter coming to take down the trees/remove the bushes. I am mixed what to do when retired. I thought I wanted to recreate my butterfly garden with all the perennials, yet the erratic weather gives me cause to pause. We have not had rain since May 18th and in early Spring we had rain almost every day – too much rain. Freeze warnings in mid-May. I have to make a decision … the trees and fire have destroyed the lawn … the simplest thing would be to just have grass back there and visit the venues which have beautiful gardens. (That’s a lazy approach, I know.) You had a long trip last Summer … I remember how hot it was for you.

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      • Wow, a lot happened to you, Linda! Maybe the lazy approach is the right answer as much as you go out and about. We are just now having a crazy windy, thunderstorm with large hail warning…I just moved some potted plants under our gazebo for now, Gotta love spring weather!

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      • That’s what I am thinking Terri and I can still have flowers, maybe just annuals. When I had my yard, with its yard art and also a lot of potted plants in baskets and containers in addition to the butterfly garden and roses, every time we were going to have a torrential rainstorm, hail or high winds, I used to round up everything that was not in the ground and put it under the patio roof to keep everything looking good. I really don’t miss that at all.

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      • So far no hail, but the potted flowers are under the gazebo. Hans was taking a fence from around our small young maple just when this thunderstorm blew in. The poor tree was flapping around, I thought it would snap in two. He got rhe 5-ft stakes back in and we bunjeed the tree to the stakes. Wow, it may be meteorological summer but spring is still here and acting quite nasty. My new normal, 🥴

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      • This new normal for weather is a force to reckon with. Today I was back in long sleeves in the house and outside too. Hope the hail didn’t materialize. We had a derecho here in SE Michigan in July 1980. It was called “The Green Storm” and was very scary. We had no damage at our house, but the main street had a grassy median at the time and the City had just planted young Maple trees along the entire length of this median (maybe 2 1/2 miles). The derecho blew through and mowed down every tree and they had to be removed – none could be salvaged. Our grass needed mowing and it looked like someone had a huge comb and combed it down. I was at work at the time in the 11th floor of an office building in Downtown Detroit. Luckily the senior partner was on a sailing vacation because when the derecho roared through, his corner office glass was shattered and he had many mementos (world traveler and 50 years in the law biz), all flew out the window. It was raining and blowing rain into his office, soaking the carpet. The vintage desk was ruined and paperwork and files fluttering around. I sat two doors away – very scary.

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  22. Summer looks like it’s in full swing in your part of the world, Terri. With only two more weeks until the longest day, it seems to have taken its time this year.

    The robins in your part of the world look so much different from those we see in our gardens in the UK. The wildlife you have visiting is lovely to see. Does the moose and deer visit at this time of the year? I’m thinking they would love all those plants to eat.

    Good to see you making the most of the outdoors. Your garden and decking look wonderful and a relaxing place to be. I have to smoother myself in factor50 suncream at this time of the year. I only have to be out for a few minutes before I can feel my skin burning. We also do more shady walks at this of the year.

    Enjoy the wonderful outdoors this summer. But cover up to protect yourself from the high UV levels (I’m sure you do).

    My entry will be in my Wordless Wednesday post today.

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    • Summer arrived early and brought some heat, but tomorrow we may get thunderstorms. I’m OK with that, LOL! We are having a large patio cover built soon over our deck since we have no shade on our property. That will increase our living space outside. The cover will have a white metal roof to match the other outbuilding roofs, and it will be attached to the existing roof of the house.

      We still get deer so we have to keep our young trees and tomatoes wrapped in fencing–no moose sightings so far. And yes, I wear sunscreen all year round! Combats dryness too.

      Thanks, Hugh for stopping by and linking. Glad you are also enjoying the great outdoors!

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      • We have quite a few trees that give shade during certain parts of the day in our garden, Terri. However, we also have sun umbrellas because the garden is south facing.

        It’s Factor 50 sunscreen for me all year because I’m fair-skinned. I’d forgotten about the benefits of it helping keep skin hydrated, so thanks for the reminder.

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      • Good to hear you’ve joined Mastodon, Terri. I’m still liking it, but it’s not generating much traffic. Most blogging people on it seem to be theme developers or build blocks for the block editor. However, lots of photography people there.

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  27. Beautiful birds and flowers! That first photo looks like a painting! Wowza! And how about that bluebird…💙
    I too enjoy June. And there is so much to do outside here at the lake.
    Keep enjoying your new yard…it’s truly a paradise!

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  31. A beautiful post Terri! Getting outdoors in any form is essential to one’s wellbeing. I’d like to think of the word ‘backyard’ as any and all of the nature places I visit on a regular basis, may it be close to work, home, or somewhere else that I visit on a regular basis. My allotment garden is probably the closest thing I have to a physical backyard, but my balcony isn’t that bad either, or the nearby hiking trails (ski tracks in the winter.) When I lived in NorCal I thought of Lassen Volcanic National Park as my backyard, since I spent almost every weekend there for a while. Today we’re celebrating the National Day of Sweden and the whole country is going outside to celebrate 🙂

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  39. I love my backyard, Terri. And this time of year is just glorious. But I also love getting out and hiking and exploring the great wilderness of our PNW. Beautiful photos, my friend. Enjoy every moment of your Outdoors Month. 🙂

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  46. What a delightful and refreshing place you have, Terri, although I know it took lots of work and will continue to do so. It’s a blessing to have a spot where you can go outside and relax, isn’t it? I love what you did with the header photo, BTW.

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  47. That’s interesting about the 60 days to a new hobby. I’ve started walking and treading and both did take a while to establish, but now, I can’t imagine not doing them. Great post, Terri!

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  48. Hooray for the Great Outdoors! What could be more therapeutic? I love all your photos, including your mysterious feature photo, the gorgeous hydrangea, and the amazing closeup of the butterfly! I love the quote from the Wizard of Oz and am also thankful for my own backyard! Hopefully I’ll be back later to participate in this week’s challenge. 🙂

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    • Thank you so much, Susanne! The feature photo is a trail walk in Portland OR, edited through a Painnt app filter. Isn’t that butterfly so cute? Lucky catch with my lumix on zoom and me trying to be still, LOL! I look forward to your “great outdoors!”

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    • Thank you, Beth. We got free seedlings at the California state fair over the years and I planted 6 total. One was still in a large pot that we ended up bringing to Washington with us…luckily it was a ponderosa pine which are native here.

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  53. Wow, Terri, these are such great photos. I think you have a White Morpho butterfly up close. That is a compelling shot. Your macro shots show the difference between using your iPhone and a good camera. The bee shot is fabulous. The shots are much clearer than mine and closer. You always get good hummingbird pictures, but these are fabulous. You are giving Brian a run for his money with your bird shots this week.

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  55. Love the bluebird, the dotted butterfly and the lady bug. I has also been fun to flow you as you have truly made your WA house a home. It seems like you just moved in and look at your thriving garden, your decorative shed and birdhouses/feeders. Lots going on outdoors at your place. Great theme, great photos, great motivation

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  59. You definitely have Mother Nature in abundance where you are.
    Our outdoor time is limited to the patio in the mornings right now but we still love it.
    XOXO
    Jodie

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    • Thank you, Jodie! In Sacramento I was glad to plant several redwoods to give that backyard shade. Here we planted 20 trees but it will be a while before we get shade. Enjoy your mornings while you can!

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  61. Beautiful flowers and deck, Terri! I would be out there all the time! Our backyard faces west and we have no trees, which means we have zero shade. There’s a cute little deck out back, but it doesn’t get used much. We sit out front on our tiny porch. At least I get to commune with the birds. LOL! We have several hawks in the woods in front of our housing area. They are fun to watch! Happy Sunday, my friend.

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    • Happy Sunday, Colleen, thank you! I do miss our deck in Sacramento surrounded by 5 redwoods I planted 30 years ago. Our current deck is much bigger but like yours faces west and with no trees, makes it a challenge to sit outside in the late afternoon even with a gazebo. We are awaiting a bid for a patio cover which will help. At least you have a nice front porch and lots of good birdwatching!

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      • Thanks Terri. Well, your Sacramento deck was a stunner. A patio cover will help. We added one to the house we owned in Colorado. It helped some. Eventually, we added sun blinds and that made all the difference. 💜

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  62. Wow, Terri, what a back yard you have! When we talk of a back yard over here it’s a very small enclosed space lol. Wonderful images, the butterfly is stunning and I always love birds and flowers.

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  64. What a lovely backyard you have Terri. I love sitting outside in the summer, not so much the winter. It’s the beginning of winter here and today we have had torrential rain. Anyway tomorrow we are off on a two week trip, stay tuned! 😎

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  65. I love seeing all the pops of color! Your She-Shed Decor is delightful. Wow, your trees grew very well, it gives me hope that our transplants will survive too. Summer is a happy time of year, I’m glad to see you’re taking time out to read and relax too. YAY!

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    • Thank you, Shelley! Sometimes I miss our backyard deck in Sacramento. It was full of shade and we could walk straight out from the main bedroom. Our new deck is taking shape with a patio cover soon to be installed. I could read more–happy summer to you!

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      • You’re welcome! I haven’t moved in over 30 years, I can only imagine what it is like to miss a part of home that I love.
        That’s great your new deck is taking shape. It’s exciting to see projects come together.
        Happy summer to you too!!

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