two bluebirds in bird bath
Terri Webster Schrandt

Sunday Stills Monthly Color Challenge: #Blue is My World

This month, BLUE is July’s featured color for the challenge.

Out of a Clear, Blue Sky…

“The sky, the sky beyond the door is blue.” – Ryan Stiles

Fireworks against a blue night sky

In the US last week, many of us likely enjoyed fireworks and pyrotechnic displays. I don’t mind seeing fireworks, but when the illegal ones go off a few steps from our backyard, I get nervous. I admit it was nice to sit in our backyard and watch the fireworks all around us. The admission was free and the parking was amazing 😉

My dog Brodie always gets the blues when the noisy booms begin, usually a few days ahead of the 4th. I dose him with Vet-approved antihistamine, which makes him drowsy.

Tired dog with ball

We recently enjoyed the summer solstice (June 21). I never get tired of seeing light in the sky at 10:30pm as shown below.

Summer Solstice blue night sky
A Blue Solstice Sky

Some more blue sky shots…simplicity in blue.

Blue Sky Half Moon
Daytime Blue Moon
Blue Angels Air Show Sacramento
Blue Angels in Sacramento

Splish Splash, Blue Bird Bath

“The bluebird carries the sky on his back.” ~ Henry David Thoreau

When we set up the new bird bath in our backyard, we had no idea how much fun it would be to watch the birds enjoy the simple pleasures of taking a bath.

This mated Western Bluebird pair visits every. single. day.

two bluebirds in birdbath
two bluebirds in the bird bath
two bluebirds in bird bath
Come on in honey, the water’s fine
Two bluebirds taking a bath
Couple’s bath time

Moving from the sky, to the bird bath, and into the ocean, here are some very blue surf images from our visit to Hilo, on the Big Island of Hawaii in Winter 2018.

Blue Hawaii

“Surfing’s a more profound kind of sport than it looks. When you surf, you learn not to fight the power of nature, even if it gets violent.” — Haruki Murakami “Let the ocean worry about being blue.”

Boogie Boarder
Boogie Boarder
Hilo Surfers
Hilo Surfers
SUPing the waves
Wave Paddling, Hilo
Surfers await blue waves
Surfers Await in the blue expanse

Each month I share an image for Colleen’s Tanka Tuesday Poetry Challenge. I chose this filtered version of a perfect July day at the beach, complete with a lifeguard station and beach patrol vehicle.

beach scene lifeguard tower and truck
Blue summer’s day at the beach

“We are a blue planet and an ocean world.” – Nainoa Thompson

40 Blue Flowers

That’s the estimated amount of flowers that are truly blue. Here are a few from my garden and beyond.

Cobalt hydrangea
Blue-ming hydrangea at Portland’s International Rose Garden
Blue and purple hydrangeas
Blue Hydrangea
A photographic study in blue densely packed flowers.
Lithodora

“Blue thou art, intensely blue; Flower, whence came to thy dazzling hue?” – James Montgomery

Inspiring Photo Challenges 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 blue-inspired photos this week. I add these as new links are posted. *NOTE: This may be the last week I share links within the post. WordPress has recently changed the way we add links to our posts. As usual, your links appear in the comments section for those who wish to visit others. I appreciate your feedback on this.

I can’t wait to see how you interpret the various shades of BLUE this week! Join me next week as we explore things that are small.

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blue brushstroke
SURF signature

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145 comments

  4. Wow, the moon and the planes are amazing, Terri and I love the ocean and flower pics. The blue birds are so cute and they obviously love having bath.
    Ah, poor Brodie. Dogs must wonder what’s going on with all the noise of fireworks. We don’t have many going off round where we are, only 5th November for Guy Fawkes and most of those are organised events so not to near the house, and possibly New Year.

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    • Thank you, Cathy! I have to sit quietly on our backyard deck to capture the birds in action in the bath. And make sure Brodie doesn’t see them as he likes to chase them and bark. Jeez! I wanted to mention how much I love your blue moon photo as well!

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      • Thanks, Terri. My moon pics turn out much better in the daytime.
        Flynn tends to do the same when the birds are around so I tend to take a lot from the house.

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  18. Love the bluebirds bathing. Nice to have them as regular visitors. Interesting to hear about your fireworks experience. Here in Hawaii people love fireworks and there are usually lots of illegal ones to be seen and heard. But this year it was strangely quiet because of new regulations requiring permits for use and restricting the kinds of fireworks people can set off. Someone still managed to get themselves killed down in Kona though. Sad really. Here’s mine this week: https://grahamsisland.com/2023/07/09/i-got-the-blues-real-good/

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    • Thanks, Graham. They are fun to watch. The fireworks ended at midnight on the 4th and none heard on the 5th. Our county restricts them until them. Living on an island, I imagine it’s not that easy to get illegal ones, even with permit restrictions. Sorry to hear someone died. Here we worry about stray sparks igniting wildfires. Spokane County prohibits any kind of fireworks except professional pyrotechnics. The fire dept reported it has made a huge difference in the last several year.

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      • I’m not surprised they’re cracking down in your area given the fires over the last few years. Dry conditions were a factor here too. As far as illegal fireworks go, it doesn’t seem like it’s ever been hard to find them here. There were certainly plenty going off in previous years!

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  19. Hello, Terri,
    “Blue skies, smilin’ at me. Nothing but blue skies do I see” The lyrics to that song played in my head throughout your entire post. Thanks! I have not heard of a Lithodora–must be a Western flower. Your hydrangeas are a knockout and one of my faves! My contribution is a photo of a friend’s backyard. Every spring, it is filled with blue (mostly) crocus; as you can see, they put on quite a show. Have a great week! Joe

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  20. Wow! Those are great blue images! I have never gotten a shot of a bluebird taking a bath, though we have them around. One winter we had a few sit on the frozen edge of the heated birdbath, but that’s the closest I ever got.

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  22. The Bluebird couple is adorable!! They look very happy. Aw, I feel sad for dogs who are troubled by the fireworks. We had a Golden Retriever that LOVED them and our little Copper was terrified of them so much so that he didn’t want to go outside for the full 10 days people in the area seem to take as the 4th. 🤔

    I’m so glad you shared ocean views and blue flowers too – all those different shades of blue are enchanting to me!

    I hope you have a great week!!!

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      • You’re welcome.
        We have a neighbor who has two dogs and they shot off fireworks (HUGE ones) for 45 minutes. I don’t have a clue what they did with their dogs during that time. Yikes.

        That’s interesting that Aero wasn’t bothered by them. I know our Golden loved them because I trained him as a hunting dog and the first time he heard the gun go off he was treated with a chunk of hot dog. That worked for 4th of July too. He was all about the food! 🤣 I hope Brodie has recovered and is happy the fireworks season is over.

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  23. Hi Terri and Happy Sunday! Enjoyed your blues, especially the little bird couple. We have a bluebird who loves our yard but he’s a bachelor so far 😊. Also lovely blue flowers – hydrangeas are my favorite and mine last week were blue also. I’m linking my Simplicity challenge post here for the blue of the ocean and the sky. Wishing you a lovely week! https://travelsandtrifles.wordpress.com/2023/07/08/lens-artists-challenge-257-simplicity-photography/

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  25. Love scrolling through the post and seeing blue everywhere. It is funny as it can be seen as a gloomy color and I find in always so happy. Like others I loved the playful birds. And loved more picturing you sitting there enjoying them. Very nice, Terri.

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  27. So many delightful blue items in this post Terri. Cobalt blue is so beautiful. Of all the images, I like the pair of Bluebirds best. I’ve never seen a Bluebird although we do have them here in Michigan. I like seeing birds enjoying the birdbath, not sipping, but just immersing themselves not only in the water, but in the whole experience. I’ve seen them splashing in a puddle in the road, the neighbor’s gutter and even basking under the sprinkler on a hot day. Brodie napping with the ball in his mouth from his antihistamines … poor baby. We have had fireworks here since Memorial Day weekend (SMH on that), every night, weekends are the worst though and Fourth of July, the ordinance allows them until 11:45 p.m. the day before/of/after a holiday. I had an errant firecracker land on a shingle and burn it once. I also worry about fire. A homeowner in my City had their garage catch on fire from a misfired firecracker.

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    • Thank you, Linda! I get a kick out o seeing the cute bluebirds! I have a set of robin birdbath pics I just uploaded from my camera I will share in a later post.

      Fireworks are nothing to mess with. I grew up in SoCal where they were strictly forbidden. Sacramento allowed sales on the tame stuff but there were always illegal M-80s and others that could easily start a fire. Even the tame ones tried to burn my daughter’s foot when she was a toddler. It was one of those ground ones that zips around and it literally chased her in our driveway and burned her foot. Jeez. Fireworks are allowed in my rural country and luckily the seem to stop on the 4th, thank goodness.

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      • I’ll look forward to seeing the robin birdbath pics Terri.

        The fireworks (big boomers) are going off at 10:15 p.m. as I write this comment. That’s scary what happened to your daughter! A woman in northern Michigan was killed last week when an errant firework struck her at a 4th of July private fireworks event. Something I don’t usually say but … I’m grateful we have had a lot of rain lately with all the residential fireworks going off.

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      • I agree with you Terri. I was glad for the rain as I usually do the same thing, plus leave the hose stretched out in case of a fire for ready access since the fire department can’t be everywhere at once.

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    • Thank you, Donna! Brodie puts us through the ringer sometimes. I’m glad I talked to our vet last month. This time last year we were in Arizona and there was no need to worry about the fireworks. We were ready to keep him comfortable for a few nights.

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  32. What a gorgeous blue theme that enhances my ‘simplicity’ challenge!
    Terrie, you are the winner.
    I adore the bird bath and simply loved the other bird admiring its better half while she was immersed in it. The narrative is both simple and beautiful!
    It’s incredible to see surfers waiting in the blue vastness! What more could one wish for than a blue sky, blue lake, and distant blue mountains?
    I love how the blue blossoms are spreading joy all throughout!
    Brodie pose is the best.
    Thank you so much, Terri.

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  35. The blue birds are lovely. Sadly we never see daylight at 10pm in Australia, but I guess we have many other things to make up for that 😀
    Here’s a few blues from mehttp://travelswithali.com/2023/07/09/%f0%9f%94%b7-sunday-blues-%f0%9f%94%b7/

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    • Thank you, Kirstin! Until we planted some young trees in fall 2021, we didn’t have many birds. We attracted hummers the next summer by placing the feeder near our young Willow, they seem to like to perch after feeding. The bath will bring plenty of birds. They need water in the dry summers for drinking and for bathing to clear off the mites from their feathers.

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  51. You shared some amazing blue! That moon! But the bluebirds tugged at my heart… how nice for you to see them often. I don’t have them here or in AZ. And to see them in the birdbath makes me smile.

    We used to go to the Cleveland air show every year to see the Blue Angels or the Thunderbirds (they took turns.) So seeing your Blue Angels gave me fond memories. Thank you!

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  52. Beautiful blues, Terri! Those fireworks look great, and I’m glad nothing caught on fire but the works. I’ve become paranoid about fireworks with these hot crunchy summers, but what fun to sit in your yard and enjoy them. Loved the Blue post!

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    • Thank you, Diana! We watched for at least an hour before heading back inside. They boomed until midnight then stopped, thank goodness. One of my neighbors puts on a big 4th party and literally launches from the nearby lake. It’s shallow enough so they can stand less than knee depth and set it all up in the water. We didn’t see it this year so I’ll be interested in how they put it on next year. Glad it’s all over for now!

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  57. My two boys hate the noise of fireworks, Terri. I feel so sorry for them when we approach Guy Fawkes Night in the UK. I’ve tried to help them, but nothing seems to work. It’s the same at New Year when some neighbours let off fireworks at midnight. I hope the UK government will only allow proper fireworks displays one day. Not only are they much safer, but they’re usually held out of town.

    Your longest-day photos are amazing. It was semi-light here on the 21st of June at around 10 pm too. But by 10:30, it was pitch dark. And now we travel towards the longest night.

    There are so many possibilities with the colour blue. I could have shown you the sea, sky, or even some plants, but I’ve gone with something different this week. Hope you like it.

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    • Oh I love this image of the rolled up towels, Hugh! Very beachy and festive!

      I know very few dogs that enjoy fireworks. For a “gun dog” Brodie is a pathetic example, but we never trained him that way. My little Aero never reacted to the fireworks but that little 14 pound dog had the heart and soul of a lion. I’m sorry your poor babies have to go through this every year. I use benadryl (google it for appropriate dosage–I confirmed with our vet), which mellowed Brodie out. I also took him for a good walk and a good ball chase to wear him out earlier.

      And don’t remind me that the days are getting shorter. We still have light at 4:30am but I can already tell the difference 20 days (from the solstice) has made. Have a great week–I’m off to read your other post!

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      • Glad you like the image, Terri. I took it at the entrance to a spa at a hotel we recently stayed, although I did not stick around long in the spa. It was a great place for a pre-dinner drink, though.
        I’ll check out Benadryl. When I’ve asked the vet before, they always recommend a plugin diffuser, but it never seems to help. I’ve also tried comfort jackets which did help at first but don’t seem to work anymore.
        We always go for a long walk in the afternoons, and while Austin loves chasing a ball, Toby does not anymore. We take them out later, about an hour before dusk on Guy Fawkes day, then return home, close all the curtains and turn the volume up on the TV. We live in a detached house, so the neighbours do not hear the TV (at least I don’t think they can).

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      • A plug in diffuser? Does it infuse sedation? 🤣 we saw a lot of ads about the jackets I wasn’t impressed. Your idea to darken the house and keep the volume up is a great idea. A Kennel or bathtub also works I’m told….the bathtub or shower is like a den and some dogs feel comforted by hiding in one. My neighbor turns on the bathroom fan and closes the door. Seems to help. It’s easier to sedate them IMO. A good long walk before the evening fireworks is a good idea too. Thanks, Hugh for sharing your ideas.

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    • We had a dog like that, Hugh. He was frantic during fireworks and thunderstorms. I hear they have all kinds of things to help, but our story had an unhappy ending. I like your towels. Hope you are doing well.

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  58. Gorgeous shots, Terri. The birds are having such a great time thanks to your birdbath. I love the picture of Brodie relaxing, LOL! His eyes made me laugh! Your little bluebird signature is super cute. Your ocean pictures made me wish I was in Hawaii. We should go there next. Forget the Valley or even the mountain heat or cold. “Let’s go surfin’ now, everybody’s learnin’ how…” https://youtu.be/IENuCp4eT84

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    • Thank you, Susanne! Not only these bluebirds love the bath, but the doves and robins. I can only hope the ravens don’t want to try–they’re a bit too big! The dropdown menu for adding links is a little different, but it is only 3 more clicks, so no worries. I don’t mind adding links as I go 🙂 Thanks for weighing in!

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  64. Hi Terri, blue is absolutely my favorite color and I had a post composed, but forget to schedule it to publish while we were away so…. next time.
    I didn’t know about the changes to WP regarding links. I always depend on you and Hugh to keep me up to speed on these things. Will have to check that out. Personally, I like having the links all together, but if it’s a pain…
    Your bird bath photos are standouts this week. Awesome!

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  65. Hi Terri, sorry for the no-shows lately but I’m feeling a bit ‘blue’ after my wonderful trip and haven’t got back into anything much yet as a result. We’ve not been home a week yet and I’m giving myself some time to acclimatise to the cold weather, after the amazing summer weather we had in England and to getting back into reality! I’m sure you understand. I’m looking at this week’s prompt so that’s a start :).

    Love all your blue shots, you’re very talented with putting everything together as you do.

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  67. I’m a little more late than usual to our Blue party! Why? I was singing the blues the past 6 weeks myself but you’ll have to read our post to know why.

    I feel for Brodie! Cooper and most dogs I know don’t do well with the fireworks noise. Now that he’s lost much of his hearing, he slept right through it all. Our seat this year was in the camper bunk looking out a window. It was too cozy to get outside and watch; which is why I didn’t attempt to post any photos!

    My favorite of your blues is your daily jay bird baths. How mesmerizing and entertaining that would be. And of course you and I think alike with our island blue oceans and the blue sky pictures. Thanks for a lovely blue yet cheerful post.

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    • Thanks so much, Cheryl. Aero never had issues with fireworks, but Brodie does like most dogs. Today, not only did the western bluebirds come take a bath, I caught a hummer perched nearby taking a bath under the sprinkler! Love our blue skies, at least they’re not smokey yet!

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