yellow cone flowers
Terri Webster Schrandt

Sunday Stills: Been Here Before and After

As we near the end of August and our summer begins to wane, I like to reflect on comparisons.

This week’s theme is “Before and After.”

“A picture is something that makes invisible its before and after.” ~ Jeff Wall

Red dahlias
Dahlias Before and After

BEFORE AND AFTER: THE POWER OF WEATHER’S TRANSFORMATION

I enjoy comparing early summer temperatures to late August, for example. June thunderstorms are the norm for afternoons.

Odd cloud formation
Strange Cool June Skies

As we longed for warm summer days after a long winter and cool spring in Eastern Washington, we mainly got HOT days in July and August. If you didn’t take your early morning walk, you weren’t going to!

Rural road walk
Early morning summer walk

Before and After: the Reminder that Everything Changes

I couldn’t resist sharing these before and after shots of the Say’s Phoebes….from tenderly nurtured eggs …

Group of bird eggs

…to fledglings ready to take on the world.

4 says' phoebe fledglings

They were only with us four months before they flew the coop!

BEFORE AND AFTER: THE BEAUTY OF BLOSSOMING

Our gardens (or neighbors’ gardens) are excellent sources for finding beginnings and endings. In May, I planted dahlias and gladiolus for the first time. They began blooming in late July.

peach gladiolus
Gladiolus
purple gladiolus bloom
First Gladiolus bloom
purple gladiolus

Nothing demonstrates the passage of time like flowers. My first dahlias!

dahlia bed
Red dahlia
Opening dahlia
Opening Dahlia
lilac dahlia
An Anniversary Dahlia

A look at the garden in June and in late August.

growing gladioli
Gladioli to Meet You
garden eye view of flower plants
Dahlias, gladioli and bonus lavender
flower garden
The garden’s a’bloom

I’m always enamored with all the volunteer sunflowers that spring up in July.

planted sunflowers
Baby sunflowers
Rain on Half-opened sunflower
slowly opening
partially open sunflower
Stretching its Petals toward the sun
Sunny Skies
Mellow sunflower against stormy summer sky
spent sunflower
After…

BEFORE AND AFTER: THE REMINDER TO CELEBRATE EVERY MILESTONE

Last week, we celebrated our 11th wedding anniversary and 15 years of being a couple.

Before; in high school, 1977. Yes, we knew each other and attended the same high school in San Diego for four years.

senior photo
My Senior Picture taken 1977
senior photo
Hans’ senior photo 1977
woman and man
Days After our wedding, 2013

BEFORE AND AFTER: THE REMINDER THAT LIFE IS A CANVAS WAITING TO BE PAINTED

family at tulip farm
At the Tulip Farm, 2024
sunflower swatch

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. Please use your own original images, whether new or from your archives.

  • 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.

Sharing for Cee’s Weekend Flowers and Johnbo’s Cellpic Sunday

“Before and after, but always a work in progress.” ~Unknown

I can’t wait to see how you interpret this week’s theme, BEFORE AND AFTER! Creativity is encouraged, so please share your own photographs (old or new), poems, original short stories, and music inspired by the theme. Join me on September 1st as we take a good look at BUGS.

signature purple floral

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118 comments

  13. If there had been a competition in the blog world to guess who the blogger was from old photos, I’d have spotted you, Terri. How fashion has changed in clothes and hairstyles over the years. I see that Hans still has his moustache, though.

    How lovely that those chicks were with you for four months. I wonder if any of them will come back to nest?

    Wishing you both a happy anniversary, Terri. I hope you celebrated in style with a glass or two of bubbles.

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  21. Terri,

    I love Dahlias, and there are so many variations, there’s always a new one to catch the eye. Here’s to many more happy years for you and Hans. I love your high school picture–you were a cutie!

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    • Thank you, Joe! So far I have three types of dahlias, the purple, the fiery red and perhaps a burgundy-colored one that is just now starting to bloom. I enjoyed high school (a suburb in East San Diego). Hans and his twin brother were quite the athletes and me, too, if I say so myself 😉

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  25. Oh, how I loved seeing the before and after of you two sweethearts!
    Your dahlias are gorgeous! I have never planted them before.
    And what a lovely garden you planted along with all your sunflowers.
    Fun theme!
    Have a great week my friend!

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  30. Beautiful flowers and cute baby birds, Terri. I would have been able to pick out your two photos. You look so much the same, just older. Hot mornings? I understand that. This week, though, it might be in the upper 70’s, but I’ll still be sweating even at dawn. 🥵. Getting better, though.

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  31. I concur with the taking of an early morning walk or forget about it Terri. Here in SE Michigan, since last Sunday we have enjoyed a refreshing week of cool temps which was great for walking, but since last Friday the dew points have been creeping up slowly and we will be in the 90s part of this week – ugh. It also means storms, like the one we will have later today.

    The Phoebes are so cute there, lined up, except for one that is staring at you. The Dahlias are beautiful – I have never grown them before back when I had my backyard garden. The Sunflowers are always so perky, until they are not and start withering away, but all the while the Goldfinches are eyeing them for a snack.

    I didn’t realize you and Hans knew each other back in high school – I guess you never mentioned that in a post since I’ve been following you. You both have not changed much. Belated wedding anniversary wishes to you both.

    Here is my post for today which is a bit different take on “Before and After” – this is about a fellow WP Welsh blogger named Zena Cooper and her beloved dog, who is much more than a pet.

    The long and winding road.

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    • Many thanks, Linda! Our temps abruptly cooled down by 20 degrees overnight. No problem here 😉

      Some of these flowers are a lot of work. Sunflowers are easy. Those fledglings were so cute. The big one glaring at me was a male and he went on his own within a few days. I suspect the father kept him away. Mom helped feed him for a short time but he looked healthy. The other three stayed together for 2 weeks before they began to separate and eventually leave.

      Yep, Hans and I go way back. We announced our couple hood on Facebook to our high school friends. As far as I know, we were the first to reunite then marry. Fun stuff!

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      • Those cooler temps were wonderful after a scorching and humid Summer. I don’t look forward to this week at all. It was nice not to worry about volatile weather too.

        I pass a house with a small corner of the yard devoted to sunflowers – they look so cheery. I hope this upcoming weather is kind to them.

        That’s great you knew one another for so long … I’ll bet your Facebook friends enjoyed reading about how you reunited.

        I have a Facebook friend from high school and she and her high school sweetheart married and had four daughters together, then divorced. They remained friends while she raised the girls in her home, but she never remarried. He did remarry, but had no kids. About four years ago, he had a kidney transplant done in Massachusetts. His sister donated the kidney. My friend was worried about her ex and he, on the brink of surgery, confessed he never stopped loving her and, if he survived, he would divorce his wife and remarry her. She thought it was just pre-surgery jitters, but they did remarry, almost 40 years later.

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      • I wanted to get some photos of his sunflowers, but the background is too busy … if they get any taller, the sky will be the background and that will work better!

        I thought that was an amazing story too Terri and last year was our 50-year class reunion. Callie said many classmates knew she and Ray had married right out of high school, but they did not know the whole story. We had 613 kids in our June ’73 graduating class.

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  36. A really excellent theme this week Terri, well-executed as always. In fact, I may steal it one of these weeks😊. There was much to love in your post but of course the best of all was you and Hans as kids and now. I just loved that little piece of your lives. Beautifully said and done.

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  39. Cool shot of the storm in June! 👌 We’ve had a hot, humid, stormy summer also, but I don’t want it to end – not a fan of the cold. How sweet to see the little hatchlings. 🥰 You have such beautiful gladioli and dahlias. Too bad they have to die so soon! And, I loved your anniversary story so much that I stole it. 🙂 How wonderful that you and your husband re-connected after all those years for a happy ending. A toast to you both! 🥂 And you two look fabulous. 😀 I met my husband when I was still in high school too, but we’ve been together ever since. 💍

    https://thedogladysden.com/before-and-after-sundaystills-photography/

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    • Thank you, Debbie! I’m so excited to see your link! I do like the cold, but if it snows, there have to be sunny days, not fog and clouds. Once Hans and I reconnected (on Facebook) other friends from school were starting to do the same. Our 40th reunion was quite fun as we enjoyed the renewed connections and new couples.

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  40. What a fun photographic journey from “before” to now. It demonstrates how clearly things grow and change. Your photos are lovely, and you both still look so much like your high school selves. Enjoy the cooling weather!

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  47. Belated happy wedding anniversary Terri, here’s wishing you and Hans many more happy and healthy anniversaries together 🍀💖🍀

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  51. Ah yes spring and late summer – definitely before and after. You’ve got some beautiful dahlias! And I knew there would be sunflower photos! Thanks for hosting. Will see if I can pull something together this week.

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  53. A wonderful selection, Terri. I love the little birds, beautiful flowers, and lovely pictures of you and your husband. I think we’re on the same page again lol. And is that a twister?

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