Hello readers! I hope your new year is off to a great start. We are still in travel mode, finishing our stay in San Diego. We arrived in Arizona in time for Christmas and New Year’s and enjoyed plenty of fun and family in desert style.
January 2025 brings another set of monthly color challenges to my Sunday Stills photo challenge feature. When I decided to use white as January’s inspiration color, I thought I could share a few snow scenes. However, Eastern Washington had so little snow at the lower elevations before we left before Christmas. But a smattering of snow fell mid-December, as pictured here.
“White is not a mere absence of color; it is a shining and affirmative thing, as fierce as red, as definite as black.” ~ Unknown
Scenes Along the Road
I caught this cloudy scene during the Idaho part of our road trip south.
I captured this outdoor store’s public art at our second night’s stop in Beaver, Utah. Who’s watching whom?
You will also notice most of my images show geometric shapes for Becky B’s squares challenge.
Desert White
Despite missing the snow back home (yes, I really do), I discovered the Arizona desert has plenty of white scenes and objects if you know where to look.
Around the area, new homes are being built in my brother’s new neighborhood. These white and peach-colored stones were found near this home, which is coincidentally constructed on Quartz Court.
“Crystals grew inside rock like arithmetic flowers. They lengthened and spread, added plane to plane in awed and perfect obedience to an absolute geometry that even stones – maybe only the stones – understood.” ~ Annie Dillard
Then there’s the fountain from which Fountain Hills gets its name…
…with an evening topped off with last year’s full desert moon.
Within the Sonoran Desert, evidence of resilience is everywhere, from the native plants and wildlife that inhabit its 100,000 square miles.
“Resilience is about overcoming the unexpected. Sustainability is about survival. The goal of resilience is to thrive.” ~ Jamais Cascio
I also believe it takes human resilience to live in the desert, in terms of extreme heat and other weather conditions. During the 2020 pandemic, my family members made sweeping changes in their homes and real estate by selling, buying, refinancing, or moving out of state. Where there was no family in Arizona, now there are many.
Can’t Miss Tourist Spots in San Diego
With several friends and family members also living in San Diego, we took the easy 6-hour drive from Scottsdale to visit for two weeks. This past week was sunny and warm (compared to last January’s torrential rains), driven mainly by Santa Ana winds that have decimated homes to the north in the Los Angeles area. Despite the winds, we visited some of San Diego’s popular tourist spots.
Chollas Lake Park is close to my daughter’s home. It’s a great place to walk a dog, picnic, and hike nearby trails. Linda, these are for you!
“The world is like a little marsh filled with mint and white hawthorn.” ~ Mary MacLane
Soon, we drive back to the Scottsdale area of Arizona for two more weeks of sunshine.
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 Becky B’s Geometric January, Cee’s Flower of the Day, Johnbo’s Cellpic Sunday, Lens-Artists: Resilience, and Natalie’s Public Art Challenge
“The color white is a blank canvas, just waiting to be written on.” ~ Chantal Larocque
I can’t wait to see how you interpret WHITE’s various shades and textures over the next two weeks! Join me again on January 26th for the final two-week challenge, Feed the Birds. Please visit my Sunday Stills page for the 2025 schedule.
Creativity is encouraged, so if you participate in the photo challenges, please share your own photographs (old or new), poems, original short stories, and/or music inspired by the theme.
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