“Rose-colored glasses are never made in bifocals. Nobody wants to read the small print in dreams.” — Ann Landers

Welcome to February’s Sunday Stills Color Challenge! With Valentine’s Day approaching, many of us might look at the world through rose-colored glasses as we enjoy the season’s pink and red florals associated with the holiday’s romance.
But first…Commenting, Not So Rosy…
Thank you to everyone who reads my posts and leaves comments. Most of us are personal bloggers who enjoy the engagement and look forward to conversing with each other.
Are you having trouble leaving comments on others’ blogs? I am, and many others are, too.
- For example, if I open a post through my Outlook e-mail notification and attempt to comment, I get this error message: “Sorry, this comment could not be posted.” This happens more often on my desktop and occasionally through the Jetpack App on my phone.
- However, I can comment if I read a post in the WordPress Reader (which I rarely use as a preference).
- I also receive some posts through my WP notifications in the subscriber tab on which I can comment.
- Please continue to comment on my posts this week. If you want to write “test” before committing to writing, please don’t hesitate. I’ve done the same thing on many of your posts all week.
- I have also copied my comment and tried again, and in some cases, they go through a second time.
- If you are linking to Sunday Stills this week, I know the links work, but you can also try to leave a comment with the link, just in case.
If you are experiencing problems leaving comments, please take a moment to notify WordPress. The more they hear about the issue, the more I believe WP will take the request seriously to fix the problem.

Desert Roses
Please indulge me (or skim) as I share some details to wrap up our six-week road trip to Arizona. We enjoyed life in the Sonoran Desert with family and friends during our extended visit to Arizona and Southern California, beginning with the Winter holidays. Many mornings, we were greeted with rosy sunrises.


Even the fountain in Fountain Hills was lit in alternating red and green lights for the holidays.

“A cactus is a desert’s rose.” ~ Matshona Dhliwayo

Rosy Reunions
“The only thing sweeter than union is reunion.” – Kathleen McGowan
With 6-weeks at our disposal, we expected to spend more extended periods of time with our family, friends, and bloggers! It also meant spending much more time staying at our generous family’s homes, but that’s for another story 😉
I’ve already shared this photo of me and Dad on Christmas Day. Everything was rosy!

A few days later, we visited Jodie and Rob from Jodie’s Touch of Style in Sun City and had a fabulous lunch in the warm Arizona weather.
SAn diego bound
As we packed the car on the morning of January 4th, I slipped off the garage steps in my brother’s new home and rolled my right foot something awful. We arrived in San Diego later that afternoon and stopped at a pharmacy to buy a cane! We stayed with my daughter, who provided some first aid for my foot, which had swollen to twice its size. That evening, my daughter and her husband took us to the Bali Hai Restaurant on Shelter Island, which overlooks the stunning lights of the San Diego skyline.

Yes, I hobbled up and down the restaurant’s stairs with the cane. And I couldn’t enjoy their famous boozy Mai Tai since I was on an acetaminophen pain reliever. 🙁
While on our 12-day side trip to San Diego, Hans and I spent time with our granddaughters.

This was taken on the football field of our old high school, where Hans’ son was practicing flag football with his team. I also had lunch in Mission Valley with Janis from Retirementally Challenged!
Back in Arizona…
All too soon, we headed back to Arizona, this time staying with Hans’ daughter and her husband for 10 days. They loved showing us around southeast suburban Phoenix and Scottsdale. My bonus daughter and I drove to Old Scottsdale to do some shopping and sightseeing.

our Last Week in Arizona
Our last few days enjoying sunny weather, family, and friends were already upon us. We stayed a few more days in Fountain Hills with my brother and partner in their new home and were pleased with how much had changed in four weeks as they got moved in and organized.
The day before we left Arizona, someone was kind enough to have scheduled a blogger brunch meetup with the Arizona gang, including two out-of-towners (John and me). We really missed Marsha now that she’s enjoying Central California for the winter.

On the far left is Janet’s SIL; Jodie of Jodie’s Touch of Style (Rob, her hubby took this picture). Seated is John and his wife from Journeys with Johnbo (a huge surprise!); Ingrid from Live Laugh RV; and Nancy from Two Trails One Road. Standing in back, L-R is yours truly, standing next to Janet from This, That, and The Other Thing. I love my family dearly, but getting together with fellow bloggers in real life is a fantastic experience!
We reluctantly scheduled our three-day drive back home, just outmaneuvering the winter weather advisories by one day. But not before we made a pit stop in Southern Idaho to visit Cheryl and Steve from Working on Exploring to see their new “Shouse” (shop-house) progress.


In case you’re wondering, according to my Teledoc appointment, my foot wasn’t broken. But it slowed me down, and I had to elevate my foot a few hours a day, which slowed down my initial thoughts of hiking and walking. But things are looking rosier! Aging and falling are not for the faint of heart, and I’ve become a statistic at age 65.

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 if you can.
Sharing this week for Cee’s Flower of the Day and Johnbo’s Cellpic Sunday.
“Sunrise paints the sky with pinks…” ― Vera Nazarian

I can’t wait to see how you interpret this week’s theme! Creativity is encouraged, so please share your own photographs (old or new), poems, original short stories, and music inspired by the theme. Join me next week as we explore FROSTY.

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