tulip
Terri Webster Schrandt

Sunday Stills Monthly Color Challenge: Dramatic Shades of #Purple

When spring finally arrives in Eastern Washington, it tends to “go big or go home,” as the saying goes. Spokane, Washington, is known as the Lilac City. Here’s why!

Local Lilacs
Lilacs!

Did you know that the color purple is associated with the season of Lent? Due to its rarity, purple has always been associated with royalty worldwide. During the seasonal celebrations of Good Friday and Easter, places of worship opt to use purple in their decorations.

Easter's Empty Cross
Easter’s Empty Cross

“Purple is associated with Jesus, the king of all kings and Son of God.” – Easter Colors

Whatever your spiritual beliefs, purple is a rich, provocative color that is pleasing to the eye. It is the union of vibrant, warm red and peaceful, cool blue. In color and fragrance, purple reminds me of the calming and healing effects of lavender.

lavender field
Local lavender farm

“Purple enhances our imagination and inspiration, being both a stimulating and relaxing color.” – Source

Nature puts on a dazzling show with exciting shades of purple found in the expected places: among the flowers and in the sky.

Dramatic Purple Above

In a recent post, I suggested the theory that the northern lights tended to be more visible during the spring and autumn equinoxes because the “Earth’s magnetic field is better aligned with the interplanetary magnetic field carried by the solar winds.”  And, viola, we were graced with a purple aurora on April 4th.

northern lights
April 4th Aurora

Late winter and spring can also reveal passionate shades of purple at sunrise.

Pink skies create amethyst snow
Pink skies create amethyst snow

Dramatic Shades of Purple at Our Feet

The color purple seems to rule the floral kingdom. Over 100 species of flowers sport purple blooms.

tulip

“I don’t have a purple problem, I have a purple passion!” – Jackie Harmon Sweeney

The local hills are alive with shades of purple wildflowers.

Purple Autumn Crocus
Wild Grass Widow
purple flox
Creeping Flox
pansies
Volunteer Pansies

Gardens are eagerly awaiting blooms planted by loving hands.

crocus
My Tiny Crocus emerges

Yes…yellow! I just had to share my first daffy! By the way, yellow is a complementary color, opposite purple on the color wheel. 😉

daffodil

A few purple tulips from the Wooden Shoe Tulip Farm

tulips
Dark purple tulips
Group of dark purple tulips
Inside a purple tulip
Inside a purple tulip

Sharing this week for Cee’s FOTD, Dawn’s Spring Festival, Hammad’s Weekend Sky, and Johnbo’s Cellpic Sunday.

“Violet has the shortest wavelength of the spectrum. Behind it, the invisible ultraviolet. Roses are Red, Violets are Blue…poor Violet, violated for a rhyme.” – Derek Jarman

purple brushstroke

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.

Sunday Stills Announcement for Easter Sunday

To those who participate in the Sunday Stills challenges, I am publishing Sunday Stills on Monday, April 21. Our entire day is busy with church and family activities, which limits my ability to read your posts and reply to your comments promptly.

But feel free to publish your post on Sunday and throughout the week as usual, then grab the link when it goes live on Monday morning. The theme for that week is Earth Day, which officially falls on April 22nd.

I wish you a week of spiritual reflection and joyous worship to those who celebrate the season’s religious observances of Passover and Passion Week, which begins with Palm Sunday today. Passover started at sundown on Saturday, April 12, and extends through sundown on Sunday, April 20. Passion Week begins this Sunday, April 13, and concludes on Resurrection Sunday (April 20). Note the rare intersection of the two spiritual observances this year.

I can’t wait to see how you interpret this week’s various shades of purple! Join me next week as we explore Earth Day.

signature purple floral

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118 comments

  1. I read about the auroras of April, which reminded me of you!

    Which is amazing.

    Thank you so much for sharing that lovely sky capture with my challenge and all other amazing shades of purple, Terri “)

    Apologies for checking it out this late 

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  10. ‘Purple rain, purple rain…’

    I don’t know why, but those lyrics came to mind when I saw the theme of this week’s challenge, Terri. We have a lot of lavender in our garden as it’s butterfly and bee friendly. They tend to swarm around the lavender beds. We also have some purple tulips.

    Wishing you a peaceful Easter.

    Take care.

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  20. Hey girlfriend, Your purples are outstanding. Even the purple shirt on your your avatar. Love the look! You’re so coordinated. I always love your flowerers, but I appreciate the beautiful skies that we don’t see here.

    We are enjoying the balmy days of spring. Cool mornings, pleasant breezes throughout the day. Our backyard is coming along. Our hope is to be close to finished with phase one by this weekend when Jason comes. I’ll post pictures as soon as I can 🙂

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  21. Fabulous display of purple, Terri. Love the Tulips and the Lilacs. I didn’t know that yellow was on the opposite end of the color wheel, and found an image from our visit to Whidbey Island, WA in 2021. The campground host was a horticulturist and did his best to cover the color wheel in his garden–purple included. Sending prayers for God’s peace and comfort for your family during a difficult time. Joe

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    • Thank you, Joe! I learned color theory in an art class in college and never forgot it. And thank you for your thoughts about Dad. We’re heading back to Arizona in a few weeks his services. I’m sharing a short post about this tomorrow. Lovely flowers!

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  28. while I will admit purple is not one of my favorites, you’ve proven that it can be quite beautiful Terri! Loved the glorious flowers and I’m extremely jealous of the aurora. Beautiful post.

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  31. What a fabulous collection of purples Terri and I leant something about the colour purple!! I love the tiny crocus colours and yes to your first daffodil, they are such happy flowers. Such a great choice for the challenge this week. Happy Easter to you x

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  41. Your purples in this post are awesome Terri, especially the Aurora. I also like how the pinkish sky turned the snow an amethyst color. Mother Nature sure is amazing sometimes. While I still have photos taken from excursions in 2024 and some photos tucked away for future Wordless Wednesday posts, I perused those photos and didn’t see any purple that jumped out at me, so I will do my purple theme (more garden flowers) this Wednesday. I will also do an Easter post next Sunday (which I usually do), then do my Earth Day post the following week, since I don’t have kids nor pets and did a flashback post on that post last year.

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    • Thank you, Linda! My posting schedule got complicated. My dad passed away yesterday. We knew it was coming and I’m sharing more about it this Wednesday. We’re driving back down to Arizona the Tuesdag after Easter to help with the service arrangements, etc. Check out my SS page. I might take a short blog break starting the end of April.

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      • I’m sorry to hear about your dad Terri – my condolences to you for your loss. I’m glad you got together with him and you had the nice photo sitting next to him at Christmas in one of your posts. Okay, I will check your SS page due to your potential blogging break. Take care.

        Liked by 1 person

  58. I knew you’d have some fabulous flower shots, Terri and I wasn’t disappointed! The tulips are amazing, and those skies…wow! We’ve had some sun for the last week so I’m waiting with anticipation for the garden to burst into colour 😄 🤞🏼 Have a great week!

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  63. I did know that about purple and I do love it, especially in irises, lavender, and lilacs. I think it’s interesting that the scent of lavender can be replicated faithfully, yet I’ve never smelled a scent purported to be lilac that actually smells like it. What a shame!

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