Plum Cherry Blossoms
Terri Webster Schrandt

Sunday Stills Monthly Color Challenge: #Pastel Memories

Welcome to another Sunday Stills Monthly color challenge. Easter is now behind us, and spring is underway. Now is the time to see pastel colors in nature and beyond. Many of my images have been shared before, hence the word “Memories” in my post title.

Macro Plumeria

To help you along in your thinking, some common pastel colors include pink, light blue, and mint green. Other colors are pale yellow, peach, periwinkle, and lavender.

Pastel colors are less saturated, also known as tints. When mixed with white, bright colors can then be described as soft, muted, pale, or light.

Pastel Skies

Sunrises, sunsets, and northern lights also love to show off their pastel colors!

“Aurora had but newly chased the night, and purple o’er the sky with blushing light.” – John Dryden

Aurora Rays of pink and green
Spring 2024’s Pastel Northern Lights
San Diego's Skyline
Pastel sunset of San Diego’s Skyline

By the end of this week, I’ll be enjoying one of these pastel desert sunrises.

Dawn in the Desert
Dawn in the Arizona Desert

Floral Pastels

May is the month in Nine Mile Falls when spring finally makes her long-awaited appearance. Dogwoods bloom in shades of pale pink, and wildflowers dot the landscape. Spokane, Washington, is known as the Lilac City, and lilacs are now in bloom.

“Spring dresses in wildflowers and greens, a visionary for hopes and dreams.” ~ Angie Weiland-Crosby

Dogwood Trees bloom in May
Spring’s Dogwood Trees
Local Lilacs
Lilacs!
Tulip field in peach
Pale Peachy tulips
Shades of Pink Azaleas
Azaleas in pastels
Purple Grass Widows adorn forest floor
Grass Widows

…while Cherry Plum trees sport their pale pink blooms.

Plum Cherry Blossoms
Cherry Tree Blossoms

Soon enough, the show is over as spent blossoms create pathways of pink.

fallen petals
Fallen pale pink petals

“You can never wrong with a little pink; a lot works too.” – Dana Dalgetty

Sharing for Brian’s Last on the Card is this Golden Torch cactus flower. My brother photographed it at their Arizona home.

cactus flower

Animals and Birds Show Off Their Pastel Colors

With Spring very much in the air, new babies seem to be everywhere. I sure enjoy seeing the little foal frolicking with her mother.

horses
Fjord Mare and Foal

Nesting season for the birds is in full swing! The Say’s Phoebes (flycatchers) are back again, and they fiercely protect their nest. Even Mama is decked out in spring pastels.

female Say's Phoebe
Female Say’s Phoebe

While mom was away, I quickly used my phone to sneak a peek! There are five eggs this year (4 last year)!

eggs in nest
Phoebe’s 5 eggs!

Goldfinches and Western Bluebirds also sport the gentle pastels of spring and summer.

Breeding Yellow Male Goldfinch
Breeding Male Goldfinch
Western Bluebird
Western Bluebird

“In order to see birds it is necessary to become a part of the silence.” — Robert Wilson Lynd

Sharing for Dawn’s Spring Festival and the flowers for Johnbo’s Cellpic Sunday.

pink flower border

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 from mine.
  • Please create a new post for the theme or link to 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.

Creativity is encouraged, so if you participate in the photo challenges, please share your own photographs (old or new), poems, original short stories, and music inspired by the theme.

I can’t wait to see how you interpret the various shades of PASTELS this week! Join me again on May 18 as we explore FLIGHT.

  • May 4 Monthly Color Challenge: Pastels
  • May 11 NO CHALLENGE
  • May 18 Flight
  • May 25 NO CHALLENGE

Our road trip to the Scottsdale area of Arizona begins this Tuesday. It is typically a three-day drive from where we live. I won’t publish a new post until mid-May (for Wordless Wednesday). But I’ll be able to read, approve links, and reply to your comments during our trip.

AND “May the fourth be with you” today. Folks celebrate this unofficial holiday inspired by the Star Wars movies’ famous quote, “May the Force Be with You.” 😊

Enjoy your weeks ahead!

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126 comments

  14. Wow, you are the pastel queen! Your skies and flowers are exquisite. I have one picture of pastel Moji to share with you. She has a patch of pale brown where they had to cut a couple of big dreadlocks out of her fur. I wanted to stop by and at least look at all your gorgeous pics. Have a safe trip to FH. I’m so sorry to miss you this trip. I hope your Dad’s service is lovely. Cute picture of all of you on FB. Lots of love, M

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    • Haha, thank you, Marsha! I expect to collect some more desert pics while we’re there. We’re a couple hours from the Utah border as I type. This was an unexpected trip but we hope to be back in September and I’ll make sure to see you then. Talk soon!

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  15. Beautiful shades of pastels in all your pics Terri. We don’t much see fiery skies where I live like I do in Mexico. But the other day I noticed an unusual sky – pink and blue and snapped it. I will share it and link to you. Safe travels. xx

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    • Thank you, Susanne! Southwest sunrises and sunsets are amazing. It will be hot there in AZ but being with family and saying goodbye to Dad is the main focus. We’re staying with my brother whose home has a backyard pool and spa. Can’t wait! Thanks for sharing your lilacs today!

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  32. Hi Terri, the pastels in your photos are very nice. But that cactus flower is amazing. Great to see 5 eggs from Phoebe this year. I hope they all hatch. The birds here are also nesting. It’s great seeing them building their nests. I help by leaving some of Toby’s and Austin’s fur from their brush in the garden. It’ snapped up very quickly when I put it out.

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    • Thank you, Hugh! I hope I can see some desert blooms while we’re there. That’s cool your pups’ fur helps “feather” the birds’ nests. Our Phoebes apparently used my neighbor’s chicken feathers for theirs. I suspect the eggs hatched judging by the way the birds are behaving. Hopefully they’ll fledge when we get back home.

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  39. Hi Terri – you can just delete this comment but it dawned on me my reasoning for posting so late didn’t make sense. I will just respond to comments tomorrow instead of tonight. I also am going to watch this PBS “Ms Austen” four-week mini-series on Sunday night which begins tonight. I don’t have TV so I have to stream it live. I got behind here in WP as I’m taking a four-week online watercolor botanicals course. And then there’s French. Hmm. Probably good it rained today and I could catch up a little. 🙂

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    • No need for me to delete, Linda! I like “talking” with you! Enjoy your shows. I’m almost done with Section 2 of Duolingo Spanish. I won’t take a break, but I may dial the lessons back a bit starting this week. Bon jour and adios, amiga!

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      • Okay, no problem Terri, but after I made that comment I thought it might not make sense. I have dialed back on my French and need to get back to lessons. I was at #6 in Diamond League earlier today, but that is more from reviewing a friend quest, not so much new words/phrases. I got into the rut with the reflexive verbs for that one lesson – like your first foray into French – nothing about it made sense, whether I memorized it or not.

        Espero que tengas un viaje seguro! (Thanks Google!)

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  40. Lots of lovely pastels in this post Terri. How exciting to have five eggs this year and I hope you get a chance to see the offspring before they fledge since you’ll be gone. I meant to mention last time about the sweet foal and this time I remembered. It is so very sweet.

    I went on a long walk about ten days ago and got a lot of pink images to use for the Pink Challenge next month, but I also got some pastels for this post. It will publish at 11:00 p.m. and I linked to this blog post. I am going to post later on Sundays for a while, maybe all Summer. I got used to getting up a little later all Winter (and most of the Spring), but now I’ll get back to my earlier rising to get out before the heat of the day. We have had an all-day rain here today … ugh, just ugly weather.

    Have a safe trip!

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    • Thank you, Linda! Last year they fledged June 2. We may be back in time. The foal and mom will be moved to a local pasture once she’s weaned, which might be just as we’re returning home. Horses and birds grow fast! I look forward to your post!

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      • I hope you get a peek at both of them Terri. Many years ago my mom and I spent a week down South and we visited Kentucky right after the Derby. We visited Kentucky Horse Park which memorializes a lot of the famous race horses but they also have stables for horses. There were several foals out with their moms in the paddock. Every stall where there was a foal, they had a wooden sign with a stork, holding a bundle which was a foal peeking out of a pink or blue blanket – very sweet!

        I was excited to see a pair of Wood Ducks walking around, so they are in today’s post – not pastel, but they were the highlight of my day!

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      • It was a beautiful park Terri and we got there the Monday after the Derby so Derby fever was still going on. Lucky you having horses as a kid! Well I envy you for that. I did watch the Derby – the mud was flying everywhere, including on the jockeys. I was surprised “Journalism” didn’t win, but second place is not too bad – it would have been our personal favorite. 🙂 I am glad there were no accidents running in the mud as they said in the morning so many of the horses had never run in those conditions before.

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  49. You always have the best examples for the prompts each month. I think one of my favorites this month are pastels are the soft colors in the Arizona sky. I like that contrast with the vivid green in the foreground. And the blooming cactus! The desert has its own unique beauty.

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  51. So, so beautiful your images are, Terri. I love the calmness you achieve with these pastels. I’ll have to look high and low to see if I have anything to contribute this month.

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