• Home
  • About
  • Books
  • Events
  • Photo Gallery
  • Blog
  • Contact

A Joyful Noise

rose

Pink

August 2, 2019 by Melodye Shore

I believe in pink. I believe that laughing is the best calorie burner. I believe in kissing, kissing a lot. I believe in being strong when everything seems to be going wrong. I believe that happy girls are the prettiest girls. I believe that tomorrow is another day and I believe in miracles.–Audrey Hepburn

Today’s theme for #AugustBreak2019 is PINK. Susannah Conway founded this event several years ago; and while I’ve always enjoyed the artistic challenge, I love best that when I scroll through my social media feeds, I’m meeting up with creatives who, like me, are exploring ideas and techniques that move them past their comfort zones. Not to mention, it’s so much fun to peer through their windows on the world!

Here’s the deets…wanna join us? Just create a photographic image that somehow illustrates the theme of the day, and then share it on your favorite social media networks. Easy-peasy. No need to use a high-end camera–a cell phone snap is totally fine! Simple or abstract, fancy or straightforward…you get to translate the daily prompt however you want. It’s group play, but even better, because you get to make up your own rules!

Posted in: #AugustBreak2019, 2019, Audrey Hepburn, garden, gardening, miracles, Photography, photography challenge, pink, quote, rose, social media, Summer, Susannah Conway, writing Tagged: #AugustBreak2019, Audrey hepburn, garden, New Zealand Rose, photography, pink, rose

Nevertheless, she persisted

January 16, 2019 by Melodye Shore

I’ve coddled two climbing roses for almost 5 years, now, and have been rewarded with about as many blooms. I almost gave up on them, truth be told, because they don’t didn’t seem all that happy in my backyard. But they’re finally taking off: arching outward and growing taller. We’re growing on each other, you might say. Behold the Zephirine Drouhin–a bright spot of color in the pelting rain.

Posted in: flowers, garden, gardening, Hope, Inspiration, Nature, rose, writing Tagged: backyard garden, climbing rose, garden, hope, inspiration, nevertheless she persisted, persist, Pruning back roses, rain, rose, Zephirine Drouhin rose

Pruning back roses and putting down roots

January 9, 2018 by Melodye Shore

I pruned my rose bushes this weekend, and stripped them bare. They look so vulnerable now, and I’m remembering with wistfulness their fragrant beauty.

It’s an act of faith, this paring back. But it promotes deeper roots, and encourages branching.

It also speaks to me of possibilities. And you know what that means: a trip to the garden nursery!

Meet Oprah’s Legend, the newest resident of Chez Shore. For now, she’s a just a rootball with a few thorny canes…

Bareroot rose in soil

fresh from a leisurely soak in epsom salts, bare roots exposed.

Bareroot rose, soaking in epsom salts

Over the next few months, she’ll plant herself deep in the earth.  In due time, she’ll  become a leafy beauty. When she reaches her full potential, she’ll be a sweet-fragranced, “ruffled whopper of a show-stopper” according to the grower, with epic 8″ blooms and “petals as big as a child’s palm.” That’s not just catalog hyperbole, mind you.  A trustworthy gardener confirmed it for me.

Oprah's Legend, red rose

Courtesy of Weeks Growers

Hurry up, spring! This, I’ve gotta see.

SaveSave

SaveSave

SaveSave

SaveSave

SaveSave

SaveSave

SaveSave

SaveSave

SaveSave

SaveSave

SaveSave

SaveSave

SaveSave

SaveSave

SaveSave

Posted in: flowers, garden, gardening, Oprah's Legend, pruning back roses, putting down roots, rose, writing Tagged: garden, Oprah's Legend, Pruning back roses, Putting down roots, roses, Weeks Growers

#FrecklesFriday: Reciprocated gifts

September 29, 2017 by Melodye Shore

To the vast blue ocean, I offered a single rose,

and whispered a simple prayer about gratitude and grace.

It was ushered into deeper waters by the outgoing tides.

The ocean swaddled it in velvet,

And sang to it sweet lullabies and old, familiar hymns.

Time passed. The tides rolled in and receded.

I waded in the shallows, watched the rosebud sink and rise again.

A deep peace washed over me, and when the tidewaters dipped to their lowest ebb, I discovered these treasures from the sea.

Is it any wonder that Freckles likes to lounge here, in Treasure Island Cove?

 

SaveSave

SaveSave

SaveSave

SaveSave

SaveSave

SaveSave

SaveSave

Posted in: #FrecklesFriday, Gifts from the sea, grace, gratitude, rose, tides, writing Tagged: #FrecklesFriday, grace, gratitude, Tides, Treasure Island Cove

Wordless Wednesday: Little Altars Everywhere

June 21, 2017 by Melodye Shore

 

Posted in: cairn, caterpillar, chalk art, Cost Tower, flip-flops, flowers, garden, Lillian Coit Memorial Tower, little altars everywhere, monarch caterpillar, rocks, rose, sidewalk art, Telegraph Hill Tagged: cairn, Coit tower, flip-flops, Lillian Coit Memorial Tower, monarch caterpillar

Mother’s Day

May 8, 2016 by Melodye Shore

IMG_715520160508

To all those who’ve

nurtured,

protected,

inspired,

laughed and cried,

commiserated and conspired with us,

revealed to us their vulnerabilities,

believed in the shimmery magic of starlight, fireflies, and rainbows,

showered us with grace,

and loved us into the light…

Happy Mother’s Day.

Posted in: gardening, grace, joyful noise, Mother's Day, Pope John II Rose, rose Tagged: celebration, mother's day, pope john paul ii rose, rose

Topics

ab 2165 beach billy graham birds can i get a witness christmas dear bully family archives flowers freckles garden gardening harbor seals hope hummingbird hummingbird hatchlings hummingbird nest 2015 hummingbirds jeannine atkins joy joyful noise laguna beach land of medicine buddha memoir memoir writing monarch butterfly nana nancy drew new year's eve ocean orange county peace photography poetry rosa resolution rose sara seals tent revival thankful thursday thanksgiving the author's tent throwback thursday wordless wednesday writing

Recent Posts

  • International Day of the Seal
  • My uncouth neighbors: A murder of crows
  • Smitten with Kittens, by Florence and Wendell Minor
  • Happy Valentine’s Day!
  • Happy New Year, 2022
  • The Badlands
  • TINY BIRD: A Hummingbird’s Amazing Journey

Archives

Copyright © 2023 .

Omega WordPress Theme by ThemeHall