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

A Joyful Noise

New Zealand 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

Lesson from an incinerated garden: Soften your gaze

July 10, 2018 by Melodye Shore

Last week, a fire-breathing dragon swooped into my backyard garden, wreaking havoc.

It scalded these Meyer Lemons, which were just about ripe.

Sun-scalded Meyer Lemon, citrus

It was a relentless, record-breaking heatwave that scorched everything in reach.

Gardenia, heat-damaged gardenia

Healthy leaves curled in on themselves, and turned crispy brown. Rose petals got singed, and assumed grotesque shapes.

This week is all about digging up and pruning back, salvaging what I can and encouraging new growth. From here on, it’s a game of wait and see: a budding leaf, the subtle lift of a drooping plant. I’m optimistic, for the most part.

Sun-scorched camellia, high-fragrance camellia

A rascally rabbit has joined my clean-up crew–comic relief!  Butterflies drift through the yard, laying eggs that will eventually replace the caterpillars that didn’t make it.

rabbit, bunny, rascally rabbit

The urge to reproduce is strong, isn’t it? The need to set things right. But dreams don’t often translate into reality overnight.

Lesson from an incinerated garden: Soften your gaze.

hummingbird, soften your gaze, Santa Barbara Sage

SaveSave

SaveSave

SaveSave

SaveSave

SaveSave

SaveSave

SaveSave

SaveSave

SaveSave

SaveSave

SaveSave

SaveSave

SaveSave

SaveSave

Posted in: garden, heat wave, soften your gaze, writing Tagged: butterfly, camellia, garden, gardenia, gardening, hummingbird, lessons, monarch, New Zealand Rose, rabbit, 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 © 2025 .

Omega WordPress Theme by ThemeHall