This week’s WordPress.com Photo Challenge is Purple.
Purple means something special to me – it was my mother’s favorite color. I can remember picking wild violets in our yard, bringing them in to her when I was small, proudly adding a splash of the color to her day. She especially liked deep purples, but she also loved lavender and lilacs. And she loved the purples of Scotland – the mountains, and the thistle tops, and the color of the heather on Scottish hillsides. And amethysts – amethysts were her favorite stone.
In England, her favorite place was Hampton Court Palace. The favorite palace of Henry VIII, its gardens are fabulous, and laced with purple flowers.
As I walked outside this morning, I paused to take these shots of the delicate purple blossoms on one of my Rose of Sharon trees. A gentle, comforting reminder of Mum.
That’s my purple haze. To see what other bloggers posted for this challenge, click here.
The Retiring Sort 
What beautiful, calming shades of purple! Particularly the Wisteria and your Rose of Sharon!
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Thank you – I have several Rose of Sharon bushes in different colors, but this one is special!
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We were in Hampton Court Palace in high summer, so the colors I remember were vibrant, almost strident, yellow and red and orange.
Your photos are lovelier, and wisteria is simply wonderful.
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Yes, we were there early in the season. Thanks so much for your visit and kind comment!
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The wisteria is beautiful! Great pics!
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Thanks so much – appreciate it! 😉
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The second photo of Hampton Court is beautiful. That photo is my cup of tea:-)
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Thanks so much! It’s such a wonderful place! 🙂
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Hampton Court Palace was one of my favourite places too. I love the Wisteria photo you’ve put as your header. I wish we could grow it here, but sadly it’s yet another on the list Calgary’s not-a-chance-of-growing here plants.
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😉 Thanks for the nice comment – I have no idea how hardy wisteria is once it’s really rooted, but I can imagine Calgary is a little tough on some plants!
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Calgary is ‘special’ in gardening terms because although we can be cold during the winter, we also get Chinooks where we can go from -20C to +10C in the space of two hours. In addition we don’t normally get tons of snow so there’s no insulation when that happens. We’ll suddenly lose perennials that we’ve had for years. This year I even lost an Iris – that was a first!
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Love those hanging flowers!!! Beautiful!!
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Thanks – there is something about hanging wisteria – it reminds me a little of grape vines!
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Fantastic photoshot. You have an amazing collection of photos my friend. Beautiful memories as well 😀
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Thank you! 🙂
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One word. Wow!
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Thanks, Alexandria! 🙂
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lovely photos, and your reminiscences go perfectly with the theme! thanks for your lovely comment on my purple sea snail 🙂
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Thanks for these kind comments! And you’re welcome! 😉
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lovely photos. purple sure is a nice colour 🙂
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Thanks – Yes, purple is wonderful in all its variations! 😉
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i love your story about picking wild violets for your mom – i did the same for my mom as a little girl, except they were yellow wildflowers. 🙂 beautiful take on the challenge!
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Thanks so much – flowers are such a universal gift! 🙂
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Beautiful photos and memories! 🙂
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Thank you, Inge! 🙂
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Very touching description of what these purple flowers mean to you.
Your collection of images is so beautiful. I enjoyed looking at them.
Great post for the challenge … well done.
Isadora
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Thank you so much, Isadora.
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Thanks for sharing these photos and the connection with your mother.
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Thanks for that – and for your visit!
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beautiful purples!
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Thanks!! 🙂
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Such a calm and serene colour purple is. Lovely, lovely pics and a beautiful post.
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Thank you for that sweet comment. It is a calming color – and coincidentally, lavender is a calming scent – which I’ve always thought was nice – the color and the scent working together.
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I’m captivated by the beauty of your pictures. The flowers are so beautiful.
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Thank you very much! Flowers are a captivating subject!
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Your pictures of purple are just beautiful. So calm and serene. Great selection you got here for this week’s theme.
Warm regards,
Mary
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Thanks so much, Mary!
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Gorgeous blooms. Love the Rose of Sharon ones. I have only seen them in red and white. The purple is lovely. My mom always had big purple irises in the spring. Amazing how colors bring about precious memories. 🙂
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It is. Thanks so much for stopping by, and for your sweet comment!
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Pingback: WEEKLY PHOTO CHALLENGE : PURPLE « 2012 – ON THE BENCH
It’s my mom’s favourite colour too. 😉 Beautiful photos. Love the wisteria.
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Thanks, AD – the wisteria really is other worldly sometimes!
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Fantastic. You have a wonderful range in the color too. 😉
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Thank you! 😉
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Pingback: Weekly photo challenge: PURPLE « Pictures in living color
Pingback: Weekly photo challenge: PURPLE « Pictures in living color
Like the thoughts as well as the photos
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Thanks so much – thanks for your visit!
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Love them all – so beautiful and perfect for the challenge.
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Thanks so much! 😉
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Love the wisteria! The garden in Hampton Court was amazingly beautiful
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Thank you – I wish I could show you all of it – there are many acres to these gardens! 🙂
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And also, wanted to check which plug in you used for the “Like” for the blog? I have a self-hosted site too, and have had a few comments to add this feature, but the ones I saw had not been updated in a quite a while.
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I’m not really self-hosted, I just own the domain name I use on WordPress. I used the WordPress dashboard (Settings-Sharing-last item on the page) for the Like button – The Facebook Like is a Widget on this theme. Hope that helps.
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Oh OK…thank you. I will have to keep looking for a plug in, I think (and if anyone has suggestions, please let me know). Thanks again. – Jane
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What’s your web host? WordPress.org (not .com) lists some plug-ins (for example: http://wordpress.org/extend/plugins/wti-like-post/) on their page. I expect other hosts do the same…. good luck!
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Hi, Jane – I notice this blogger just went self-hosted and has a Like button – I thought of you! http://theamateuradventurer.com/archives/608?subscribe=invalid_email#blog_subscription-2
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Lovely flowers, and I also like the beautiful wisteria, especially against the brick wall.
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Thanks – the brick everywhere there is striking!
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Pingback: Weekly Photo Challenge: Purple | ft. // la vie éclectique
Wow, that Hampton Court Palace’s garden is amazing. Love all those colors. Thanks for visiting my blog ealrier. 🙂
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You’re very welcome – and thanks for your kind comment – I’m so glad you stopped by! 🙂
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Very delicate. Very nice. Soft. I’m starting to really like purple. 🙂
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Thanks – I’m glad you enjoyed this! 😉
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Lovely gardens. I like the way you framed the garden with the cascading flowers. It is so charming.
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Thanks Imelda – that shot is part of the privy gardens at Hampton Court – it was one of my favorite spots there!
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Nice selection.
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where are you BTW?
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Northeast US
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Aha! saw your mention of your Mum’s favourite’s in UK and wasn’t sure
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She was raised half here and half in Scotland.
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🙂
Have you visited?
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A number of times – still have family there.
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🙂
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Thanks so much for the original kind comment!
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That wisteria is gorgeous!
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Isn’t it? It’s on several walls, and drips down from some arbors as well. Thanks for the visit!
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You have given us some very beautiful purple images here. A beautiful slide show for the theme challenge.
BE ENCOURAGED! BE BLESSED!
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Thanks, as always, Francine for your kind comment!
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