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Category: colors

Greening

Greening

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I noticed it ten days ago on the drive to Kentucky. I was heading west on I-64, about an hour outside Lexington, when something caught my eye. It was the pasture to my right. It was as if someone had taken a green crayon (“spring green” by Crayola) and scribbled furiously on the grass.

One minute it was brown and dull, winter’s leftover. The next it was verdant and bright, an advertisement for spring.

Nothing else had changed; the highway was still gray and the sky was still blue. But I had crossed some sort of line. The stealthy greening that had been happening for weeks — some of that time beneath the snow — had suddenly revealed itself.

 Meteorological spring had long since passed, but this was the real thing.

Up and Out

Up and Out

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The colors drew me outside earlier than I’d planned to go. Oranges and reds on the horizon, or what I could see of the horizon through our trees. The sky was firing up, and it was time to walk.

I moved eastward as if by instinct, following the sun. By the time I’d made it to the corner, though, the sky was already draining into blue, so brief was this morning’s brilliance.

But still, it was enough to drag me from the house into a stiff and uncertain wind, to begin the outside part of the day before I was entirely ready for it. Not altogether a bad idea.

There is something to be said for spontaneity, for lack of hesitation, for being moved by beauty. Not moved as in touched, but literally moved. Propelled to lace up the shoes, open the door, step outside.

Not every time, but often enough, the day is changed just by entering it.

Pink Cloud

Pink Cloud

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Sunsets are earlier these days. What would have been a late-afternoon amble a few weeks ago is now an early-evening stroll.

Yesterday was like that. The air thinning and without the moisture that has become a second skin. The sun already down though still plenty of light for walking.

I found a beacon for my trek, a solitary pink cloud. I followed it from one end of the neighborhood to the other. It was a cheerful presence, a spot of color in a darkening world.

Autumn Rose

Autumn Rose

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There is a shade that appears this time of year in leaf and twig and flower. It isn’t russet or rust; it’s more of a rose. Not the vivid rose of spring but the faded rose of fall, a purplish rose. It’s an elegant hue, subtle enough to show up on a runway or in a fashion magazine. But not pretentious either. It’s a quiet color and you won’t see it first when you gaze at a stand of trees. But go for a woods walk as I did yesterday, or do some weeding in the flower beds, and you’ll find it.