― Thomas Carlyle, Sartor Resartus
From Nightjar,
Khaki.
Telling apart tones of light brown is an exercise I find neither easy nor exciting, but the letter K doesn’t really afford many choices. I did learn that khaki is actually a RYB quinary color obtained by mixing equal parts of the quaternary colors sage and buff. Not that this piece of information helped me much, mind you. Hopefully some parts of this sheep’s portrait aren’t too far-off.
Jack and I had an interesting walk in the woods in the woods today. We ran into two young people from the Stone Tribe – that’s how they introduced themselves. The eldest is Drucilla the Prepared and she has lovely orange eyes and spots. The youngest is Murray the Inappropriate and he couldn’t stop giggling and the whole time his red and white spots kept jiggling as he wiggled and laughed. Drucilla says they are a long, long way from home and have been brought here by Pikes to act as sentinels.
I asked the obvious question. “How did pikes carry you here?”
Murray finally stops giggling and shouts out, “in their hands of course,” to which I reply “fish don’t have hands.”
“Of course they don’t, but what do fish have to do with it.”
“Well, you told me that you were brought here by pikes.”
“Not the fish Pikes,” says Murray. “The Palmerston Pikes, down near Punkydoodle Corner.” Then he starts to laugh again only this time he’s guffawing which makes him start to fart and that makes Jack start to giggle.
“You’d best be on your way now,” says Drucilla. “No more questions. I’ve said far too much already.”
“But, there’s so much more I want to know,” I said.
“Of course there is, but you’ll not hear it from me.”
“Please,” I pleaded.
“Off you go now. Don’t make call for aid.” Drucilla said finally.
I could hear hard steel in her voice and, since I don’t know what “aid” means to someone from the Stone Tribe, Jack and I sensibly, but reluctantly walked away. For now.
I have many questions.
From Nightjar,
Jasmine.
A pale tint of yellow representing the color of the yellowish lower part of the petals of some white jasmine flowers. I found it when a gentle morning sunray hit a dew-covered fruit of my Euonymus fortune shrub.
I swear this is a true story.
Last evening after supper Jack and I took a short stroll down to the end of our street. On our way back home we spotted a rabbit sitting in the middle of the sidewalk a few houses ahead. The rabbit was small and looked young and he was watching us approach and not moving – basically, frozen with fear and that “Oh, shit, now what do I do feeling.” We approached slowly – Jack has been taught not to chase anything alive and I was sure the bunny would finally bolt when we got closer. Nope. Jack amiably walked up to the rabbit and then bent down and took a sniff. Well, that rabbit turned his head and then rubbed his nose on Jack’s nose and the two of them just stood there for a moment looking at each other. Finally, the rabbit got up on his hind legs and gave Jack a good sniff or two and then he slowly hopped away into the shadows. Jack waited for me to tell him “let’s go” and then he ambled home slowly, deep in contemplation. I got the feeling that Jack was right pleased with the encounter and couldn’t quite believe that it had happened. Me, too.
From Nightjar,
Indigo.
A deep rich blue, inclining towards violet, and one of the seven colors of the rainbow as named by Newton. The indigo dye is one of the oldest dyes known, historically extracted from plants of the genus Indigofera, but I think I found it on the berries of a Viburnum shrub.
Someone came into our peaceful, wee forest and deliberately plucked out plants by their roots and then scattered them along the entire length of the path. The wreckage looked fairly fresh so it must have happened yesterday or earlier today, but who would do that? And why? It isn’t exactly violence, but it has the look of violence about it and it’s certainly senseless and stupid. Those plants were probably minding their own business, just doing that growing in the summer thing that plants do. I doubt they were shouting out insults or hurling stones at passersby nor were they likely to be plotting to do mischief at midnight. Sheesh! I hope whoever did this get weeds.
This peaceful patch of pines comes to us courtesy of Lofty,
On the winter solstice I rode along a wooded ridge and this little stand of pine trees was almost perfectly side lit. The temperature was around 5°C at the time and frost was still present in the valleys nearby even at 10am.
From Nightjar,
Heliotrope.
A pink-purple tint that represents the color of the garden heliotrope flower. I couldn’t find the flower, but I found the tone on an African Daisy. I wish I could have shared this photo with Caine, she loved daisies and I know she would have loved that curled petal.
We had a lovely, steady rain on Saturday night and by Sunday morning the oppressive heat and humidity were gone. Hooray! It’s a pleasant and welcome change from the steamy days of last week that kept poor Jack cooped up for days on end. We decided to celebrate the good weather with a walk along the river and the water was clean enough today that I let Bubba swim. We both overdid it a bit, but in the best kind of way and we came home sleepy and smiley and feelin’ fine.
From Nightjar,
Green.
Brought to you by a green shield bug on a green potato leaf.