Hangin' On By the Pinkies

 
I am surprisingly unwilling to embrace winter yet. I keep grasping at the last little bits of color I can find.

Not sure what shrub this is, but I see quite a few of them. They all have this graded pink to yellow color in the fall.



A few chrysanthemums trying to hold on to their blossoms.



And a nice example of Bloody Geranium (not mine), but I do love the fall color.



Supposed to be clear tomorrow- hoping to do a few more outside chores, and then snow. Well, I need a picture with snow for the cover of Dead Mule Swamp Mistletoe, and a very specific picture. Maybe I'll be able to get some to choose from this weekend.

In other news: wrote a chapter in Mistletoe and did errands.

	See Pink Flowers
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What an Ending!

 
I was going to tell you about my cold day, and I'll get to that. But just as I was getting ready to publish this post, something spectacular happened. I glanced up and looked out the window, which faces south. The sky was as pink as some western sunsets. I looked west.



But here was the southern sky.



The eastern sky.



The northern sky.



It's all faded now. If I hadn't looked up at just the right moment I would have missed it all! I'm not sure I've ever seen all four directions colored that way. Sometimes south and east will catch it, but north gets left out. Wonderful!

Prior to that, I was going to say there were two good things about today. One of them was that I had a colorful view across from my vendor canopy. Yes, those white streaks are hail and slush.



The other good thing is that I sold quite a few books. Other than that, I froze. Everyone froze. Michigan alternately delivered up rain, hail, snow, sun, and wind, all at about 37 degrees. We survived for about five hours but then people began packing up, and I confess that I did too. It was very hard to keep the books dry. I think I need a canopy with sides.

I'm still bundled up with a blanket, and my fingertips hurt.

It's sort of hilarious, though. This was the worst weather of any of the Shagway Vendor days this year, and I did really well. Everyone did, and they sold quite a few things inside the barn, too. Go figure.

	See Late Fall Driveabout
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Dusk-y Pastels

 
These pictures were taken last week, just a few days apart, but I loved the clear colors.

I suppose it's no big deal when the sky is blue, right? But it was a foggy evening, and it was like the air was blue... hanging between the trees. I love dusk.



This was the color before sunset a few nights later. It's not often the sky turns such a solid monochrome pink.



Work was slightly organized chaos, and the rest of the week is probably going to be the same. However, they did hire a truck delivery person today. Maybe this one will last longer than one day. That would be fine! We of the mailroom are getting frazzled from doing everyone else's jobs as well as our own.

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Pink Flowers

 
Not sure if I subconsciously left pink till near the end because (as some of you know) it is my least favorite color in the entire spectrum. That said, although I'd never fill a garden with pink, It's still colorful. And there are lots of pink flowers. It seems to be a color the natural selection process likes.

Not a single one of the ones I'm going to show you is native to this country, although most may be generally familiar as garden or house plants. First is Dianthus, Sweet William, or Pinks. They are native to Southern Europe, but have been a common garden staple since colonial days. They do come in colors other than pink. Pinks refers to the ragged margin of the petals as if it had been cut with pinking shears.



Lots of bromeliads are used as houseplants. Most are native to South America. Some are known as air plants, because they can grow by capturing water from the atmosphere. Others are more "normal." Pineapple is a bromeliad. The family is very diverse.



Here is a pink peace lily. The white ones show up as house plants quite often. They are members of the genus Spathiphyllum for having that spade-like leaf. They are native to South American tropics and Asia. Another familiar member of the family from our area is the Jack in the Pulpit.

Caladium or Elephant Ears are all the rage in gardens, but they aren't hardy as far north as we live. Interestingly enough, they are in the same family, Araceae, as the peace lily and Jack in the Pulpit. If you want them in your northern garden you will need to dig up the tubers and store them over the winter. The leaves come in many shades of color. These are red and pink. The leaves can be anywhere from about 6 inches long to a couple of feet! (In the planter with them are fan-flower (Scaveola) and Dichondra 'Silver Falls.')



I saved this one for last because it was new to me. This is Medinilla. It's also native to the tropics, but is apparently becoming available for gardens as well. The label on this was Medinilla magnifica but the flower panicles aren't a match to other pictures of that which I found on line, so I don't know which information is incorrect. At any rate the clusters are quite stunning. This was maybe 8 inches long.


For anyone who might have just stumbled into this post, all the flowers featured the past few days were at the gardens of the Stan Hywet mansion in Akron, Ohio.

Josh is home from the hospital. Hopefully there won't be too many crises or changes for a while now. I could use a "normal" rest of week.

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Pink-ish Morning

I'm not sure anything will ever match the morning of the pink trees, but this was close.

Taken from my deck. How easy is that? (I did go out in bare feet, so I suffered for you. haha) There was a light frost on everything, and the sunrise light spilled over it all.



Here's the best one, framed by the deck posts.



It snowed on my TrainStation game world. Stay tuned.

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Techno-Color

 
This is just a mixed bag of colorful photos I like that all have to do with technology. They were all taken in the past month, but only the one of the drums was taken today.

First, the levitating headphones.

This one is outdoors, but you only get these flares from the sun with a camera or lens of some kind, so it's a techno-picture. I've been saving this one to show you, and it's a nice contrast with the pinks of the other two pictures.

They re-did the backdrop and lighting at church. I like the new look. This picture doesn't really show the changes, but it's that new lighting that causes the undersides of the cymbals to glow magenta. It's perfect with the green!

	See Not My Favorite Colors
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Pink, Blue (and Red)

 
Today's images:

The sunrise was pink, and the light was so intense it lit up the mulberry trees. This is not looking into the east, but to the west where the light was cast.



Later in the day, when I got home from working, the same trees had blue sky in back of them. I like the contrast.



And in between, I liked these two scenes with the focus on red. But notice that a tree is an important part of both pictures.





Work tonight. Not sure I'm mentally ready.

	See Mulberry Mystery for more about these two trees
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Not My Favorite Colors, But...

 
I guess this is the week of pretty things in not my favorite colors. I was all set to bring you another silo lesson, but hey... then I was at a house with this beautiful hydrangea, with the leaves beginning to turn color. The silo can wait.

Pink is at the very, very bottom of my color list. For me to admit that I think something pink is pretty means it was REALLY pretty, and pink just happened to be involved.

So, here's a late-season hydrangea to brighten your day.



Tomorrow night I'll be in another state. Maybe I'll be able to blog- hope so! You can guess which one until then.

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