2012-02-13

Colour Cravings

It has been a long winter in Canada; not a cold winter - in fact it's been freakishly mild - but dreary.

My world is grey and white.  Day after day it's grey and white, white and grey, the occasional blue sky, then grey and white again.

I went to a Home Depot the other day, and spent an hour in the paint section, immersed in paint chips, colour cards, and colour scheme brochures full of photos of beautifully painted rooms in every colour imaginable:  a romantic bedroom draped in gossamer shades of delicate mauve and lilac and rose; a buttercup yellow bathroom with plush purple towels draped over the lip of a claw-footed tub; and a breezy sunroom decorated in Caribbean blue and lemon and lime.  (Oooh! la petite mort!)   I brought home a shopping bag jam-packed full of colour.

I spent another dreamy hour at my kitchen table sorting the paint chips into piles of  yeses, nos, and maybes until finally deciding on three colours which I taped to the walls - gold in the living room, blue in the kitchen, and a deep red for the staircase.  I stared at those colour cards for an entire week before coming to the realization that I am completely and totally lacking in ambition.  Apparently, winter apathy has a firm grip on me.

It won't last.  The snow will melt, the trees will bud, colour will bloom and I will be fine.  In the meantime, I've got my paint cards.



For those of you who may also be suffering from colour withdrawal, I've added a few photos to help get you through this grey season.  (Consider me your local Methadone clinic for colour addicts.)   Enjoy!

http://www.wallpaperhill.com/2011/11/28/red-tulips/



http://www.coldclimategardening.com



http://photoku-photokita.blogspot.com




7 comments:

  1. Kara, I know what you mean. I too crave colour. I once visited the Turkish city of Mardin which everyone saysisvery beautiful. Yes the buildings are beautiful but when we visited in May everything was the same colour,the buildings and the landscape. They were all a light brown and I was under-impressed. I realised how much I need colour in my life. I love the photos. Have you seen Cathy Jones Tittle's haiku Spring in the South http://cjtittle.blogspot.com/2012/02/few-days-off-to-think-and-regenerate-to.html, a timely reminder for those of us who would like winter to pass.

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  2. I'm not taken over by winter because winter has not bothered to show up this year. Yesterday and today we've started in the upper 20s and lower 30s but the sun shines all day. No snow. Not that snow is a regular thing around here but it is quite lovely on the rare occasion that it does fall. Winter is supposed to be a time of relief from the heat for me. Not this year. We will be back up in the 60s this week, probably even the 70s, which is where we've been all winter. So, come on down here for your color! Or just send me some dreary- I love dreary days.

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  3. Sorry you're in the grays kiddo. If you can stand the pack o pooches you're always welcome to come down south and help me paint LP's. My oak tree still has it's leaves.

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  4. Ohhhh....lalalalal.....hit me one more time with that! :)

    I hate it when my inspiration outruns my ambition too.

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  5. It hasn't been a harsh winter, hasn't it? Still...I'm with you. I yearn for the return of warm breezes, lush carpets of green grass, and the feel of dirt between my toes.

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  6. Thanks for the beautiful flowers, and just in time for Valentine's Day, too!

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  7. Our winter here in Portland has also been mild, and sunnier than usual. Still, the color is longed for and lovely.

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