Blue, blue, my world is blue.

We enter the garden, we’re stunned by the boat…then we look up to behold a forest of slender trees or perhaps reeds unmoved by any wind. Surrounded by stout, prickly cacti guardians, they rise gracefully, some straight, others in sinuous shapes.

“I need the shade of blue that rips your heart out. You don’t see that type of blue around here.”
― Cath Crowley, Graffiti Moon

Let’s go a little closer.

“If magic was a colour,
That colour would be sparkling blue”
― Lucy H. Pearce,

Then we’ll let the camera takes us where we’re not physically allowed to go…in amongst the creations.

“Humans get hungry for blue, it seems: to hold the sea in their hands, to wear the sky in their hair, to drape themselves in the hazy blue of distant mountains. Blue is more than a colour: it is a feeling. We don’t say that we feel orange or purple, but we say we feel blue when our souls are sad and heavy. We
play or sing or listen to the blues to express this sensation. Like any colour, it cannot be adequately described with words, only experienced, known through the eyes and the soul.

Making blue has always been magic: the domain of alchemists since the beginning of human history. To find red only required blood or berries or the smearing of red clay. To make brown was as simple as
reaching down to the earth beneath one’s feet. White chalk is plentiful in many places, or can be replaced by fire ash. But blue appears rarely in forms from which paints or dyes can be made…blue requires earthly magic.”
― Lucy H. Pearce, She of the Sea

More than just lying there

Here’s the answer to that pesky question of what happens if a tree falls in the forest and no one hears it:

“If a tree falls in the forest and nobody is there to hear it, doesn’t it just lie there and rot?”
― Chuck Palahniuk, Survivor

However in this case, the fallen tree provides a home for some moss and a lovely foreground for these blue flowers. I know we’re venturing into the “is it blue or is it purple” territory but at least parts of these flowers appear to be blue to me. That’s my story and I’m sticking to it even though they looked more blue when I was going through the archives.

If you see a tree as blue

If you see a tree as blue, then make it blue. ~Paul Gauguin

Mural in Philadelphia

Autumn tree with car and flower with butterfly

As odd as most people think it is, I miss winter or cool air, so one Saturday we drove down to Tucson and then up The Catalina Highway or Sky Island Scenic Byway, rising almost 9,100′ and through six types of vegetation. At the top, it felt alpine and we spotted bright yellow and red leaves and aspen trees as well. In addition to the leaf colors, the parking area was temporary home to this colorful beauty. The scenery on the one paved road up and back is spectacular!

For “blue”, let’s hope from the mountains of Arizona to Wyoming’s Big Horn Mountains. From what I’ve read online, I believe this is a butterfly rather than a moth but either way, its color sets off the blue of the flowers.

“Blue thou art, intensely blue; Flower, whence came thy dazzling hue?” – James Montgomery

Ethereal trees and corporeal children

All that needs to be said: trees and blue. 🙂

Thursday doors: powerful blue doors

It makes life much more interesting when power boxes become works of art. In this case, I’m also happy that some of them are blue.

for Thursday Doors 7.15.21 and Life in Colour: blue

Tree with a blue view

Won’t be long now until we’re in these mountains and I won’t feel at all blue. However, these blues I can love.

“Let the blue of the sky and ocean take your blue away when you feel blue”
― Munia Khan

for Squares: trees and Life in Colour: blue

Lemon tree very pretty and reflecting a bit

Who else remembers the Peter, Paul, and Mary song “Lemon Tree?” As with all their songs, the melody was lovey, although I had to disagree with the last line of the chorus:

Lemon tree very pretty and the lemon flower is sweet
But the fruit of the poor lemon is impossible to eat
Lemon tree very pretty and the lemon flower is sweet
But the fruit of the poor lemon is impossible to eat

Okay, perhaps you don’t actually eat a lemon on its own, but the fruit is pretty darn good! I start most mornings with a glass of warm water and the juice of half a lemon. I also sometimes make a ginger-lemon drink that’s very good and good for me. This lemon tree is at Queen Creek Olive Mill. They grow quite a bit of what they use/sell at the mill store.

And for “blue” this week, let’s venture to a completely different sort of surroundings, to downtown Chicago once again where there are plenty blues for today.

Tree as prop and flowering blue

This tree provided contrast to a large group of flowers found along the back paths at McDowell Forest Preserve while I was back in Illinois a few months ago.

Jude, this blue‘s for you and Cee, here’s my FOTD (flower of the day.)

“I need the shade of blue that rips your heart out. You don’t see that type of blue around here.”
― Cath Crowley, Graffiti Moon

Morning trees and cool blue

I see lots of morning trees as that’s not only my preferred time of day to be out but also because I always wake up early.

Some cooling blue in downtown Naperville. The fountain looks much like a dandelion and is a place where moms and children enjoy congregating. Don’t you love those sunglasses?