Tuesday, February 7,
3:00-3:50 p.m.
Sunshine and no clouds, bright blue sky, but many other colors are to be seen, also, just a few
steps from the front door of our old farmhouse. (An injured ankle keeps me from
venturing farther afield.) Most striking are the bright yellow branches of
the giant willows along the little no-name creek, vivid against the blue of the
sky, and on the ground, red osiers (dogwood) along the creek, brilliant
scarlet. Off to the north and south in the distance are cherry orchards, the
southern orchard trees a silvery lavender, those to the north a rich, deep plum
color.
(At this time of year, each
orchard has its own color tone: there are apple trees over on Jelinek Road whose
trunks and branches are intense orange-gold.)
Various greens are visible,
beginning with that of grass. Not all the grass is brown, and some patches are
greener than others. Along the walk, one sage plant is a dusky grey-green (the
other, a purple sage, dark and almost colorless now in winter), while nearby
rosemary, not winter-killed this unseasonably warm year, is a brighter,
still-subtle green.
Iris leaves in the garden are
tawny yellow-brown, tall grasses at the edge of the yard tawny gold, and
dangling clusters of box-elder seeds a sun-kissed warm beige. One tiny down
feather is caught on a twig of the little plum tree and flutters nervously in
the breeze. On closer inspection it seems to be two small, partial, finely veined feathers, tips clipped off, barely held together by a small clot of flesh, perhaps the last remaining trace
of a larger bird’s meal. The outer twigs and buds of the little plum tree are
red-orange; those of the big silver maple brighter red, though not the showy
scarlet of the osiers.
Many colors are the antithesis
of ‘showy.’ Browns and greys come in a near-infinite number of variations, the
greys shading into greens where microorganisms inhabit tree bark. The silver
maple crowding the front of the farmhouse is an example of this subtlety.
Pieces of outer bark, on a deeply ridged old trunk, curling away from the tree,
are dark grey and bear numerous grey-green lichens; the revealed underbark is
pinkish brown, appearing much younger.
The sun casts the shadow of
the porch on the old house foundation and stripes the trunk of the tree with
shadows of branches. More ground is bare (warm brown) than is snow-covered.
Full moon tonight.
