31 days of colour - day two - blue

 

photo credit

not much wonder 42 percent of males and 30 percent of females surveyed said their favourite colour was blue.

Emma

31 days of colour - day one - introduction

welcome to 31 days of colour

scroll down to read 31 days of colour - day one - introduction. I'll add links below each day as they go live.

31 days of colour- day two - blue

31 days of colour - day three - my blue world

31 days of colour - day four - mr blue sky

31 days of colour - day five - diana vreeland

31 days of colour - day six - pink

31 days of colour - day seven - my pink world  

31 days of colour - day eight - think pink

31 days of colour - day nine - yellow  

31 days of colour - day ten - my yellow world

31 days of colour - day eleven - yellow (again)

31 days of colour - day twelve - frank sinatra

31 days of colour - day thirteen - orange

31 days of colour - day fourteen - my orange world

31 days of colour - day fifteen - beige 

31 days of colour - day sixteen - red

31 days of colour - day seventeen - my red world

31 days of colour - day eighteen - red alert

31 days of colour - day nineteen - audrey hepburn

31 days of colour - day twenty - purple

31 days of colour - day twenty-one - my purple world

31 days of colour - day twenty-two - the wizard of oz

31 days of colour - day twenty-three - grey 

31 days of colour - day twenty-four - my grey world

31 days of colour - day twenty-five - back to black

31 days of colour - day twenty-six - king david

31 days of colour - day twenty-seven - green

31 days of colour - day twenty-eight - my green world

31 days of colour - day twenty-nine - brown

31 days of colour - day thirty - my brown world 

31 days of colour - day thirty one - the seasons finale

what's your favourite colour?

I'm guessing when you read that question you, like i, immediately have an answer. while i was on holiday i started reading a book called the artisan soul by erwin raphael mcmanus, something i read in the first chapter has stuck with me. 

macmanus tells of an exercise he would do at the start of each leadership course he ran. he would enter the room, write a word on the palm of his hand and then ask everyone to write down their first and second favourite colours. they would be divided into groups of 8 or 10 and asked to reveal their favourite colour to the group, if there was not a majority decision on the groups favourite colour they would then include their second favourite colour until they had the primary colour of the group. each group would then merge with another group and do the same again to find the primary colour of the larger group, this would continue until they had a primary colour for the whole group; something mcmanus calls the cultural colour of the group. he states that universally wherever he has travelled this colour is blue. to illustrate this point, after the group decision was made he would ask someone to come and read what he had written on the palm of his hand at the outset - you guessed it, he had written blue.

red is my favourite colour.

never before had i considered there was a universal colour. never before had i considered that my favourite colour would be cast aside by the majority in favour of a colour i wear quite regularly but to me is a workaday colour. i had no idea how i would argue for my colour. i wondered how others had argued for theirs. 

for me, the thing about reading a book at the beach (sans little people) is it gives me time to digest. i closed the book, brushed my windswept hair off my face and tasted the salty breeze as i licked my lips, i watched the tide ebb and flow, sunk my feet into warm sand and daydreaming, directed my gaze up towards the bright yellow heat source. as time passed with my thoughts meandering around colour i realised what i was looking at: 

blue water.

blue sky. 

both the same colour but each a different shade. 

not just a different shade but many different shades.

sat in front of an expanse of water and an unending horizon, the four letters making up the the word blue suddenly seemed too small to me. blue might be the universal cultural colour but there are many shades within it. there are many shades within many colours and red is certainly included.

welcome to 31 days of colour.  this month for the first time i am taking part in the nesters challenge to write on the same subject for 31 days. game on. join with me as i rediscover colour and all its wonderful shades. i hope you will sojourn with me on the journey. So, tell me, what is your favourite colour?

Emma 

best part of the week

this week my best part of the week is deciding to take part in a writing challenge. myquillyn aka the nester over at nesting place has challenged herself to write for 31 days in october for the last six years. the last few years she has opened it up and asked everyone to come and join her, this year i've decided to join in too. above is my "button" to advertise my writing challenge which i've named "31 days of colour". i hope you will come back next month and join me on my colourful journey of words and images.

Emma 

thankful thursday

this week i am thankful for belly laughing first thing in the morning; got to love facebook. i am thankful for my eldest niece who upon seeing my frustration at working on a piece of unknown software put her arm round my shoulder in quiet reassurance as she silently watched over said shoulder. i am thankful i still have one parent whom i can ask about family history; as years gain momentum it is presence and time spent that become treasured jewels.

Emma

seascape

possibly if i lived near the sea my photos might become boring.

Emma

thankful thursday

for the second time this year i have field mice getting into my kitchen. i am thankful that the council were able to come out the next day and identify a second ingress point for the little fellas. i'm thankful too that an insect bite i sustained seems to be drying out and the infection is ebbing away rather than hospitalising me again. i am thankful for blue skies, sunshine and lunches eaten sat in my garden rather than at my office desk. september is treating us well.

Emma

what i did on my summer holiday

hello friends

it is lovely to be back in this space after taking some much needed rest and relaxation to enable rejuvenation. 

during my time away i had not just one break but two and i finally starting picking up my camera for more than just my daily photo project. i celebrated with friends getting married, i sat on a beach and got a little bit sunburnt, i drove long distances and walked almost everywhere i could, i have mostly worn sandles and was disappointed when i realised my favourite pair are breaking, i have spent time with my mum, time with my best friend and time alone, i have survived days without wifi (and what bliss that was), i finished one book and read two others, i watched the tides go out and come back in again, i drank chilled white wine and was introduced to sipsmiths summer cup, i hugged nieces i hadn't seen for months and heard about new schools and classes from both nieces and nephews, i spent time with old friends and made new ones, i laughed a lot, thought a lot and listened a lot. i realised leaves had changed colour while i wasn't watching, i discovered i could happily live by the sea and that no matter where you travel there is always someone you meet who either thinks you come from where they are from or someone who knows where you are from, i have found and much prefer barley couscous, i have marvelled at how little rain has fallen and have been grateful (for the second year running) i had beautiful weather for my holiday in the united kingdom. i have rooted through family history and have made new project plans, i have learnt my perspective is based on my life experiences just as your perspective is based on yours. i had forgotten that quite often i mix up e's, a's and i's when typing (as typing experiences has just reminded me - and yes, i typed it wrong the second time too),  i have listened with sadness to stories of too many people being taken too soon (why do they always come in threes?), i have laughed at old pick up lines still in use (i was wearing a red dress, it involved chris de burgh - if you are of a certain age you will groan too) and finally i discovered that if you give yourself enough time you finally miss the place you write in and want to come back to. 

thanks for being here when i came back for air.

Emma