We lay there and looked up at the night sky and she told me about stars called blue squares and red swirls and I told her I’d never heard of them. Of course not, she said, the really important stuff they never tell you. You have to imagine it on your own.
– Brian Andreas –
Roll out the red carpet! This is your red letter day. We’re going to paint the town red. We’ll catch the red eye to Amsterdam and take a tour of the famous Red Light District. Oh, don’t go red faced, it is a famous old part of town full of beautiful old buildings…
Red – it is an emotionally intense color that is said to stimulate the heart, breathing, and appetite. It is my number one favourite color here at The Red House! Last year I even painted my living room a deep autumn red. I expected this colour would help keep The Car Guy from falling asleep on the couch in the evening, but that is not the case.
It is also said that red cars are popular targets for thieves, but we have owned 5 red vehicles, and none were ever stolen. Studies have suggested that car theft is tightly linked to the popularity of the color, so red cars would only be more likely to be stolen if you lived someplace where red cars were highly popular. That certainly isn’t the case where I live!
It is also said that red clothing gets noticed and makes the wearer appear heavier. Nonsense! Being overweight is what makes you look heavier. As for the myth that the red cape of the Spanish Matadors makes a bull go wild – Mythbusters has shown that it isn’t the colour of the cape, it is merely the waving of the cape!
The Rose Hip – isn’t Hip an odd word to describe the fruit of the Rose Plant? We have quite a few Wild Roses at both the Red House and at the Cabin. I remember my mom making Rose Hip Jam when I was a kid. It was nothing to write home about. Personally, I prefer to leave the Rose Hips on the plants for the birds and whatever else can tolerate the flavour.
My red poppies – Papaver somniferum – are one of the few really red flowers that thrive in my yard. These poppies refuse to partake in the cross pollination practices of the other poppy species I grow, so I can always count on them to be red.
Red flowers in boxes – these in Rothenburg, Germany. I took a lot of photos of old buildings with red flower boxes when we did our driving tour of Southern Germany! They were everywhere!
Vienna, Austria – beautiful long borders of flowers, this bed in red and white.
In the case of the ladybug, a red coat does make her/him look rather plump….
A summer day at the cabin – the boys are checking the lake for things that swim, hop, or slither. The red shirt certainly stands out!
How good a red hot idea is usually depends on how much heat it loses when somebody throws cold water on it.
– Author Unknown –
Intriguing and could also mean why sentences etc are high lighted in red, explains why.. nice read thanks. red rag to a bull!!
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Thanks cobbies – I hadn’t thought about the meaning of red high lighting!
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I’m glad I ‘read’ this. lol (okay, so ‘read’ isn’t a color, but it is pronounced red, 😉 I’m sorry I couldn’t resist. lol)
I enjoyed your thoughts on red and your lovely photos. The lore and different expressions attached to colors and common things is such fun. Thanks so much. You make wonderful observations! 🙂
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Hi E.C. – Excellent – I hadn’t thought about using ‘read’!
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Red and purple are my two favorite colors!
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Hi Fergie – two very regal colours. I’ll have to do a purple post one of these days!
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As usual, I loved your photos. I like the punch of color you get when you plant red flowers but I have to say that red is not one of my favorite colors. I once worked for a fellow who, when editing typing I had done for him, placed little red x’s in the margin. It was his way of drawing my eyes to where he wanted a change made. He thought he was being helpful – it just made me angry. I finally figured out that it reminded me of getting assignments back in school that had red x’s made by the teacher to show me where I had made mistakes. He could have made the x’s in the margin in any other color and I don’t think it would have had the same affect on me.
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Hi Evelyn – I had forgotten about the red correcting pencil! Goes to show how long it has been since I was in school. Good thing my readers can’t put red x’s in the margins of my blog – I’m sure I make lots of errors!
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Hi Margie,
Beautiful photos, I really love the red flowers hanging over the building in Germany, very nice, and it makes everything around it look lovely as well.
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Hi Mags – I really liked the horses in that photo as well!
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Love the ladybug shot and the flower with the dewdrops. Your photos are always stunning.
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Thanks Maineiac – I have so many ladybug pictures! It is hard to choose which one to post next. Of course, it is even harder to come up with a different story about ladybugs.
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Lovely photos i like the third best.
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Thanks Pensioner. I knew people would have a favourite!
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Margie, I love your colour stories. My favorite colour is aquamarine with just a hint of boysenberry. If you could do a story on that, I would appreciate it. HF
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Hi Harper – That is a colour I am not familiar with. Perhaps it has something to do with living in a landlocked province in Zone 3. But, I’ll see what I can come up with!
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I live in a Zone, too. The Twillight Zone! (insert weird music and haunting laugh)
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Our local school colors here where I live are red and white. I never could have imagined we’d have as much red clothing around our house as we do now. There’s enough around to occasionally do an entire laundry load of just reds though so I guess it all works out.
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Hi BRC – I do a load of red laundry once a week, and I don’t have any school clothes (obviously)! That’s how much I like red!
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Rothenburg is absolutely a lovely town, and the Christmas shops…
Love the photos you posted!
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Hi Amy – I’ve never been to Germany near Christmas time, but I would imagine it is wonderful.
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Your photos are always so beautiful. What an eye you have. I smiled at the comment that it’s not red that makes us look heavier. It’s extra weight. Ouch. I remember shopping for a maternity dress once for a fancy business dinner we were going to be atttending before the holidays. I was very pregnant. As I was looking through the navy blues and blacks, my husband pulled out a red dress. “You always look at dark colors,” he said, and asked me to try the red. I did. I loved it. I wouldn’t have considered it on my own. But I felt better for wearing it – even at what felt like 9 3/4 months pregnant. I still remember and appreciate that he coaxed me out of my comfort zone. Red is festive and I think I had more fun that night because of the bright red, “hell yes I’m pregnant and I’m still going to have fun” dress.
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Hi Barb – Red certainly is a festive color, and I would imagine a red party dress would be beautiful! I hope you have some photos of that special night.
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Thanks for the shot of color on a grey rainy day! I used to dislike red, but as I get older, I love it more and more. Maybe its the gardening – I once made an entirely red garden at a friend’s garden nursery – what fun that was!
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Hi Composer – I’ve moved most of my bright red flowers into one bed, and added yellow and white flowers for variety. In another bed I put purple and orange flowers, and in another it is mostly pink and blue. The only renegades in the plan are the tulips. I haven’t been able to move every last bulb into the right location, color wise.
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Isn’t fun to play with color? The chipmunks have solved my tulip color issues for me:-)
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Beautiful photos. Red is my favorite color.
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Hi Amanda – Always happy to find a red fan!
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Beautiful post…red is a favorite of mine, too. Now I’m really anxious for spring to arrive and the red tulips in my yard to pop up! Thanks, Margie.
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Hi JSD – I love tulip season too! Mine look their best in late May – how about yours?
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Lovely work, Margie! I’ll bet you were wearing a red cape when you took those shots. How can I be sure? Well…
“…the really important stuff they never tell you. You have to imagine it on your own.”
Man, that is profound, even tho I can’t explain it!! : )
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Hi Mark – If you can picture me in a red cape, then your imagination is better than mine!
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Beautiful shots of red. You are such a talented photographer.
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Thanks yearstricken!
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♫Give me red – red – red ♫ and you did. Your images are delight. What’s interesting is the wide variety of themes in the images all united by the color red. I associate red with courage and my favorite image above is the poppy.
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Hi timethief – thanks for the song – the notes are a nice touch!
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Red is associated with the base chakra–connection to earth and survival. It’s a power color, alright!
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Hi Lorna – I have a red jacket, and I really do feel more visible when I wear it. Maybe more powerful too!
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