It's all about Red!

When I was at secondary school my 'affliction' of having red hair bit me on the proverbial.....yes it came with unwelcome nicknames like "red" and "blood-nut"...and at times a very cruel "period head"!! Gosh kids can be bullies and I was always hopeless at standing up for myself. So I have never really taken to the colour red and I recall my late Mum saying that redheads just can't wear red so I never did! I asked Mr Google about the colour and of course it confirmed what I already knew. "Red is the colour of fire and blood, so it is associated with energy, war, danger, strength, power, determination as well as passion, desire, and love". As I was deciding on another blog post I checked my phone and camera to see what photos I had taken over the last couple of weeks and it surprised me how much the colour red appeared in my images! And yesterday was a very special day for Australia and New Zealand as it was Anzac Day and coincidentally the symbol we use for remembrance is of course the red poppy.....

William Morris occasionally used red in his designs and my favourite would have to be the Brer Rabbit pattern. The original textiles would have been created by dying the base fabric in a vat of madder root and then discharge dyed by bleaching out the red colour with a carved block prepared with a bleaching agent - unlike the commercial fabrics of today seen here in one of my Morris aprons.......

I found an article online HERE from a lecture that William Morris gave in 1889 on 'The Art of Dyeing'. It is a fascinating read. Having never really liked the colour I was surprised at how much of it I have accumulated especially in our kitchen. I think it all started with a baking dish and then we received a red coffee maker from the family and so it grew. Even the day I took photos I noticed our calendar had a red design and little Wade's photo on the fridge was of him climbing into a red car!...........

 During the week Beau joined us one day when we had Wade and there was a little more red.....

Easter has come and gone and it was a quiet one for us. Little Wade was away with his family for the four day break and sadly Larry came down with a cold so instead we enjoyed the photos we received (or borrowed from f'book!).......even with a touch of red too!.......

 I just love this one of Wade having a chuckle in the car and obviously enjoying his popcorn.........

During this last week Larry and I ventured down south once again this time as I was delivering a talk about William Morris to the Ladies Probus group of Yankalilla. After this we took the short drive to Normanville and enjoyed a delicious lunch at the local pub. It was wonderful to see the old stone work inside and out.......

 and spot of red in the stained glass..........

 and the ladies conveniences had the most amazing floor and ceiling too.......

 And then we took an amble checking out the local real estate as we think this is where we would like to move in a couple of years. We love those picket fences as we dream about our very own 'Escape to the Country'.......

 We are still desperately waiting for rain and it is now official that we have recorded the driest start to the year ever on record. We've had 17.8mm of rain so far this year and the average is usually 108.3mm so things are looking very dry. It is dire for the famers so inevitably this will affect the food chain and consequently prices. We are still watering the garden even though it is starting to turn cooler and the autumn colours are not really appearing as they should. We have been told that the flu season has started early as well with warnings that it is going to be the worst year on record for that too. Apparently there has been 7,417 cases already this year and the total for all of last year was 5,928 so it is quite scary.  But the cosmos seem happy popping up amongst the last of the season's roses......

 So I hope that life is being kind to you where ever you are. I will leave you with an image I captured of our pesky Ringtail possum who is disturbing our sleep every night.....it might be very cute but it is such a pain! I just discovered tonight that he (or she) has nibbled all of my William Morris rose buds!!...........