Color fix with graph paper

During Friday morning's big snow I decided to tromp the six blocks to the grocery store after the lone llama photo shoot.  I'd been reading recipes, always a dangerous activity since I have Chronic Failure to Follow Recipes Otherwise Unspecified.  [I'm not a psychiatrist, but I play one on the Food Network.]:

• Why do they call them red lentils if they are orange? 
• Why do they have to turn gray when cooked?  It's just so gruelly. 
• Why do I think maybe this is the time I will actually like wild rice?  Hah!

I had most of the ingredients for Grandma's baked chop suey, the essential snowstorm food. But I needed soy sauce, as usual. Cocoa mix, celery, and a newspaper would all enhance my "snowed-in" experience. These would fit in one reusable totebag, easy. Plus, I could look for gumballs on my walk to the store. More on that later.


What I really needed was a color fix.  The windows of Calloway's Nursery pulled me like a magnet.  I couldn't get enough of the red, white, and pink cyclamen and the saturated bright colors of the primroses. 

The light coming through the snow on the greenhouse roof gave a sense of fragility and imminent danger.  Condensation on the windows added to the magic exhilaration of stealing this color while no one was watching. 

Once the temperatures rose and the streets became safe on Saturday, I took another color detour off the freeway to Northhaven Gardens on my way to the library. Using a gift card, I got two bright red cyclamen plants to inspire a Valentines art class. The silver markings on the dark green heart-shaped leaves have refueled me. 

I'm working on spatial vocabulary with the little kids--on top, behind, between--and we will arrange and observe the two flower pots. Maybe I'll take some graph paper to add to the backgrounds. It's silly, but the thing that attracted me to this condo was peeking in the window and spying the "graph paper" blue and white wallpaper in the dining area and kitchen.

The reds, greens, pinks, and silver did me way more good than the wild rice or soy sauce.  Oh, and about the gumballs, it might be time for my annual read-aloud of Daniel Pinkwater's Wallpaper from Space.

© 2011 Nancy L. Ruder