After many false  starts, spring has finally arrived in the Northeast and flowers are blooming.  Unfortunately, we are also in the midst of a multi week funk – with drizzly, rainy and stormy weather patterns in an apparent standstill over the New York area.  As my friends will attest, my love of nature and adventure does not usually extend into hiking on clammy, damp days.  In addition with several large,  once in a lifetime trips coming up soon, I am extremely hesitant about putting my camera equipment (or myself) in any potential danger of slips,  falls or crashes over slippery terrain in pursuit of a good photo.  Save that for July and September (keep following this blog to see where I go).

I have instead been spending some time sorting and cataloging my thousands upon thousands of photos – and in the spirit of spring – have concentrated my efforts this week on my flower pics. In this week’s blog I would like to share some of my favorites. Not being a botanist, I have decided that rather than exhibit these flowers by genus, class or specie, I will more simply arrange them by color.  Perhaps if I can show all the colors of the rainbow, one will appear and the sky will clear.

White – White is “Achromatic,” meaning it has no hue and is not actually a color in itself but the combination of all the colors of the visible spectrum.  It often stands for purity, innocence Nevertheless, white flowers are quite impressive:

Red – Red is at one end of the spectrum of light, and is associated with the heart, passion, heat,  violence, danger and adventure and I suppose it is one of the most primal of colors

 

Orange – Orange is next up on the spectrum of light and is often symbolic of health, happiness, warmth and energy. Although it is also a hot color like red, it is not considered as aggressive:

Yellow – Yellow is the third primary color in the spectrum and is somewhat schizophrenic – it not only represents sunshine, happiness, freshness and energy, it sadly also symbolizes cowardice and fear.  Fortunately these flowers only radiate the positive characteristics:

 

Taking a little poetic license here since this flower is not totally yellow, but it is so sunny and cheerful, I had to include it here:

Green – Green is up next and while it symbolizes  life, renewal, fertility and harmony,  jealousy also creeps into its playlist. I prefer to look at its positive attributes – how you can not be uplifted by this image even though it does not contain a bloom:

The next colors in the spectrum are very difficult to separate as I find that nuances between each are sometimes very subtle;

Blue

Indigo/Violet

 

Pink?  A few of the flowers above could be construed as pink in tone, and it got me to wondering why pink doesn’t seem to show up on the  visible spectrum so I did a little research and learned that there is a science firestorm about it.  Some theories go as far as to say that pink is not a color – something about waves and particles and frequencies.  I am all for science – but you can’t say this color doesn’t exist:

 

 

Let’s just agree that some things don’t need to be explained – just enjoy them.

Of course nature is not neat and orderly as the above – it is cacophonous, messy and gloriously chaotic – and in its lack of OCD brings forth incredible combos:

 

And look – what’s that in the sky – could it be?  Maybe all the riotous color above has conjured this:

Alas, it is not so – I took this shot in the fall.  Still I remain hopeful,  the sun WILL come out tomorrow:

 

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