A Corner Of Color

Day 323: In a day when "clashing colors" meant that you didn't wear green with blue, red with orange or purple, grey with brown, my mother's sage but somewhat contradictory advice was to take direction from Mother Nature. If colors did not appear together naturally, they were verboten. I promptly went out and found many examples of red flowers with orange centers, brilliantly blue blossoms rising over vivid green foliage and verdant mosses growing on the grey bark of the alders so prevalent in the Pacific Northwest. Mother Nature, it seemed, was ready to excuse any shades I cared to combine. Soon, the aesthetics were to change. With the advent of the Hippie Era, clashing colors became de rigueur, but the trend was for unnatural shades, the "day-glo" palette. With the exception of eyeball-bursting chartreuse, the hippie hues offended my sensibilities.

Today, I fall back on my garden for fashion counseling. It trends toward the jewel tones, assiduously avoids pink, mixes anything else while being based primarily in greens. It does not matter if it runs down a bit at the heel, is rumpled or has a few patches. It's comfortable in its loose fit, rather old-fashioned, and most importantly, it's a happy, riotous rainbow from top to bottom with no concern for that silly idea that any two colors might clash.