Take a moment to appreciate the colors of summer | Southern Perspective
We're deep into spring and almost into summer here on the Gulf Coast. The days are longer and will continue to lengthen until the youngest of us must go to sleep before it's even dark. I remember doing that when I was little. Of course, I'm a sleeper, so I was up for the task, but it was weird. I was much older before I knew how to truly appreciate this time of year.
As nature awakens and life recovers from winter, the colors become more vibrant. Inland, the greens mean a healthy land and bounty for all. We enjoy a myriad of green shades. From lime green to forest green and from bell pepper green to grasshopper green, this basic color of botany pleases us.
Sure, I know all about chlorophyll and that the plants aren't really green. They appear green because the chlorophyll absorbs the other colors and reflects a green light. But I'm trying to be poetic here, folks. Work with me (said with the whiny sigh of a self-described artist of words). I'm trying to offer in print what we, who love this land, see when we look at this tiny corner of the South. We don't see the science of it all, but we see a visual representation of life and home.
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To get back to the creative visuals, our forests and farms stand out against the blues of the sky. The shade of blue differs widely depending on the day, and it can range from steel blue to powder blue to baby blue and beyond. The coolest thing about the sky's colors is that they're never static. They change with the slant of the sun, and they blow with the winds.
Now, the same sky covers our beaches and oceans, but the colors always somehow seem different there. It could be that the sky, stretching out over both the land and sea, absorbs properties of the space below it. I'm sure there's probably some real scientific explanation for it, like maybe my imagination.
People flock from around the world to see our beaches. Some days the waters are green, and some days they're blue, but they're also an infinitely changing combination, usually of both. The white foam on top of the crests and waves tops it all off like the icing on an ocean cake.
With summer coming on, keep your eyes open. Take a moment in each day to notice a particular color in some amazing spot. I try to do it, and my life is better for it. Yours will be, too.
Southern gal Linda Barry is a freelance columnist for the News Journal.