Sharon's Week 25: There Are So Many Colours In The Rainbow

Today, John would have been 26.  In honour of this, his first birthday since his tragic and unexpected death in October, a tribute.

My title is a lyric from the Harry Chapin song, Flowers Are Red.  The gist of the story, you can see from the chorus below, is about a boy who thinks outside the box.  It suited John perfectly.

Teacher:

Flowers are red, young man

And green leaves are green

There is no need to see flowers any other way

Than the way they always have been seen

Little boy:

There are so many colours in the rainbow

So many colours in the morning sun

So many colours in the flower

And I see every one

Pete spent a lot of time planning the music for John's funeral and this was the final song.  I had never heard it before but I listen to it all the time now...never without tears.

John was that little boy.  He didn't fit into any boxes...the educational system had trouble figuring him out, his family had trouble figuring him out and sadly at times, John had trouble figuring himself out.  Despite the societal brick walls that don't bend for people who see the world differently, John grew into a brilliant, creative, caring and unselfish young man.

I wish we had more time together, John.  I realize, too late, that I could have learned a lot from you.

About the photos, I wanted to make this blog as colourful as possible in light of my title.  I was limited by some of the topics but I did my best to see all of the colours of the rainbow.

I'll begin with my most colourful photo of the week...

swirl

I got out the light table, glass pyrex dish and food colouring again (thanks to Donna for suggesting that last year).  I had fun and made a lot of photos but wow, the flaws that show up on the computer screen...little tiny bubbles that settled on the glass, tiny cat hairs that floated into the water and small imperfections in the glass were invisible to the eye but magnified to immense proportions on the computer.  I did some corrections in Lightroom but that was tedious and since they are only for my use, I let many of them be.  Here is my favourite swirl.  I'll put several more at the end of this post if you want to have a look.

a field

I thought of more lupins but between last week and this week, they passed their prime and anyway, we saw lots of lupins in last week's post.  Here is a small part of a large field of daisies on the side of the road where the Fort Creek section of the Hub Trail meets Third Line.

silhouette

On Monday evening, Pam and I headed out to Pointe Des Chenes for sunset (we were out past my bedtime!).  There wasn't a lot to put in front of the colourful sky for a silhouette and I wasn't happy with anything I got so on Wednesday evening (after ice cream and before my birthday fireworks) Pam and I headed to the locks.  The sun sets behind the steel plant and I hoped for something there.  The sky was gorgeous but I only got semi-silhouettes again (I have been trying for four years now).  I adjusted this a bit in Lightroom to make it more fully silhouetted.

Funny story, we had to cross the train tracks from the train bridge to get where I wanted to go and while we were up there, a train decided to come.  We were stuck on the wrong side of the tracks after sunset, surrounded on three sides by water with no place to go, me without a jacket and with time running out before the fireworks would start (it turns out that even though it was a long train, we had plenty of time to get to a fireworks-watching spot because they were soooooo late - again, I was up past my bedtime).  What do you do when you're stuck with nowhere to go?  Take a picture of course.

starts with X

I have to credit my brilliant son for this idea.  Levi kindly helped me think of words other than xylophone, x-ray and Xerox.  He told me that xenon gas is used in neon lights so I set out in search of purple neon lights (apparently neon is a general term and the type of gas used affects the colour of the light).  I like this sign.  It has no xenon but it has personality.  Oh, yeah, I was up, yet again, past my bedtime that night!

This sign is on the side of Wacky Wings.  The word "crossing" is pale purple in real life but it doesn't show very purple in the photo.  Take my word for it or head to Wacky Wings on Lake Street for dinner and check it out.

jump

Levi wouldn't help out with this.  I didn't think you'd really want to see Smaug's food (live crickets) jumping in their container and I didn't have the courage to ask kids at the skatepark if I could photograph them.  When I was at Maxine's having my elbow taped, I asked her to help me think outside the box.  Instead of doing that, she volunteered to  jump off a swing for me.  We headed to the park behind her house.  The people there with their kids were four teachers that I work with and they thought it was pretty funny.   Now, teachers across the Sault will think that OTs are weird.  Thank you Maxine!

bark

This birch tree with the shadow caught my eye while we were at Pointe Des Chenes.

wild card

I've got a few.  Let's start with my birthday fireworks (officially Aboriginal Day - soon to be Indigenous Peoples Day - fireworks, but we all know they were for me 😁).

And we have the creepy ship in fog.

And we have the coolest fog ever!  Look at how it is floating in waves.

Here are some more of the swirly photos.

And now, just because it is my Friday off and I can, I am heading for a nap 😊.