Colour Challenge 2021: May – Purple

Jude, from Life In Colour is running the 2021 Colour Challenge blog feature.

This month’s focus is Purple.

Click here to see more.

Purple combines the strength of red and the solidity of blue.

The colour that has long stood for nobility, luxury, extravagance. A majestic, exotic colour of many hues; associated too with independence, creativity & mysticism.

I love garden purples – though not so much in the house. However, when my girls were very young, after a ‘cooking’ session experimenting with our home grown squidgy, ripe blackberries, they came up with a marvellous ‘recipe’ for blackberry delight. (Predictably, blackberries mixed with varying degrees of yogurt to vary the colour and taste!)

So taken with the colour, they asked to paint their bedroom the same purple tone, and took a bowl of said ‘blackberry delight’ down to the local Decorators Mate. I don’t think the guys behind the paint mixing counter had ever had a request like that before… but it certainly was an equal success on the palette and the palate!..

Bees – especially honey bees – are particularly attracted to purple, violet and blue. Scientists believe that purple flowers tend to have the highest levels of nectar, resulting in a mutually beneficial relationship.

Although relatively common in plants, purple colours are rare in the animal kingdom. Mammals are unable to produce purple pigments, and ‘birds and insects only able to show display purple through structural colouration. This is where tiny structures in the feathers of birds or the scales of butterflies and beetles reflect light a certain way to appear coloured, even though the cells are actually colourless’. (Natural History Museum)

Homegrown purple grapes, perfect for making dark magenta grape juice; bursting with Antioxidants.

.. & delicate purple sprouting broccoli, brightening up the early spring veg garden with a touch of regal sophistication.

Below, the 2021 Hampton Court Tulip show – with lashings of regal sophistication!

 C.A.A. Savastano

“Some people are Red voters and some people are Blue voters, but I am a Purple voter because I can see good and bad in the policies of both and vote accordingly.”