August’s colour challenge, set by Jude at Travel Words, is Red. Energizing, warm, vibrant. A symbol of passion and also danger (in nature, as well as in our manufactured world). Red sits strikingly alongside yellow as one of the colour spectrum’s most attention grabbing hues.
Summer garden reds
A wide spectrum of reds: loud, proud & fiery in our summer vegetable and flower beds…
Autumn reds
Fallen maple leaves – astonishingly bright and light; whether damp and sparkling with rain, or crisp and tinged with gold as they age. Show stoppers, right up to the final curtain call of winter, when they grace the leaf heaps with flashes of cerise!
Harvest reds
Sweet red currants, glassy crab apple & red peppercorn jelly, red blushed apples, antioxidant packed ruby grapes, bulging radishes, ‘Bright Lights’ chard, beefsteak tomatoes, & cherry jewels.
Red for ready
With the arrival of a young hen, a red comb is a sign that she has reached egg laying maturity – happy days!
Red danger
Striking Scarlet Elf Cup fungi, which many claim can be cooked, despite it’s alarming appearance.
The iconic ladybird bears her striking red livery to warn predators not to eat her – ladybirds contain a cocktail of foul tasting chemicals.
Hot reds
A flashback to pre covid times, and looking forward to our local festivals fully returning next year (hopefully!). These handsome, attention grabbing motors were proudly participating in our last Horsham Ameri-car-na festival, a celebration of vintage & retro vehicles…
Red for remembrance
Poppy red is synonymous with remembrance of the sacrifices others made to bring us the freedom that we now enjoy.
‘Far and wide, in a scarlet tide, the poppy’s bonfire spread’ (Bayard Taylor).
In Flanders fields the poppies blow
Between the crosses, row on row,
That mark our place; and in the sky
The larks, still bravely singing, fly
Scarce heard amid the guns below.We are the Dead. Short days ago
We lived, felt dawn, saw sunset glow,
Loved and were loved, and now we lie
In Flanders fields.Take up our quarrel with the foe:
Major John McCrae, May 1915
To you from failing hands we throw
The torch; be yours to hold it high.
If ye break faith with us who die
We shall not sleep, though poppies grow
In Flanders fields.
The delicate but strikingly coloured red poppy signifies the power, quiet reliability & strength of nature – no matter what context man has created around it.
A poem to remember; for all times, perhaps.
See Travel Words for more of Jude’s 2021 Life in Colour Challenge here
The Oaks 
Hi
I visited your site. I stooped & read your blog post. Beautiful share story for red color. Good information for usually red color. 🍒🍁🌷🍇🍉☔👈
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Red is a wonderful colour, wherever it may be!
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Ok,
Thanks very much.
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Oooh, lovely garden reds!
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Thanks so much Sue! 🙂
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My pleasure 😊
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Beautiful photos! I’m inspired to plant some more red in my garden 🙂
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Thank you so much!
I’m afraid our garden is very much full of whatever the deer and rabbits will not eat!
Good luck with your reds 🙂
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A lovely and varied selection of reds, with great detail and little surprises in some photos. I enjoyed your post.
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Thank you so much for your visit and comment!
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A great gallery of reds Emma, I am particularly envious of all your edibles. The crab apple jelly looks stunning. Beautiful photos as usual and I thank you for joining in with me this month.
Jude xx
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Thank you Jude! It’s such a fun challenge – and I’m enjoying, and gradually learning about photography from others’ posts! 🙂
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WOW Emma. What an amazing gallery of reds. Love the macros especially the fly and I always love cars and a chook wins the day 🙂 🙂
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Thank you so much! It’s amazing how you see things like flies on flowers when photographing close up that simply were not there to the naked eye!
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I also like the surprise when you look at the photos and find things you didn’t notice at the time 🙂 🙂
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Beautiful photos-well done on showing us this collection of the many different reds. ❤️
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Thanks so much, Arl! 🙂
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Well, you certainly grabbed my attention with this strikingly diverse collection of reds. Lovely photos, and things to think about as well.
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Thank you, Margaret!
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Such a difficult colour so well photographed
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Thank you, Derrick – red’s not my favourite colour, but a little splash here and there does lift the spirit!
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