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!

Clemmie - red combe signifying egg laying maturity.

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:
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.

Major John McCrae, May 1915

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