Lingering at just 4°C (39.2°F) for the next few hours, it’s going to be very cool outdoors this morning, so when I walk, I’ll likely not be making photo stops. As I was looking for a photo to feature for today’s post, I came across this one and I recalled vividly the morning that I took it.

On a recent sunrise walk through River Park, I looked to my left to enjoy the sunrise, as I always do. The scene in today’s feature photo brought me to a full stop. For some unknown reason, my heart was almost drawn out of my chest, as though a strong magnet was pulling on it.

At first, I just stood there, mesmerized by the soft pinks and mauves of the morning sky, perfectly framed by the varying green hues of the trees and grass. What was it about this colour combination? Why was I so drawn to it?

I stopped to take several photos. It wasn’t until I was reviewing those photos this morning that a memory of long ago surfaced and I found a possible answer to my strong attraction to this particular palette in nature.

My grandparents’ little bungalow style house had carnation pink siding, and was trimmed with a light shade of forest green. In the front yard, two large peony bushes with pinkish-mauve blossoms stood against the house.

My paternal grandma passed just before her 60th birthday with a rare form of multiple myeloma. I was 12 years old that summer and was the eldest of four children at that time (my youngest sister was born four years later). Dad had to work to feed us and Mom had to keep house and do all of the typical household chores with very few modern conveniences, all while mothering four children, aged 12 to 5. My grandpa was working, and my youngest uncle, though still a teenager at home … well, he was a boy. As the eldest granddaughter available, I had the complete honour that summer, of caring for my grandma in her sick bed in the living room of that little pink and green house with the mauve peonies in front.

Photo Note: In post processing, I just corrected the white balance and tuned the image a bit with the regular image tuning tools. I didn’t want to stray too far from the actual colours as I experienced them that morning.

“How extraordinary it is when all the puzzle pieces finally come together and we are able to see the whole picture…and behold something beautiful.”

Julianne MacLean, The Color of a Memory