Beautiful Blues

In my estimation this single hydrangea is the most beautiful I have ever seen, and, upon investigation, found that the coffee shop which is in the background, gives it liberal feeding with coffee grounds, thus supplying the rich source of acid producing the incredible depth of color. Really, the colors are even deeper than these photos show. There are so many shades of blue, purple, pink and green in these flowers that I could have stayed there for a very long time, just taking it all in, but "the rest of the story" below will tell you why I didn't linger very long.

After a night of continuous dreams about the death of my blogger friend, Sher, my day started off much more abruptly than normal. My boss called me at 6 am to say that someone had called him to report an extremely loud screeching noise coming from our office building, and would I run over there to meet him and see if we could figure out the problem....off I went, pre-shower, shorts and a t-shirt (NEVER am I seen outside the house this way! LOL). As I drove the short distance, I could hear the noise as soon as I could see the building. It was the attic fan. Dear boss arrived and within a few minutes we were able to turn it off. The poor neighbors had been enduring that noise for hours. Seeing I was out and about and had the camera, I decided to venture the short distance to the village in the hope that I could photograph the hydrangea before anyone was out and about. As I drove up to the spot and pulled my car in close to the sidewalk, a youngish man, by the curb with his morning coffee, was staring at my car and me, and I thought, oh no, he already knows what a sight I am in the morning get-up. I dared to get out and he came over and told me he was watching my car because as I had slowed, two cardinals had landed on the roof of the car and were having a little set-to, and he was just amazed to see them "riding along" for a few seconds. They flew off into nearby bushes when I got out of the car. Just life in a sleepy fogged in village at 6:30 am. Yes, Chatham is fogged in and very humid. The bright side of it all is the fact that this is not beach weather but is perfect weather for the merchants here. Everyone shops when they cannot go to the beach.