Certain times of the year are just defined by colors: early May reads pink to me, with touches of white (and green of course) for contrast. It’s all the flowering trees and shrubs and the pink version of one of my very favorite plants, Bleeding Hearts. Spring has been rather chilly here in Salem so far, and this is a really busy time on the academic calendar, but the quest for pink gets me out there on the streets, and in some cases, in (public!) backyards. The sloping garden behind the Peirce-Nichols house, for example, is Bleeding Heart heaven, and while I found no pink (though sometimes lilac can pass) behind another PEM house, the Gardner-Pingree, I did find a rabbit, so I’m including him/her too–along with a photograph of some absolutely beautiful pink borscht from a new bedside book which I bought more for its colors than its recipes: Dinner with Georgia O’Keeffe: Recipes, Art & Landscape (Assouline, 2017).
“Papplerose” (which looks like Bleeding Hearts to me) drawing by Dagobert Peche (Austrian, 1887-1923); watercolor on paper, Smithsonian/Cooper Hewitt Museum.
Drawing of pink and white tulips by Tommi Parzinger, ca. 1930; graphite on paper, Smithsonian/Cooper Hewitt Collection; borscht from Dinner with Georgia O’Keeffe: Recipes, Art & Landscape by Robyn Lea.
May 10th, 2017 at 8:49 am
A great collection of photos, as always.
May 10th, 2017 at 9:20 am
Thanks! Not difficult this time of year!
May 10th, 2017 at 8:49 pm
Hi Donna, thanks for all the “pink,” especially the bleeding hearts. The season is so short….
May 12th, 2017 at 12:02 pm
My grandmother called the bleeding hearts “Cinderella Slippers” and told me this story as she gently pulled each part off the blossom:
1st: the pink outer part is Cinderella’s high-heeled slipper (turn it so the scooped part is where the foot would slide in)
2nd: the next part is her hoops that hold her skirt out
3rd: the next is her earrings dangling from her ears
Once you have pulled those 3 parts off, inside is Cinderella’s fairy godmother’s magic wand!
It may take a few tries before you can see it. My kids loved it.
May 12th, 2017 at 12:14 pm
Thank you, Jennifer—this is a charming story! I actually prefer the white variety but this story would only work with the pink!