Some geography of blues

Each hue of blue today has a geographic place associated with its name. Bremen is a city in northwestern Germany. Delft is a city in the Netherlands and Wikipedia informs us that Egypt "is a transcontinental country spanning the northeast corner of Africa and southwest corner of Asia"....

• Bremen Blue:      Definition     Images
• Delft Blue:          Definition     Images
• Egyptian Blue:    Definition     Images

In the geography of My Minnesota, more and more of the local lakes are turning from ice blue to sky blue as Spring becomes more established and ice out occurs. The wood ducks are back in town. Yesterday I put the photographic sneaks on some sitting on the nearby pond.

a small flock of wood ducks

Photo by J. Harrington

There wasn't enough cover for me to get closer before they all decided they didn't want to have anything to do with whatever was sneaking up on them and took off. They do add a cheery touch of Spring color to the scene, even if there's basically no blue on them except for the blue-gray of the hen's bill [update: and some wing feathers].

Rivers are often blue, the Mississippi starts in and flows through Minnesota, Langston Hughes is noted for writing blues poems, and the Nile is a river in Egypt, home of Egyptian blue. Thus we continue our blues and poetry themes through Good Friday.

The Negro Speaks of Rivers

By Langston Hughes 

I’ve known rivers:

I’ve known rivers ancient as the world and older than the flow of human blood in human veins.

My soul has grown deep like the rivers.

I bathed in the Euphrates when dawns were young.

I built my hut near the Congo and it lulled me to sleep.

I looked upon the Nile and raised the pyramids above it.

I heard the singing of the Mississippi when Abe Lincoln went down to New Orleans, and I’ve seen its muddy bosom turn all golden in the sunset.

I’ve known rivers:

Ancient, dusky rivers.

My soul has grown deep like the rivers.

********************************************
Thanks for visiting. Come again when you can.
Please be kind to each other while you can.