Shades of red from New Zealand: The Gallery

This week’s theme on the wonderful ‘Gallery’ is ‘The Colour Red’ (with an optional Halloween twist).

It wasn’t until I started looking back on all our photographs that I realized how evocative a colour it is and how all colours hold so many different memories. I have spent so much longer than I ought to have and one thing is for certain – the colour red is not conducive to sleep! I’ve sat here, on the futon in my bedroom, scrolling through images of red for hours.

Red can be warm, snuggled up in a blanket by a cosy mid-winter fire.
Red can be glorious on a sunny day when rich, red roses fill the air with a heady scent.
Red can be dangerous and fill us with fearful awe,
The volatile nature of the earth so precarious where the crust is thin.

Red can be funny like a clown’s nose,
Or scary like a vampire’s bite.
Red can be beautiful, like the bloom of Pohutukawas,
And fill us with love, lust and passion.

Red makes me think of so many events throughout the calendar year and brings back many memories of our time in New Zealand…

The beautiful Pohutukawa blossoms of a New Zealand summer…

A wonderful Halloween party at Capital E in Civic Square Wellington. They put on a fabulous event every year, which is fun and safe for children.

Halloween 2008 Capital E, Civic Square, Wellington

The fiery skies we saw from our first home in Brooklyn, when we were often up before dawn with our first born. The ever changing sky and incredible views made those broken night’s a little easier…

The magical toadstools of autumn…

Which really delighted Charlotte and Sophie on one special autumnal walk in Zealandia (formerly known as Karori Wildlife Sanctuary) a couple of years ago…

And the tulips of spring in the Botanical Garden…

The association of the colour red with good fortune for the Chinese people and how we dress up in red for the Chinese New Year Festival in Wellington each year…