Indigo and Azure

Calligraphic branch seen from a bedroom window, November 15

Given the fog this morning, and this week's celebration of a rainbow of colors, these lines from John O'Donohue's poem Beannacht struck me as a fitting quote when I heard them this morning:
        And when your eyes
        Freeze behind
        The grey window
        And the ghost of loss
        Gets in to you,
        May a flock of colours,
        Indigo, red, green,
        And azure blue
        Come to awaken in you
        A meadow of delight.
You can hear him read the whole poem at the On Being website. Beannacht is the Gaelic word for blessing, and this is part of a poem he wrote for his mother after his father's death.

Look back over the past several days posts for the flock of colors. Today we're celebrating blue, both indigo and azure.

Origami cranes from December 18

Geese and blue skies over the fen at Camp Friedenswald, October 8

Snow shadows, November 30

Moon from Schrock Plaza early morning, November 14

Morning glories along bike path south of campus, October 12

Alpine flowers, Switzerland, June 2009

Azure is the color of the sky, indigo a darker blue, the color just before the rainbow shades into violet. I discovered I don't have many photos of indigo.





But the quilt below is truly indigo -- one seen at the Tokyo Quilt Festival last January, made of old indigo-dyed fabrics, laborers' clothing. Light and dark in fabric -- indigo blue.

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Quilt from 2011 Tokyo Quilt Festival, 1-25