Pretty in Pink

Overlooking the lake at the Himalayan Gardens, Grewelthorpe.

I couldn’t be doing with pink when I was younger.  I thought it was an itsy-bitsy sort of colour, suitable to be worn by annoying little girls of the Violet Elizabeth Bott persuasion (You do know who I’m talking about here, don’t you?  Violet Elizabeth was the lisping, spoiled creature who tormented Richmal Crompton’s delightfully grubby-kneed and accident-prone Just William, as popular now as when he was first created in 1922).

I declined to dress my young daughters in pink, or to wear it myself.  I despised its sugar-sweet prettiness.

These days I’m rather less hardline.  I even have a raspberry pink shirt.

All the same, I think pink is happiest in the garden.  It’s here that flowers can celebrate the colour in all its variety, from the softest most delicate shades of baby pink through to vibrant, vivacious flamingo pink.  Pastel pink.  Shocking pink.  And pinks that use flower names: cherry blossom; rose; fuschia; carnation; cyclamen; dogwood.

Here’s a picture gallery of May time flowers taken over the last few years.  All of them are pink.  And I like every single one.

Many of these pictures were taken in our garden; in our village; at Newby Hall; and at the Himalayan Gardens at Grewelthorpe.  It’s my entry for today’s Ragtag Challenge: pink.

Click on any image to view full size.

 

 

Author: margaret21

I'm retired and living in North Yorkshire, where I walk as often as I can, write, volunteer, and travel as often as I can.

29 thoughts on “Pretty in Pink”

  1. I agree completely on the subject of pink although I’ve aged into it and have deep pink curtains in the front room. I’m not so sure about the garden in spring where I have real issues with early season pink, think camellias. I also agree about the beach. We’re so fortunate to live close to it and love it in winter especially. We’re pebbly unless the tide’s right out but the upside is your feet feel great once back on terra firms.

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    1. You’re right about early spring, which is yellow and to some extent blue. But now it’s ‘high’ spring (is there such a thing?) and I think pink – and most colours really – are OK. Yes, pebble massages for the feet are great – after the event.

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  4. I’m very much a on-off pink person. I always have some pieces in pink, but rather the soft, washed-out, ‘worn’ pink, not the screaming strong one of cheap lipsticks and boiled sweets. And I like all colours in the garden, your choice here is special, all tones and shades of pink, all of them lovely and happiness inducing.
    Wishing you a beautiful weekend. It’s Mothers Day in France….. tomorrow.

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    1. Ah! Mothering Sunday has been and gone here. It was so confusing when we lived there. Like you, I prefer un-pink pinks. Dirty pinks, washed out pinks, subtle pinks. It seems we can agree.

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  7. I also remember really disliking pink when I was younger. As I young woman, pink seemed to symbolize learned helplessness, and I saw myself as a more modern woman who could do anything. But, I’ve mellowed and like pink now.

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    1. Exactly, that’s just how I felt too. But I am still pretty horrified that shops selling children’s clothes still seem to do that pink-for-a-girl thing.

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  8. Pink flowers are lovely and your selection are beauties. I have worn pink now and again during my life but my usual colour has always been blue. Now that I am silver-haired I wear pink more regularly as I do lots of bright colours I couldn’t wear when younger.

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  9. You got me thinking about pink in the garden…I have a various pink flowers which are all delightful and yet it’s a colour I’m not keen on for clothing, either male or female. Old-fashioned pinks were my mother’s favourite flower but I think that was more for the heady clove scent rather than the colour!

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  10. I was a pink rebel too and am hating the advice that now I am aging I should wear fuschia scarves & lipstick to brighten my face. Not happening! Pinks in the garden however I agree with.

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  11. Well yes I do remember Violet Elizabeth (but not that her surname is Bott). I inherited two Just William books that my dad had when he was a child. (In all the illustrations featuring Violet Elizabeth he, when a young child, had smudged out her face completely using wet spit on the end of his finger to obliterate her! Analyse that!)
    I agree about pink suiting flowers best, as your post well illustrates, however, I do quite like that it is becoming a more androgynous colour for clothing with more grown men wearing it (similarly with floral prints).

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  12. I am heartened to read comments from so many anti-pink people! I think it’s the sexist ways it’s been used that it so off-putting for me. I still don’t like soft, namby pamby pinks but raspberry–yes! I have few pinks in my garden, leaning more to the bright red and orange, and NO purple. I feel more strongly anti-purple than anti-pink.

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    1. Yes, I think it’s that whole pink-for-a-girl thing that’s ruined it for a whole generation of women. But purple? I don’t wear it myself (‘Sooo ageing’,said a friend) as it doesn’t suit me much, but I have no strong feelings either way.

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  13. I’ve mellowed over pink too 🙂 🙂 As my t-shirt will attest! I only visited the Himalayan Garden once and loved it. Newby Hall, many times!

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  14. “. . . until I make myself thick (sick)!” was rather my view about pink when my daughter was born and I made it clear to everybody there was to be no pink. Awkwardly and strangely my mother’s aunt (last woman standing of her generation) sent a pink (not white), frilly affair so it was baby dressed as dolly for a single photo for aunty and then the offending item was donated to charity. It’s bizarre really, but how can one colour come with such baggage?

    Lovely photos of the blooms and blossom you can’t beat the subtle pinks of apple blossom can you?

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