Tuesday, August 3, 2010

The colours of the months

While many around me are lamenting how fast the summer is going and how it's August already, I'm excited because we're entering my favourite time of the year.  I love August, September and October and the weather and colours and books they bring.  (Hurrah, fall publishing season!)

In my head, the months are represented by colours (Is that weird?  I think that's weird.) and the next three months are lovely colours in my mind. 

August is a deep, shimmery blue.  Growing up, the Georgian Bay was usually warm enough to swim comfortably by August so I always think of water and swimming this time of year.  August also brings cooler evenings and deep blue makes me think of the sky at dusk and a cool breeze that means breaking out a cozy sweater.  The thought of that really excites me. 

I have a deep hate-on for the colour yellow, but September exists in my head as yellow.  But it's not an opaque, awful yellow; it's more translucent and golden, like the sunlight through the leaves on a tree as the leaves turn from green to yellow.  I can't explain why I'm okay with September (my second-favourite month) being yellow when I so despise the colour, but I am.  And it's such a beautiful golden colour, too.

October is my favourite month and I see it as a bright orangey-red, mainly because of the leaves.  I love when the leaves start to change and the air becomes cooler and smells...different...fresher...better.  And I've come to associate the smells of October with Halloween (even when the smells aren't Halloween-specific) and since I love Halloween, this works out really well.  To me, October is so vibrant and brilliant and cozy, I really do love it.

Now you may be asking, what about the rest of the months?  Here's how they break down in colour:

November - dull grey, like tombstones and death.
December - pale, icy blue, like Jack Frost and snowflakes and icicles.
January - bright white, because snow is EVERYWHERE.
February - dirty grey-white, because (in the city at least) the sidewalks and dirt start to show through, making everything yucky.
March - deep green, mostly because of St Patrick's Day, but also because sometimes spring starts to show through this early
April - pastels, because of Easter and the first pale signs of spring.
May - light green, because spring should have taken hold by now.
June - lilac purple, because it's a flowery month.
July - solid, throbbing, burn-my-eyes-and-my-soul yellow, because it's so bloody hot.

(Can you tell November and February are my least-favourite months?  This is a little funny, since I'm a February baby and the beau is born in November.)