Purple and Gold of Fall

Are you drawn to images of purple and gold, blue and yellow? I know I am. And perhaps there’s a reason for it!

This is George’s flower portrait of Aster alpigenus , which blooms in meadows at higher elevation in California and Southern Oregon in the summer.

In my current midwest home, our purple and gold “season” is in the fall.

Our Midwest, Drummond’s Aster and Brown-eyed Susan (above), and field of Coreopsis against the blue fall sky (below) . As I was walking through the Morton Arboretum and our Maple Grove Forest Preserve I found myself wondering why I so love this color combination. A few days later the book I’m reading gave me the insight!

I came to the chapter, “Asters and Goldenrod” in Robin Wall Kimmer’s book, “Braiding Sweetgrass” . She speaks of the marrying of science and beauty in the natural world, and explains why “beauty is in the eye of the beholder” - a phrase George often used! We are drawn to the beauty of purple and gold, but there is a scientific explanation as well. The cones in our eyes see color (and send the info to our brains) in several different wavelengths: reds, blues, and purple and yellow! These two colors are a reciprocal pair.

George’s “Buttercup” portrait.

I loved Kimmerer’s end to the chapter, “That September pairing of purple and gold is lived reciprocity; its wisdom is that the beauty of one is iiluminated by the radiance of the other.” I hope you see some purple and gold. Enjoy!