Redbud tree seedpods
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Taupe: Tan, brownish grey or greyish brown;
Khaki?
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Not my favorite color, but sadly, much of our garden fades to taupe in winter.
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This is the dried out husky color of dead grasses.
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The bleached left-over color of fallen leaves and dried seed pods.
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It is the background, the default; Nature’s neutral.
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It cloaks the marshes and carpets the forest floor.
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We distract ourselves in December with pine green, berry red, cone brown.
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We gild it all with frost and snow.
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But Taupe is patiently waiting.
It’s death-mask tranquility will still greet us
in January, February, March.
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Beaten by rain, blown by wind, bleached by sun, rotted by time;
Taupe will not surrender
Until it is overpowered with fresh spring green growth.
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Photos by Woodland Gnome 2014
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