Day 126: Red

Today's pic is of a bright red fire hydrant, one of many I cycle past on my way to/from work. A couple of weeks ago the sight of these hydrants gleaming in the sun inspired me to attempt a colour theme as a way to add some purpose to the picture taking. Starting with red, I figured I might as well go through the colours of the rainbow: ROYGBIV. I was taught the mnemonic at school that "Richard Of York Gave Battle In Vain" as a way to remember the order of the colours. Funnily enough, tonight we're going to see Shakespeare's Richard III at Bard on the Beach, the very same Richard as in the rainbow ditty.

Way back in 1982 I bought a copy of the Rush album Signals, which has a bright red fire hydrant on the cover. That colour and type of hydrant defined North America to me, so I was a little disappointed (!) when we moved to Maryland in 2000 to find that the local hydrants were painted a now-fading yellow. Rarely do I remember finding red hydrants in the US, but Vancouver is full of them and now they've become part of every day life, to the point where I barely notice them any more.

I stopped at this particular hydrant because it was surrounded by freshly-mown grass and the red-green contrast ensured a bright picture on this dull day. I noticed something white on the top, which I initially thought was a white shoelace. On closer inspection I saw that in fact it was pair of iPod headphones. Somehow the way they were draped made it look like that hydrant was wearing them, so I rearranged them a little to put the earbuds in the right place. Coupled with the kinda face-like profile of the hydrant, now it really looked like it was listening to music :-)

Fire hydrant enjoying some fine music