Saturday, December 23, 2023

Rotary Gardens: ROYGBIV

In this post, Diane talked about how when she went to a garden with her kids, she did a photo rainbow project where she tried to get a photo of each color of the rainbow while they were there. I love a good scavenger hunt, so I tried to do this when I went to the Botanical Garden light show earlier this week.

Confession time: I don't know that I understand the difference between indigo and violet. I just go purple! and that's the end of the rainbow for me.


Red: A big festive bulb
Orange: An orange block in the middle
Yellow: Yellow/white lights reflecting on the water
Green: Stems
Blue: Maybe I'm obsessed with this ball and want one for my own yard.
Purple: So many tiny lights on this tree! How do they do that?

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Have you been to a light show this year? Do you ever do scavenger hunts on outings like this?

23 comments:

  1. I remember Diane's rainbow post. I haven't actually done this, but I want to! I wouldn't know the difference between indigo and violet either. This looks like a fun light show!

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    1. It's such a lovely show. I've never actually been to this place during the spring or summer (or even the daylight), so I'm really curious what it looks like.

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  2. I used to do scavenger hunts all the time with the boys when they were little. Every time we went on an outing or a walk, I gave them stuff to look for. They used to get into it, too, and come up with really silly stuff. We always loved it.

    Indigo is just a really intense, deep blue violet. It's like four parts blue and one part violet. It's not even considered a part of the rainbow anymore by modern science. Newton just wanted to divide the rainbow into 7 colours because that number had a sort of magical significance at the time, and indigo was a well-known dye colour and commodity of his era.

    (The stuff I know...!)

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    1. Whaaaaaaat?! Indigo isn't part of the rainbow? I feel like science class has misled me for far too long.

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    2. O WOW! Nance thanks so much for this tidbit! The British grew indigo in India as a cash crop (and a lot of hardship and famine was visited on people as a result). It's wild to think of ways in which science may have colluded with empire and capitalism.

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  3. Great idea. Well done.

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    1. I always have to come up with secret ways to entertain myself on these types of excursions.

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  4. I'm on Team I Don't Care What the Difference Between Indigo and Violet Is Either - all I know is that purple is pretty. The scavenger hunt sounds fun.

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  5. In theory I would say indigo is a little more blue and violet is more purple, but in practice I don't know if I could tell the difference either.

    I haven't gone to a light show, but last night on our way to the grocery store, Mom and I drove around a bit looking at some houses with tons of lights, which was fun. The most Florida one we saw was a blow-up Santa, in a flamingo pool float, with his sleigh being pulled by two light-up flamingos. Pretty funny!

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    1. At the light show we went to at the zoo, there was a whole flamingo thing! I'm saving some of those photos for a Valentine's Day post. LOL.

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  6. What a fun scavenger hunt! And those lights are gorgeous.

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    1. I love that we do this every year with our friends. They have exceptionally busy lives, so I buy tickets and schedule them in late October/early November so that we have an excuse to see them.

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  7. That ball that you are obsessed with? Fun fact, we have entire neighborhoods that strings (smaller, probably) balls of lights just like that in their trees. How they get them up there (and down) is a mystery to me. It has become such a thing; that the local paper prints instructions on how to make them every year - and hanging them has become a cottage industry for some industrious teens in the area. I've been to see the neighborhood that started it all around here and it is glorious; so I get your obsession with that ball of light.

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    1. Oh, wow! I've never seen balls like this outside of professional light shows. Do they break down? If not, I imagine storing them is a PITA!

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    2. I have no idea how/if they store them. I'm guessing, since it's just lights wrapped around chicken wire; that some people just unwind the lights, flatten the wire and re-create next year.

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  8. Such lovely pictures, Engie! I've never been much for light shows, but you may have changed my mind...

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    1. Oh, wow! I love a good light show!

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  9. I've been to THAT light show this year. Took 45 minutes just to get to the front of the line, but always worth it!

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    1. We met our friends at 7:30 on a weekday night and walked right in. No line!

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  10. Was this the MKE botanical gardens? (I think that's where you went earlier in the week?)

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    1. We were at the Milwaukee Zoo before, but this was Janesville Rotary Gardens. We like to hit all the major cities!

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    2. LOL at Janesville in the category of "major cities". ;)

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