it's not easy being green

Do you remember black and white tv? Do you recall that the Wizard of Oz begins in black and white and when Dorothy lands in Oz everything changes?
There's been so little color out of doors for so long... but it's beginning to change here as well.

Planting bulbs last fall was a test of wills. I would plant, overnight something would dig. I would replant, they would redig. Frustrating. It was enough to prompt thoughts of "colorful metaphors" if you know what I mean. Finally, these little ones got planted along side the garlic in the vegetable bed behind a nice tall chicken wire fence. This morning a sweet row of purple, white and yellow decided it was time to stretch for the sun.
Even the lawns, a bit worse for winter weather and winter "guests" has a noticeable hint of green. I have been hungry for green, starving for green, nearly wild for green.
Ask the quilt shop owner who knows me best, what color I gravitate most often to when buying fabric and planning quilt tops and without hesitation, green. Can't help it. I love green. What color doesn't look better with green???
When we bought our city house, our first house, the one we're selling now after 37 years, every room and every hallway, top to bottom, covered in wallpaper. OK, we'll just strip this off and paint. Ha! Under every paper were multiple layers of paint, paper, paint, paper. It was a record of fads and popular colors back to the end of WW II when it was built. Interesting from the perspective of color popularity, but not an easy job. As a result, every room in that house is now clean, pristine, Navajo White. The kids had color while they were young, colors they were allowed to choose for themselves, but, after that, Navajo White.
I have not changed one room at the farm house since we took possession in Aug. of 2010, till now. The organ is coming in May. The living room had to be prepared. OK, time to repair the walls, replace trim, remove the old carpet and refinish the floor. Time for a little color.

No paint would do but our favorite, Behr. Color? Green. But which green?
Do you have any idea how many shades of green there are???? And every paint company has its own greens. They aren't the same. Can you believe it? (would it be fun having the job of naming all those colors?)
The living room has windows facing north and west. There are two entries into the living room: from the dining room to the east and from the sun room to the south. In other words, light comes into that room from every direction. It changes every moment of the day. The room has a 9 foot ceiling. There is lovely painted crown molding at least 7 inches deep around the ceiling. There is a medallion on the ceiling center where an ornate art glass lamp hangs. The window and door trim is being replaced as is the trim around the floor, as soon as the Douglas fir flooring is refinished. I asked for nice deep window sills for plants and cats. Clean white wood.

Yes, the new wall color is green. All the way home from Home Depot, 3 gallons of freshly mixed paint in the back seat, I worried about the choice, the color swatch on the seat beside me. All night I tossed and turned thinking what if Jerome hates this? Our first room to change the farm house from hers to ours, the room where he'll spend countless hours at the organ, where we'll entertain guests, enjoy our tea in the evenings, listen to the stereo, spend companionable hours reading, so important that it stir the soul to peace and comfort.
I was in agony.

First coat went on and the fellas asked, "So, do you like it?"
It's been a few days now. And I am falling in love with this green. Grass Cloth green.
Monday the floor gets sanded and stained. Tuesday the last of the finishes go on. Wednesday the last of the trim and painting.
OK, that's one room decided.