Originally published on Photoblog by Gethin Thomas FEBRUARY. 17, 2021
[200-365] 17th. February 2021- Are oranges the only food that goes blue when they go bad? This is one of life's big questions. The other question is how come that when oranges go, they go really fast. You put oranges in a fruit bowl that look lovely and juicy and fresh and then you go to pick one out the next day and they look just the same, juicy and fresh, but the bit you can't see, like the dark side of the moon, is suddenly blue. If that blue one is left there, then a day later they are all blue. It is a beautiful blue though, a sort of coppery, verdigris, blue.
Verdigris- a bright bluish-green encrustation or patina formed on copper or brass by atmospheric oxidation, consisting of basic copper carbonate.
The name verdigris comes from the Middle English vertegrez, from the Old French verte grez, an alteration of vert-de-Grèce ("green of Greece"). The modern French spelling of this word is vert-de-gris ("green of grey"). It was used as a pigment in paintings and other art objects (as green color), mostly imported from Greece.
The blue on oranges is caused by the mould Penicillium italicum. Maybe that should be in italicum?
But enough of oranges. Today we escaped lockdown at home and went to Dartmouth to do vital food shopping and carry out our daily exercise. The vital food shopping breaks down as follows-
37 grams of high-quality animal protein, vitamins, pantothenic acid, inosotol, P-aminobenzoic acid, folic acid and vitamin B1, B2, B3, B6 and B12. calcium, phosphorous, potassium, iron, magnesium and sodium, selenium, and zinc.
While we waited for the bacon sandwiches to be prepared we were corralled, masked off, in a marked off waiting area where I spotted the display of oranges. It was a sort of bacon no go area.
This is a classic example of how the camera can lie. Photos of oranges that we didn't eat and no photos of bacon sandwiches that we did eat. It's what is termed lying by omission something you will all be familiar with if you read or watch the main stream media. When you follow the news it is usually what is missing from the story that is the most significant part. This post is also a good example of main stream media, a headline that screams oranges about an article that screams bacon.
We then carried out our vital exercise by carrying our bacon sandwiches to the sea front and wiping dry the benches which were soaking wet. As we sat and savoured our bacon sandwiches looking at a handful of boats coming and going, which mainly consisted of the car ferry and the sea cadets on exercise, the rain got heavier and heavier. We debated whether to make a run for it, to take cover in the car, but we were made of sterner, wetter stuff and we were determined to enjoy the rain streaked view.
Once we had agreed that we were wet enough and we had finished our vital food mission, and just as the world's largest seagull landed heavily in front of us, having totally misjudged our eating speed because he was way too late, we legged it back to the car. The rain was beading satisfactorily on our waterproofs but my rain hood was irritatingly micro adjusting my varifocals up and down with every head movement, so that as we retreated to our centrally heated and air conditioned Slovakian wonder of the modern age, my vision went back and forth between various extremes of clear and blurry.
This was a good day though, dare I say even a great day, because it is at times like these when so little of normality is available, that the normally unnoticed little nuances of life that go unseen in the chaos of the available, become significant.
Forrest Gump, might have said, if he were in Dartmouth today, "Life is like a basket of oranges". Life has many more good oranges on offer than it has blue ones. The blue ones stand out and get noticed, but they are out there on the edge of the basket reminding us how good the rest of the fruit are. Deal with the blue orange but savour the rest.
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