Colors – this time of year are hard to find.

This time of year, the equivalent of the end of January in the Northern Hemisphere, is drab and dreary in the Nova Friburgo area.  The weather has been cold and wet, and now that the sun is shining it has been very dry.  Our tropical forest is in between blooming cycles, no flowering trees and the pines that surround the house are loosing their dry, brown needles.  Downtown the stores still have winter drab in their windows; browns, grays, and dark greens.  Yuck!    No new summer dresses in bright cheerful colors, no shoes to match.

My adjustment period, after returning from summer time in Houston and Adrian, is being hampered by all this drabness.  In Houston the storefronts were blinding in their colors. Shoes and shirts, dresses and household things, all in bright oranges and blues, greens and red, and displayed in groups of contrasting and complimentary colors.  All intended to catch your eyes, and help open your wallet…..

Oh how I am missing the shopping, the colors but mostly missing the family.

     

OOPS what happened to her dress? Changing out to new fall styles and colors – and forgot the 360’ view.

   And finally, from Nova Friburgo I spotted some complementary colors.

Nova Friburgo’s Newest Monument

I left the house early this morning to take Camillo to the bus station.  He is making another trip to Macae and I, well I selfishly didn’t want to go.  I just got back here and wanted to stay put.  After dropping him off, I drove on into Nova Friburgo and parked at the Praça do Suspiro.  This is on the opposite side of downtown from my gym class but I wanted to show you some of the progress that has been made since the January 2011 mudslides.  I had taken photos before and to tell the truth couldn’t find them in my archives.  I have been doing and awful job of keeping up with things.   

I found among the large signs touting the engineers, and planners, and the declarations of how much money was being spent trying to stabilize this area of town, a new monument to those  nearly 1000 victims, in Nova Friburgo alone, that lost their lives in the early morning hours of January 12, 2011.  There have been improvements, you can’t imagine how bad it was (See the Feb. 2, 2011 post) nor how complicated it must be to try and fix this area.  But this monument gave me a feeling of hope, a large lump formed in my chest and has not gone away.

A city remembering that night and its losses before all can be covered up and forgotten.