powdery blue

[arietenata]

Hi there,

Could you help me in this really simple even stupid problem, please?

I've always thought that these little wooden buttons of eucalyptus trees are green on one side and brown on the other side but in the following text I've found them POWDERY BLUE which as far as I know refers to some kind of blue, doesn't it? Am I right?

" They kept dropping their narrow, tan, spear-shaped leaves, which littered the ground under them, and layers of barks fell from them in long strips, along with little wooden buttons, brown with crosses carved out of them on one side, powdery blue on the other." from THE END OF THE STORY by LYDIA DAVIS, p.57.

Thanks in advance.

 

[Glasguensis]

I confirm that "powdery blue" is a light shade of blue, if that's your question.

 

[arietenata]

So, is that what writer actually means by POWDER BLUE and I was wrong about the color of these eucalyptus wooden buttons?
Thanks a lot.

 

[Glasguensis]

Yes, you and the author are disagreeing on the colour. Sometimes opinions differ on what colour something is, especially in nature.

 

[Myridon]

The light blue color on the back of the eucalyptus acorns is also powdery, i.e. it looks like they have been dusted with light blue powder.

 

[Florentia52]

There's no reason to think the writer meant anything other than blue. (Not necessarily "powder blue," which is a particular shade of blue, but "powdery blue," which describes the surface of the eucalyptus pod as well as its color.)

This is veering into a non-language matter, but the discrepancy about the colors could be ascribed to several factors: the relative freshness or dryness of the pods, the variety of eucalyptus, and one's own color perception. For what it's worth, shades of green and blue are the most likely colors to be identified differently by people in different cultures.

[Cross-posted with Glasguensis and Myridon.]

 

[Loob]

... For what it's worth, shades of green and blue are the most likely colors to be identified differently by people in different cultures.

And not just different cultures - my mother and I frequently disagreed over whether a particular colour was "blue" or "green".