Botanic Bleu: August - The Blue Hour

l'heure bleue en août

the blue hour in August

Because of its beauty that makes time stop for an instant, the expression l'heure bleue has come to describe a variety of special times and events, not just a description of a special blue glow at dusk. Each month in 2016, I am sharing a collage of blue images that create a little l'heure bleue for me.

Shoes? Did you say shoes? Did you say shoe sale? BLEU CHAUSSURES? (blue shoes)

Time stops! Wherever I am. Whatever country I am in. For shoes.

If there are blue shoes, count on being there for more than an l'heure bleue instant.

While all shades of bleu shoes make my top ten list, numbers 1, 2, and 5 are the blues that are almost guaranteed to LEAP into my hands and onto my feet.

The names of the blue colors alone are enough to send me into a misted-over glazed moment lost in time.

1. Delft Blue

2. Bright Batik Blue

3. Blue Multi

4. Indigo Blue

5. Blue Ribbon

6. Navy Blue

(with a little red grosgrain ribbon bow)

I do have a cardinal rule, however. If shoes are not comfortable when I try them on, no matter how beautiful they are, I do not buy them. Too many hours standing on my feet teaching math, doing outside bus duty, monitoring students during fire drills, walking to the baseball field daily to get first week attendance counts, and walking up and down stairs in the largest high school in Texas under one roof (during the late 1990s).

There are so many stories these shoes could tell, but only two, make that three, will be told today.

Blue Multi shoes #3 were the shoes I wore to my retirement-from-education luncheon at the Mansion Hotel Restaurant in Dallas. Twelve of my closest colleagues who had major influences in my teaching and administration career celebrated this milestone event in my life with me and these shoes.

Yes, these shoes fit right in at the Mansion.

Navy shoes (with little red grosgrain ribbon bows) #6 came from Lyon, France one summer while chaperoning students. It was legendary among all the other chaperones, and as a result, their students, that I would buy at least one pair of shoes while in Europe each summer.

That's not the story being told today.

Here's the story.

Teaching precalculus honors to incredibly bright students each year was one of my favorite courses to teach, but it was hard work finding just the right words and examples, and making sure all of the necessary foundation facts and concepts were in place before introducing the next major concept.

Students were focused, intensely engaged, and took diligent notes during each day's lessons. Some times the lesson required a lot of background information. One day after a several minutes of intense explanation of a rather difficult concept, just as I was getting to the final step, a bright young seventeen-year-old male raised his hand to ask a question. All eyes went to him as I said, "You have a question," thinking he needed more information before proceeding.

Everyone waited for his question.

"Ms. Stringham, did those shoes come with those red bows or did you paste them on yourself?"

Silence for a moment, and then the room filled with laughter from all of us. I could barely answer from laughing so hard, "The shoes came with the red bows."

Bright Batik Blue shoes #6 are my all-time favorite ones. Such a beautiful bleu color, a soft textured suede, a barely-there wedge heel, an open toe, and so comfortable to wear make these shoes my favorites.

Do you have a favorite, #1-6?

Shoes are one of my passions, and whenever I find a virtual pair on the internet I love, I pin it to my Pinterest board, Shoes.

August, The Blue Hour