Ah, I’ve just remembered what I was going to blog about, only this time it’s not as a rant, but in puzzlement. Over the past few months, I’ve noticed one house after the other in the area being painted pink. When we moved here, there was a cluster of houses in one valley that were all pink, which we put down to the eccentricities of a local landlord. But then, on the road to Papershop Village, first a whole farm (cow byre, tractor shed and all) and then a nearby house, got the rose-coloured treatment. And then, in the past few weeks, two houses in Nearest Village have succumbed. They’re all the same shade of pink – a sort of sugar-almond, sweetly pretty colour. And it’s not gentrification, either – the farms at least are all rufty-tufty working farms with the smell of slurry to match. The traditional colour for houses round here is either white and black, or one of the many depressing shades of grey that pebbledash goes when it is permanently damp. Either way, the pink stands out.
What can be behind it, do you suppose? A meme? A rebranding exercise so subtle it’s escaped me? A mix up? The mark of Cain? Or just a particularly good deal on masonry paint at Homebase?
Have you noticed any giant, plant like pods in the vicinity of the pink houses prior to them turning pink? Anyone running out onto the road and shouting “They’re here already? You’re next! You’re next!”?
I do wonder when we’ll wake up and find we’ve been done…
Intriguing! You’ll let us know if and when you find out won’t you? xx
I think that it’s just people thinking how pretty and fresh the other houses looked and deciding that they wanted to cheer themselves up OR
The slurry tractor was filled with excrement from cows who had only eaten elderberries and the driver lost control whilst spraying the fields.
it is odd seeing pink houses – but when we were in Suffolk a few weeks ago we saw quite a few pink houses as we were cycling around – and discovered that that this colour (at least here) was known as Suffolk Pink!!
The effect is quite pretty – I must take a photo – although I’m leaning towards the elderberry hypothesis myself…
Could it be a temporary effect of the paint? You can buy paints that are one colour when wet but change colour when fully dry so you know when you’ve applied the second coat…(http://www.wickes.co.uk/invt/163341)
Even in this climate, the paint must surely be dry by now…
Color mix up…they ran short on red pigment…
But I really do like the elderberry hypothesis.
Aaron
Apparently the “indicator” paints also change back to pink when it gets damp in order to detect leaks in pipes above ceilings, in walls etc.
I’d love to think these houses are going to alternate pink and white depending on atmospheric humidity like some kind of life-size weather house. I don’t suppose you’ve seen women standing outside the doors of these houses when it’s sunny and men there when it rains? :c)
hehe – no the men come out when it’s sunny, to wash their cars, and the women dash out when it’s raining, to fetch the washing.
I was told in rural Suffolk that the pink tradition arose from the cheapness and simplicity of mixing a bucket of pig’s blood into a couple of pails of whitewash.
that’s … disturbing. But Suffolk always was a bit strange.