Interesting exercise in looking

I've spent today looking for colour. Nothing really unusual there I suppose, it is what quilters do, and as expected it did involve a trip to the quilt shop. However I wasn't buying the colours I was photographing them. I have decided I want to make a quilt using only found colours. I will then print my own fabrics and off I go. I wanted to collect a rainbow which I was thinking would be pretty tricky. Green obviously is easy, it is everywhere even in a city. Purple and orange on the other hand are not what you call natural colours. Knowing you want to collect every colour really changes the way you see the world. I discovered that a lot of people paint their doors and garages bright green or dark purple blue, and that you can get purple wheelie bins. Workmen are quite happy for you to photograph their machines (I really should have got the green digger) and that one of the rose gardens near my house is all from cutting from the rose garden at Regents park. The thing that surprised me most though is how much colour there is. I would have said most things here are green, grey, or brick. It just isn't so. The whole place is alive even the really built up areas. I have managed to get a full set of colours (at least 12 of each) in one day. I am about to go around the house to get anything else I can find to add more variety, but I don't need to and I expected to have to photograph paints, and marker pens just to have enough. I wish I had tried this sooner, I know it has vastly improved my ability to see what is around me. Making the quilt somehow seems a lot less important now.