Orange coloured sky

I came down to lock up my beach hut for the winter. The Hut is full of books. I love to read when I am next to the sea but it’s far too cold for them now. So we drove down Friday night to stay and then I can walk to the beach hut in the morning to pick up the books and lock the hut up for the winter.

An orange coloured sky was my treat this morning as I walked to the hut. An orange coloured sky is incidentally also a title of a song by Nat King Cole. Who, fun fact: I was named after as he was my Grandmother’s favourite singer. She played Nat King Cole a lot to me when I was small before she passed away.

My Nanny Elsie always said what a great a performer he was and how hard he worked. Did you know he would record his albums in Spanish, Japanese, German! She admired how he fought against discrimination to be successful. They didn’t have the phrase ‘woke’ then but she showed me the world as it is and encouraged me to behave as I would want it to be.

My grandmother and I were the only ones in our family with bright orange hair (mine I am afraid is long gone) but she always told me “orange is the best colour and don’t you let anyone tell you any different”. It was her way to make me not ashamed of my hair colour but proud. She knew I would be bullied for it later in life and she was right. People can be so cruel.

So, my love of orange my name and values I owe to my Nanny Elsie the most gentle but strong woman I ever knew.