By Scott Shephard

As I look out of my office window, I am more conscious than ever of the fact that the building covenants in our neighborhood are what I am calling "anti-color." That translates as "earth tones" which translates as "dull."

Add heavy clouds, light haze and mostly brown grass to the nearly colorless painting schemes and you have a prescription for the early spring South Dakota blues.

A pill might help. But how about taking in bright, purple crocus flowers, which seem to flaunt the color covenants in our part of town instead? You have to get down on your hands and knees to see them as they are pictured here. But why not bow down to this wonderful little iconoclast?

Canon 5DII 1/250s f/3.2 ISO400 100mm