How does John Steinbeck use imagery in The Chrysanthemums?

Steinbeck thoroughly paints a vivid image of the grey, dull weather surrounding Henry Allen's ranch throughout the story. The "grey-flannel fog of winter closed off the Salinas Valley from the sky" (337); later, Elisa sits and stares out at the "grey afternoon" (346). The dreariness of the setting, and the lack of color, is further reinforced by the mention of Elisa's chrysanthemums - although they are not yet in bloom, the reader can picture their eventual flowering, and how those vivid colos will contrast with this grey world. Like the flowers, Elisa has not "bloomed" either; she is trapped in a world as oppressively monotonous as the grey weather of the Salinas Valley.