Sunset.

After yesterday’s beautiful but brief sunrise and the ensuing cold, clear day, I was anticipating more of the same this morning, however, it didn’t materialise as I’d hoped. I’d taken the precaution of covering the windscreen in order to avoid having to scrape the ice off….and there was no ice, there was no frost, in fact it was a positively balmy 3 degrees when I went out to the car this morning.

It would have been slightly wasted on me today anyway, as a creature of habit, and one that enjoys eating, Tuesday morning is given over to grocery shopping and the necessary trip to the nearest large supermarket. No amount of frost, short of a snap ‘ice age’ was ever going to challenge or alter the immutable and we duly set off as the sun rose over the landscape. There was no frost, however, as the sun warmed the countryside the mists rose in the valley floor and we were treated to some beautiful scenes as we trundled off in search of consumables instead of trundling off in search of photographs, that said, you can’t eat photographs, well, not readily and they’re a poor form of sustenance however dramatic or beautiful.

I fully resolved to try and make the most of any sunset that might avail itself this evening and , fortunately, I wasn’t disappointed. Taking myself off with a little over 30 minutes to reach a vantage point before sunset began I arrived at a point high over the vale. The sky darkened and took on an orange cast before deepening and turning a deep shade of pink as the sun fell below the horizon, isolating the stems of last season’s cow parsley high on the hillside in the dying light. The temperature began to plummet as I packed away my gear and gratefully climbed back into the car, turning the heater up and heading for home, happy that I’d at least managed to enjoy some of nature’s bounty today after all.