Category Archives: Sky and Seascape Spectacles

a colourful start

just before sunrise

I was up early,  and out to the  Point  to enjoy the brilliant dawn colours. Katrina enjoyed sniffing the trails of the raccoons and deer that had visited overnight while  I watched the shifting colours and the morning flights of gulls, geese, and ducks.

The rarity of an almost cloudless sunrise allowed me to identify just how far the sun has moved north. More light, more warmth. And it's most welcome!

Morning by morning…

The mornings are always different, always changing, always beautiful...  This is a sampling of my morning photos from Flagpole Point this past week shows something of the daily changes.   Click on each photo to see it in larger format. 

 

Morning by morning…varied views

Each morning, when I take the dog out for her first walk of the day, I venture out to the Point for a clear view of the morning’s light. If it has rained at all, I note the measurement in the rain gauge, and then empty it for the next 24 hour monitoring. And I take photos.

Every day is so different —the light,  the angle of the sun, the patterns and textures of the clouds, the tide’s height in its constant ebb and flow, the way the waves are meeting the shore,  the presence of various shore birds, gulls, otters and seals. Occasionally, on a very still morning, my attention is caught by the breath sounds of a humpback whale, and I see the spray of it’s powerful exhalation far out in the distance.

For over a year I’ve been documenting the mornings under the title ‘The Point this morning’.  I had intended to do my photo project  only for the 6 months from winter solstice to summer solstice, to note the wide varying of the sun’s position at sunrise. But these daily photo glimpses became such an important part of my day’s beginning, I carried on.  Now, I can't bear to give it up so I’m thinking I will contimue for the time being and see what happens...

feeling small : precarious ventures

click on image for a larger view

Watching a fishboat depart from the sheltered waters of Whaler Bay in the early morning, with a strong NW wind, and beneath a rather ominous looking sky, reminds me how precarious every venture is. Again the Breton Fisherman's prayer seems apt, not only for those who literally go to the sea in ships, but for us all:
Dear God, be good to me for the sea is so large, and my boat is so small.

afternoon quiet

the calm in the afternoon looking across the Salish Sea (click for larger view)

Yesterday we had a short reprieve between storms:  the sun shone, the wind dropped and the sea settled to a mirror calm. Mt. Baker glowed on the far side of the Salish Sea.
But best of all is the sweep of clouds, with the small pale moon visible beyond them, to the left of centre frame.