It seems to have been a week with a significant amount of rain and storms here in the south east of England. One night I was woken with the loudest explosion of thunder overhead that I can remember for many years. The term 'rolling thunder' didn't even cover the experience suitably, with it sounding like a huge cannonball bouncing down the wooden deck of a ship as the thunder echoed across the sky into the distance.
Yet, amidst a such a week there has also been moments when the sun was painting the skies with colours and disguising the weather that had gone before.
One such evening was mid-week where I discovered a new local spot for getting photos while going on a long run with my dog Willow after work. Running past a particular point along my local river I looked behind me towards a weir, to see reflections just like a mill pond and decided I must come back on a suitable evening with the camera. I didn't suspect it would be so soon, when a few hours later I was standing by that same weir getting photos of the sunset.
It was a particularly pleasant part of the river, with ox-eye daises covering the grassy areas like a blanket, along with large open views of the sky and horizon.
As the sun dipped lower under the horizon and clouds drifted over, they painted patterns across the sky, with ever changing colours and shapes as each moment passed.
The stillness of the evening (such a contrast to earlier in the day and week) was a pleasure to experience and even more so watching the resulting reflections in the river.
A few days later I was rushing back to this spot again. Looking out of the kitchen window at one point in the evening I saw the colours in the sky and realised the sun was shortly going to set!
I managed to reach the spot just in time, as the colours peaked in their saturation and splendour.
But on this occasion, it seemed to be only a matter of minutes before the colour was starting to fade and disappeared leaving no trace of the fiery display I had just witnessed.
No doubt I will be returning to this location in the future!