SKYWATCH FRIDAY - Skipping Sun (Lake Erie)

On the post before last, I included a sunset with a flock of Canada geese drifting through. Someone mentioned it would be a good Skywatch post, but I thought today I'd show a slightly different shot of it. This is the sun's reflection just before the geese arrived. I like the way the differences in the water surface make it look almost like the sun is skipping across the water like a stone. The second shot was taken last night as I watched the ferry returning from Ohio pass slowly in front of the light, just as the sun slipped below the edge of the lake.




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SKYWATCH FRIDAY -- The Chambers of the Sun (Lake Erie)

A heavy band of darkness lay over the west end of the lake, even as the last light of day still clung to the sky. Then, tiny spots of fire began appearing on the horizon, as if some invisible hands were opening the portals so the solar deities of all the ages could take one last look at the lake before retiring—and in the process afford any mortals who happened to be watching a brief glimpse of the sanctum sanctorum.





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SKYWATCH FRIDAY – Night Life (Lake Erie)

Lately we’ve had day after day of featureless, hazy skies, relieved by only a few pale thin clouds that don’t show up well in a photo. On the rare occasions we’ve had blue sky, the clouds have been nondescript—nothing that courts the camera. But every day’s end, as soon as the sun dips towards the horizon, colors burst forth, and the previously boring skies get their party on.



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SKYWATCH FRIDAY – End of Day, and a Question (Lake Erie)

There's a beguiling symmetry to this sunset, the way the anvil cloud looks as if it’s holding up the higher heavens above it, even as it rests upon the shifting waters of the lake. Last week for SWF I featured the Moody Blues song, "Nights in White Satin," from the 1967 album, Days of Future Passed. This week I'm reminded again of the Moody Blues, this time their 1970 anti-war concept album, A Question of Balance. The pale circles in the photos are from spray. It was impossible to avoid, as I was standing right at the edge of the breakwall to get the shot, and the waves were splashing against the rocks just a few feet below. I think they add a touch of cosmic mystery to nature's own "album cover art."




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SKYWATCH FRIDAY – Evening Unfurls Its Banner (Lake Erie)

In the deepening dusk, only the highest clouds still catch the setting sunlight, as if saluting the going down of day, and heralding the coming night.



Music option: How long has it been since you’ve listened to “Nights in White Satin”? Do you remember what it was like the first time you heard Justin Hayward’s beautiful, soaring voice, surrounded by the London Festival Orchestra? And how blown away you were by Mike Pinder’s gentle spoken ‘lament’ near the end? If you have a few minutes to spare, here’s a LINK. No distracting video, no live footage, just celestial music. If you’ve never heard it before, this might be the time you’ll remember. Either way, why not treat yourself?




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SKYWATCH FRIDAY – Slip Sliding Away (Lake Erie)

The sun had not shone all day, but stayed hidden behind a layer of heavy cloud, offering only shower after shower of rain. Finally, it put in a brief appearance above the horizon, just in time to set. I’m not sure if this qualifies as atmospheric lensing or not, perhaps someone SWFer can elaborate on it, but for a moment the sun did appear more like a deck of suns, being shuffled down towards the horizon. Another even more spectacular sunlight distortion (of debatable cause) was posted recently on the astronomy Picture of the Day website, click HERE.


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DRIVING INTO NIGHT

The other night I went out for a drive in the fading light of sunset, looking for fireflies. I didn’t see any, not yet, but it was a beautiful way to spend some time nonetheless. The music I had on in the background was dreamily perfect as I drove around the flat farmland with the shadowy crops, down the wooded two-lane that leads to the Point Pelee gate, and back. I paused at the marina to watch the shimmering reflections of the sodium-vapor lamps in the boat bays, and then swung around for home. Moths and other tiny, winged insects flocked to my headlights. Illuminated, almost strobe-lit, for a split-second or two, they veered off into the deepening dark. Just as I rounded the last curve onto my local road, which boasts no streetlights, a little bat swept up over my windshield, flickering in the dusty light like a scene from an old silent movie, and then the night swallowed us all.


From the soundtrack of my drive: “God’s Highway" - written by Tobias Fröberg, sung by Theresa Andersson and Tobias Fröberg.

HOPKINS, SUNSET, THE LAKE

As a fiery sunset lit the north shore, and a kingfisher's call broke the stillness, I was reminded of this, a favorite poem by the Jesuit poet, Gerard Manley Hopkins.



As Kingfishers Catch Fire

As kingfishers catch fire, dragonflies draw flame;
As tumbled over rim in roundy wells
Stones ring; like each tucked string tells, each hung bell's
Bow swung finds tongue to fling out broad its name;
Each mortal thing does one thing and the same:
Deals out that being indoors each one dwells;
Selves — goes itself; myself it speaks and spells,
Crying Whát I dó is me: for that I came.

I say móre: the just man justices;
Keeps grace: thát keeps all his goings graces;
Acts in God's eye what in God's eye he is —
Chríst — for Christ plays in ten thousand places,
Lovely in limbs, and lovely in eyes not his
To the Father through the features of men's faces.

Gerard Manley Hopkins, 1918



Belted Kingfisher call


Photos: (top) sunset colors in my neighbor’s yard (bottom) elk bones from Alberta, glowing on my patio

SKYWATCH FRIDAY – “Big birds flying across the sky, throwing shadows on our eyes” (Lake Erie)

Those of you who are Neil Young fans like me will recognize the title of this post as belonging to the lyrics of Neil’s song, Helpless—the one the begins, “There is a town in north Ontario.” Leamington, Ontario, where I live, isn’t in the north of the province. In fact it’s just a couple of kilometers from the most southerly point in all of Canada, where the land dips below the 42nd parallel north, and is the only point in our long shared international border where Canada is actually south of the U.S.

This sunset seemed to me like two birds’ wings—the dark wing of night advancing towards the east as the wing of day withdraws. Then I noticed how each wing was resting on a small “foundation” of its opposite. It reminded me, even though not circular, of the principle contained in the Taijitu symbol.



Optional music link:
For those who have the time and inclination, here is a LINK to a very beautiful PBS video from the American Masters series, of Neil Young singing an acoustic version of Helpless in concert at Toronto’s Massey Hall in 1971 (a much acclaimed live album) combined with almost dream-like northern landscape images.

Taijitu symbol from Wikimedia Commons


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BIG STORM BLOWS THROUGH

Yesterday, the heat and humidity reached oppressive levels, and all who could hunkered down. Starlings and grackles sat with their beaks open, trying to lose body heat; I flipped the switch on the central air. Later in the afternoon, ominous clouds built up in the west,and thunder announced itself. I took down the umbrellas and cranked up the awning, moved a few small outdoor items that could turn into projectiles, and then waited. First to arrive was the rain, heavy and straight down, then the wind, driving the rain in sheets, grounding the handful of birds that didn't get to shelter soon enough. One robin tumbled by, tried to fly, then hopped to the lee side of the big ash tree to ride it out. A half-hour later when the rain stopped, he was gone, but the rain had been so heavy I couldn't see what happened to him.

The downpour was so solid, it triggered the motion-activated yardlight! Branches came down everywhere, shredded leaves were plastered against the windows, and the spreading red maple that offered so much shade in good weather eerily changed its shape. The best part of the storm (beyond the high drama) was that the temperature quickly dropped over 20 degrees. The sky cleared just in time for a beautiful sunset, so I could turn off the AC, and open the windows for some freshly washed air!

SKYWATCH FRIDAY – Ice Cream Colors (Lake Erie)

Would you like some Raspberry-Mango Ripple or maybe some Tiger Tail?



The yesterday was the hottest day of the season in the greater Windsor/Detroit area. In fact, I think there was a heat-humidity-smog warning in the Motor City, and probably in the Rose City, too. This morning, along the “cooler” lakeshore, it’s already 28C/82F on the shore of the lake, with a humidity index that “feels like” 36C/97F. It’ll be even hotter in the afternoon. In my previous post, I mentioned I was saving the AC for the truly hot days, and I think this one qualifies. The sunsets have been cooperating by giving us some pretty ice cream colors. Now, if they’d just bring the cool with it!


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SKYWATCH FRIDAY – Home Safely To Me (Lake Erie)

The sails aren’t red, but the sun is definitely setting. I apologize for this photo being a bit fuzzy--the two sailboats were moving at a pretty fast clip, and I didn’t want them to get too far from the light, so I had to work fast. It seemed odd that the boats were heading out so late, when the sun was so close to being down, plus further along the lake it looked like a storm was brewing. Not long after I took this shot the boats turned and hurried back to the marina, so they must have thought better of their plans, too.

POST TITLE TRIVIA
Red sails in the sunset, way out of the sea
Oh carry my loved one home safely to me

Red Sails in the Sunset - Music by Hugh Williams (aka Will Grosz) and lyrics by Jimmy Kennedy; published 1935. The song was written about Portstewart, a seaside town in County Londonderry, Northern Ireland.


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