Laburnum and beech

Some places draw me back again and again - like the corner of Ashmeadow and the the intricate filigree of winter beech twigs with pointy brown buds, and the sun setting behind Grange on the far side of the estuary.  

Day length is elongating so quickly at both ends of the day, that even getting up just after 6 am I am too late for the pre-dawn colours.  This morning as I looked from the bedroom window, the sky was the colour and texture of molten lava.  Gus and I were too late leaving the house to see it at its best.

Last year I tried too hard to keep up with the earlier mornings, and I struggled with insufficient sleep and poor concentration during the day.  I can't allow that to happen this year, work is too busy and the challenge to the addled brain too great. 

Today I had a meeting in Penrith, and as usual I had ordered a hire car through Enterprise.  We have to get the most basic car available, often a Spark with its lawnmower engine.  Today, they must have been oversubscribed, as I was upgraded to a Mercedes C Class saloon, perhaps the poshest car I have ever driven.  It made me think of my Mum, she wasn't materialistic or acquisitive, but she always dreamed that one day she might own a Mercedes Benz.  It never came to be, but maybe today she looked down on me and smiled.  Meanwhile the fear of getting the Merc bumped in the car park made me glad to get back into the trusty old Jazz on the way home from work.