Sunset Reckoning

Determined to get me out of the house, G bundles me into the car as he heads off to gather seaweed - an obsession developed from watching loch-side dwellers while we were in Scotland last year. 

We’re heading for West Shore (again) where he’s spotted piles of this natural fertiliser left high by recent spring tides. I will not be assisting, but will instead be walking along the beach with my camera. 

It’s late afternoon, and the sun is sinking fast. There are thick banks of cloud, and but for golden edges catching setting rays, there’s little indication of a blip-worthy sunset. 

But then, as we head west, the sky turns red - literally red; we’ve still some way to go and I’m sure I’m going to miss the big event. Everywhere, it seems, there are road works and traffic lights; the fates are against me. 

Eventually, I ask G to drop me at the southern end of the beach - the closest, but yet again we’re stopped in our tracks. I’m not sure what is going on - but I get out of the car and he goes on. There’s lots of activity - possibly an accident but I can’t see any blue lights. A burley figure in high-viz stops me: I can’t go any further. Between me and the rapidly dispersing sunset is a film crew  - and somewhere there, I later discover, is Steve Coogan as Jimmy Savile recording a scene for an upcoming BBC series called The Reckoning. Seeing my frustration, a kindly man beckons me through - the director maybe - and I hurry off towards the beach just to see the band of red dipping into the sea. 

Still, I carry on taking various shots. The tide is out once more, and of course, despite appearances, the sunset hasn’t finished yet. And so I continue photographing pastel bands of colour dancing across the sky and sand - so much more beautiful than I had expected - until my slow progress takes me to meet the seaweed-gathering G. 

Thank you so much for your kind words following yesterday’s sofa-day. I’m in less pain today and have managed a little round the house - as well as getting out of course. I’ve actually managed to contact the surgery and tomorrow will start on a short course of steroids to try to shift this cough and hopeful relieve my abdominal pain. 

Inevitably it’s hard to choose a main again, and I’m sure you may feel I should have gone with one of the extra’s montage - but such is life! (Best viewed large - as usual!)