Shadow Play

The sky seems far too clear for any hope of colour, and tonight’s high tide does not create my ideal sunset conditions. Still, having decided to avoid the afternoon’s heat, we head for West Shore for an evening’s walk. 

Of course, it’s busy, and the evening’s balmy warmth has persuaded many to remain on the beach. Families stand ankle deep in water, or swim and splash in the shallows. There are paddle boarders and kayakers, and a man is fishing off the rocky groyne. Others walk, couples hand in hand, friends side by side chatting. And as the sun slips down, surprisingly we’re fully in the golden hour. Wispy clouds have gathered near the horizon, picking up the colour of the setting sun, and as it sinks below the horizon, the sky turns pinky mauve, a gentle colour wash to contrast with the transitory brashness of the golds. 

As usual, I’m amazed at just how many colour changes sunset offers, but tonight I’m loving all the silhouetted shadow plays being enacted against this backcloth. These human stories more than make up for my usual obsession with reflections on low tides’s wet sand, but I can’t resist the substitute reflections in the boating lake. 

So inevitably it’s a sunset ‘set’ today - and it’s hard to choose a main!