A band of cloud

Another Snells Beach sunrise. Another glorious morning run along Erceg's Way, with multiple stops trying to get the best view of the sunrise. A dozen photos from before the first golden tinges on the horizon to just after this one was taken. One short of a dozen in fact; the last picture was of a sun kissed kotare (kingfisher) on the concrete retaining wall above the beach. Too far away for the small zoom on the compact to make it worth more than a memento for me.

When I first got to the foreshore, there were a few birds about. I did hear a putangitangi (paradise shelduck) pair honking their way to their preferred possie at the southern end of the beach. I also saw the odd heron, as well as a few gulls.

Three to four minutes before I took this picture the sun rose above the lower clouds, and at that very instant (as I was taking a photo of the emergence of the sun) the gulls began a noisy chorus of calls, mallards started quacking and more shore birds flew into land on the flats. Perhaps it was coincidence; perhaps the birds also appreciate the sunrise.

My earlier photos this morning were typical of my Snells Beach sunrise photos being taken from beneath the pohutukawa trees, so that leaves and branches were included on one or both sides and possibly the top of the picture. Much as I liked them, I have chosen this one for the slight variation from that more usual image.

It's rather good large.

Mother-in-law has had a bad couple of days with breathing problems and pain, and both S and her brother have been caring for her with the assistance of the GP and the Home Care ladies. She is extremely reluctant to consider going to hospital, and realistically not much can be done there, anyway, when you're 93. Today has been a better day.

She told S earlier today that she never sees the sunrise from her bedroom window any more; she tends to sleep until 0800 these days, and the sun has risen by then. So I took the MacBook over and gave her a bit of a slide show of some of my favourites from the last few months. A different angle from what she would see from her window (upstairs and on top of the cliff, versus down on the foreshore of Snells beach), but she was vey happy to see them.

I've almost finished the big report, and will be able to relax once that has been done.