"Look at my balloon...!"

I turned a resolution into reality this morning and headed off for Whitley Bay before sunrise (well that's fairly easy at this time of year, except for the cold wind...I was glad I'd put on 6 layers & a woolly hat!). I wanted to capture the sun rising behind St Mary's Island. What I had forgotten is that the sun rises a long way south of due east in winter so it didn't rise behind the island after all :(

However the sunrise was pretty impressive anyway, and by pure luck I caught it behind the Amsterdam ferry on its way towards the Tyne. The smoke plume from the ferry makes it look as if the ferry is hanging onto the sun like a balloon!!

Naturally I took lots of photos - there's a few more on flickr here which you may like to look at. I should explain that the "island" is only a true island at high tide - at other times it's accessible by a causeway which you can see on the flickr photos.

Please PLEASE click here to view the sun balloon large - it's worth it I think!