Luminous Sky Calligraphy over MtLawleyShire

Clouds are an integral part of a magical sunset and these, in the east and the south-east, were wonderful examples of Sky Calligraphy.

These two are pre-sunset clouds – with their own magic and waiting to be transformed by the lowering light:

 

It was fascinating to watch this cloud transform through the range of colour as the light descended:

 

 

 

 

This swathe of cloud was intriguing

and the East was striped by lines of cloud that resembled distant waves

 

& finally – with explosion of Sky Calligraphy from the south=east as the last of light departed the sky

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

A Summer Sunset over MtLawleyShire

It start gold and uncertain

 

swathes of cloud offered promise

 

and soon became great sweeps of gilded cream against the wash of crimson on the western horizon:

and the light lowered, the sweeps of cream became gold and powerful

dominating the sky in powerful washes

as the light departed, they deepened into waves across the sky

a desert upended

rolling and rich

the sky washed clean light blue and green is a wonderful contrast against rich reds and golds

and across the evening, the ibis flew home

 

 

even in detail, the sky retains the sand dune appearance

as day departs, the hues alter, become richer, more vibrant,

luminous

the untidy tatters of neon pink to the north-west contrasted with the red golds of those sweeping clouds

but all things end, especially sunsets and as light departs, it gives a rich gift, deepening the colours

changing them in some areas to crimson, and leaving the sky beneath the tattered veil of receding crimson and red, almost green and pale blue.

All clean for the next day.

Apocalyptic skies over MtLawleyShire

This is not sunset.  This is at least half an hour before sunset, and I think it is actually smoke from a fire up north.  It was a very hot afternoon which the temperature going up as the hour grew later rather than tapering off.  The temperature peaked at 37 degrees celsius at 4.30 pm, and it didn’t go down below 30 degrees celsius till well after midnight.

and the sun was struggling:

the sky looked like a painting from one of the Old Masters

 

The drama and painterliness of the scene enthralled me:

It almost looks as though the sun has created a concussion in the smooth running of that great cloud:

 

closer shots of sun in cloud and just clouds:

 

As the cloud gained more strength, as the sun sank towards the horizon, the colours paled, the drama was subsumed into the inevitable:

Shots of the entire sky, with all the colours of late afternoon and deep sunset all in the one place:

This sequence, as one part of dense cloud looked as though it was a wolf swallowing the sun:

 

 

The sun is fighting the cloud:

 

a moment of startling drama:

As the sun was swallowed entirely, there was another sense of painting – Turner-esque and soft with the rays of light fighting out:

The sky devolved into blues and whites with touches of colour:

and at the last, when sunset had been swallowed, a view of the clouds and delicate colours looking down William Street towards the city:

Today is it (finally) raining, and there is heavy cloud.  I’m not sure there will be a sunset, but the rain and the coolth of the world is lovely 🙂

The Eastern Sky of the Intriguing Sunset over MtLawleyShire

The Eastern skies were luminous with moisture laden cloud.

Ibis were stark against the wash of pink and gold as they flew home across the south-east

this is me playing with shapes and lines and distant ibis 🙂

But there were great bulwarks of cloud:

 

and river falls of virga illuminated by the light of the sunset:

 

great cloud structures:

 

and an overall spread that went from pinks and oranges to incandescent pinks:

 

and these – towering in the eastern sky;

 

an astonishing sunset, from the eastern skies to the west!

 

 

A slow MtLawleyShire sunset

After an oppressively hot day, the late afternoon clouded over.  It looked like rain, but there was none, although it was much cooler:

a group of ibis flew across the clouded sky towards their roost:

and in the west, the sun was shrouded, casting a ring across striations of cloud:

 

As it sank lower, it was reflected in, then seemed to bend the clouds, creating interesting shades amidst the layers:

 

 

A hint of colour, sullen embers marking the meeting with the far horizon:

 

barely making a reflection in art deco windows:

 

I waited a few moments, but the day became duller.  I returned inside, uploaded the photos, checked outside and

OH!

The sky had exploded into late opulence:

 

flaring crimson waves of light:

an upturned desert of red:

and it began to fade into purples and pinks:

 

washing the lower part of the sky:

 

leaving a luminous glow far down on the horizon:

Reflecting the heat, but hopefully not for tomorrow.  This was a selection from what was a remarkable and beautiful sunset, from subtle to outrageous 🙂

A wonderful MtLaweyShire sunset

It has been a while since I posted a sunset.  Not because there haven’t been some beautiful ones – there have been – but this one was so unexpected.

It is the end of winter, and there have been inconstant clouds and many of the sunsets of the last few months have not ben what you’d call spectacular.

This one was the same: heavy grey cloud towards the west and a line of gold:

 

 

The cloud began thickening and I thought it was going to swallow the sunset as had happened for the last few weeks, even as the colour grew richer:

 

I thought, seeing as there was an almost full moon, I would scamper home and change the lens so I could photograph the moon at least.

And these were the only shots I got as the cloud was now piling in from the south-east:

the sky looked little different in the west, except – the colour was spreading:

then exploding into a glorious glow!

 

 

then the clouds caught on fire:

 

flaming light rippling out across the undersides of the clouds:

 

firing the entire sky:

the range of colour, the richness of it!

shadows across the clouds enhanced the flame colours that picked out their texture:

 

& slowly it faded, the luminous air darkening almost imperceptibly

then the darkening blue from the east began to claim more and more of the sky, pushing the light back towards the western horizon

it faded to luminous glows and greys

till it was nothing more than a memory across heavy clouds presaging rain and storm for the following day.

The 2nd Sunset after Clouds in MtLawleyShire: 25 Feb

On the Tuesday, with the air heavy with cloud and the threat of storm – although nothing happened in the way of rain or storm, the sunset was rather beautiful.

It started with a hint of gold washing a sky of almost tropical-seeming clouds, although to the south-east, it was remnants of storm cloud that intersected the hot blue:

 

Then the sun sank below the clouds and suffused everything with intense gold:

 

Clouds in the distant east began to take on that golden hue:

 

And the sun sinks through the dan of golden cloud:

 

From a distance, you can see the rays of light shooting out across the blue to touch the serpentine cloud above:

 

 

and then it is below the horizon and the gold deepens into rose:

 

 

The rays of light slice into the clouds creating ethereal shadow and light:

 

the cloud darkens, stripes of gold slowly subsumed into a deepening rose:

 

with an underneath of rich gold:

 

the clouds too lose gold and glow a darkening pink laced with shadow:

 

the red diminishes into grey and darkness:

 

leaving the sky clear for the moon:

I hope you enjoyed this sunset.  There is another sunset to come, but not from storm clouds this time. And this week, I am going to Matilda Bay, so hopefully, ravens and other birds.

🙂

 

Fattee Cattee and Sunset after clouds in MtLawleyShire: Feb 24

“What you doing, Mum?”

I’m not your mother, but there will be a glorious sunset after all those stunning clouds. I’m going to walk around and take photos.  Look at how the clouds are scattered and clumped across the sky!

 

“Noooooo!  Not yet *another* MtLawleyshire sunset!”

Yes – and look!  Birds!  Too far away to see them properly, but can you hear them?  They’re probably corellas, and they look like specks of black dust across a golden sheet:

 

& the golden sky! It’s so pretty.

And now – look – you can see the sun sinking into the clouds:

 

“Can I watch?”

Of course you can.  See how it goes down through the clouds, the clouds turned into golden stitching over the darker golden sky behind:

 

and then it’s gone

 

 

“And what are these clouds doing?”

They are growing luminous

 

becoming great veils trapping and then conducting gold through the coming darkness

“But what’s happening down there?”

Oh!  Well spotted, darling cat – sweeps of colour defying the darkness spreading from the east

 

And look – those luminous veils are becoming something else:

 

 

 

“And down there?”

 

“Gold spreads its light.  So beautiful – swathes and crinkles of golds washing across the sky, leaving that tiny space of a pale almost green-blue down at the horizon.  But it begins to fade:

 

“Down there still looks amazing.”

It does indeed – east echoing the flaring golden fire of the west:

 

 

But the west – the deeper blue gown of coming night edged with the intricate gold of persisting light:

 

 

 

Softening now, gold intensifying and deepening into great cushions of rich colour:

 

And that marvellous cloud is dissipating as the deep blue velvet of night seeps in

 

and in the east, the colour is fading

Back towards the west – last moment of brilliance

 

and it fades into crimson and the grey of clouded evening

“Yeah, OK – it was a good sunset”

I hope, like Fattee, you enjoyed this sunset 🙂

 

 

MtLawleyShire and a Landsdale sunset

Landsdale is a long way from MtLawleyShire – approximately 20 kms.  The difference in the topography is notable, as was teh vantage for the sunset: wide open, flat, reminding me that I was much closer to the sea than in MtLawleyShire.  It allowed, though, a glorious sunset view, despite the fact I stood on a major road – so no, I couldn’t really avoid the lightpoles, but they do add a nice perspective.

These straight trees caught the lowering light nicely

but even better were the clouds as the lowering sun blasted gold all across the horizon

 

  

the light coated trees behind me in that darkly golden light

  

and then the sun caught up with itself and the end of day:

 

 

 

 

and gone

 

in other directions, following the road, the skies changed, but the vast emptiness of it almost defeated any sense of colour

 

 

 

In the west, the golden echoes of light intensified clouds

 

it was possible to see virga

 

the sky beneath the clouds was as clear and clean as glass

the light began to fade and withdraw

 

leaving the hint of deep burning embers down on the horizon

A wide, uninterrupted sunset, not something MtLawleyShire is accustomed to.  I hope you enjoyed it 🙂

After the 2nd Feb storm: sunset over MtLawleyShire

The storm left the sky with a magical  architecture for light and the lowering light to play in.  And did it play!  After all the grey and darkness, the lightning and winds, the lowering sun amongst all the shapes and shadows of clouds was magical.

There were washes of gold:

 

A kind of heavier cloud like an embroidered edging against the smoother gold:

 

 

and the lowering cloud brought something with it – a darkening of a clearer evening sky

I loved the contrasts of gold and grey:

 

In other directions, high winds played with less substantial cloud:

 

then in the west, the sky exploded into flame and gold

 

 

 

 

but always that cloud, restricting it all

 

Flame and colour almost obscured the hint of clear sky down on the horizon:

 

and that cloud keeping it all from the evening sky remained:

Colour spread to all points of the compass: south behind the city and the chimneys of the old house:

 

and down William Street towards the city:

 

 

This is north-east (ish) or maybe it’s actually north 😀

 

and as the sunset faded, it sent out waves of colour across clouds coming in from the north and the east:

 

the colour deepening into pinks and a sky turned pastels with coming night:

 

In the west, there was a final glory:

and this:

till the darkness overwhelmed almost all of the cloud play

leaving the clear-washed sky below to farewell the tempestuous day:

I hope you have enjoyed yet another MtLawleyShire sunset 🙂