Summer

Rivington Sunset

Originally uploaded by David Pott

Today has been a showery and warm day with big, dramatic clouds scudding across a very clear blue sky and occasionally dropping heavy showers on the parts of Lancashire beneath them. The clouds themselves are towering pillows of whiteness underlined by dark grey bands that produce the rain. When the rain falls from beneath the clouds they trail dirty veils of water behind them.

With the youngest child in bed, and the rest of the family playing computer games on the Wii, I packed my sketching equipment and headed up towards the high moorland at the back of Horwich, seeking out the dramatic views that I felt would be produced by the weather.

I wasn’t dissappointed. Anvil shaped thunderclouds made slow but majestic progress from Snowdonia, past the Wirral and alond the Sefton and Fylde coasts where they met the setting sun, silhouetted with the outline of Blackpool Tower below.

I came home with two or three quick sketches, countless photos (like the one at above) and a sense of marvel that nature can create so many rich and contrasting hues in a single sunset.

Hopefully I’ll be able to paint several oil paintings from the sketches, small watercolours and photos I took tonight. Sadly I don’t think any of them will match the original version!

Rivington Sunset, originally uploaded by David Pott.

Perfect sunsets always catch you out, happening when you least expect them. I’d taken a walk with my daughters without my camera. Of course the sunset was extra special. Luckily, one of my daughters had brought her small camera and I was able to take some images, of which this is my favourite. Not the most dramatic, but probably the most serene of the lot.

Rivington Sunset

Originally uploaded by David Pott

A fine sunset on Saturday. Walking through the woods with my daughter, dodging the monster size slugs that are perhaps the only creatures to have enjoyed the wet summer we have been enjoying. The clouds presaged the arrival of sudden shows, which sent us scampering home.

I saw these unusual cloud effects over Rivington last month. Apparently the faint rainbow effect is caused by the sun passing through the ice particles in high cirrus clouds. A more technical term for this phenomena is ‘parhelia’ - so called because they form on each side of the sun. Presumably this sun dog had a ‘twin’ on the other side of the sun, but on the day cloud cover prevented it being seen.

There’s an even more spectacular version of this effect on Flikr here:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/austinspace/159715531/in/set-1129312/ 

Sometime in the last couple of weeks, I didn’t notice at first but the sky seems very quiet now. No screeching, wheeling black commas!  If they went a couple of weeks ago at the start of August then that’s very early - but who could blame them given our wet weather this year!

On a late evening walk yesterday I noticed a large brown bird of prey, flying 2 or 3 meters above the West Pennine Moors. It flew irregularly, and seemed to be looking in amonst the peaty gullies and brown streams. As it came closer I could see that it was a Tawny Owl, presumably looking for small mammals and fros that are its prey. Normally moorland isn’t one of their commonest habitats, but I realised that woodland and farmland were nearby, so perhaps I shouldn’t be suprised to see one. I also managed to shoot this video, which show how the owl was flying, but not much detail of the bird itself.

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uCQaSphES7c]