When we lived in our old house, in a hilly Victorian industrial town, the sunset was always obscured by roofs. You could nearly see it, but not quite, just the pigmented, striated sky above the dark satanic mills.
We live now in a different, less hilly Victorian industrial town. Our house faces just off north. We are on the side of a moderate rise with wide 180 degree views. We have a horizon. We have a vista of distant hills and wooded ridges and fancy domed buildings, and old mills and houses, punctuated only by our garden trees. And as those trees are not yet in full leaf I can see a lot of sky right now.
And orange cloudscapes, and cirrus curls, and pink, blue, mauve, coral. All that extravagance, for free, just out the window. The glow of sun falling on fresh new leaves; the gleam from the windows on the hill; the painterly effect on the branches and trunks. The golden waterfall of next door’s vast weeping willow as the low sun falls across the drooping leaves. It is breathtaking.
Soon the canopy will close and the sunset will be fitful, more dispersed, dappled. It will still be worth seeing during those evenings where the cloud is kind, but will lose some of the majesty it bestows right now.
Eventually the sun will move around far enough to slice through the trees and in through the front windows, beams stretching long across the wooden floor, flaring chestnut.
Then, at its peak, it will start to turn, to recede, and to gently start to prepare us for the shorter days and cooler nights, and we will have to ease ourselves into the changing season.
But for now, I shall take huge delight in watching these nightly spectacles play across the evening sky, with awe and wonder.
Thank you for reading.
For more about JB Priestley’s book Delight, from which I originally took my cues, please take a look here:
I love a sunset! There is a wood to the west of our house so a full view of a sunset is impossible to see. But the glimpses between the trees are still beautiful. I love that you can marvel at the willow, even if you don't own it. It is a beautiful specimen.