Spectacular Sunsets

The weather has been quite terrible over the Christmas and New Year period, and Saturday was no exception.  We were dressed in warm and waterproof clothing in the relentless wind, drizzle and rain on our trip to the woods to unblock the ditch which was threatening to overflow onto our main path.  After a hard afternoon of raking and digging out the mass of leaves, twigs and silt that had become stuck in the ditch, and cutting some more wood for kindling and for our log fire, we were just heading home when the clouds cleared, and we were treated to the most spectacular sunset with the most beautiful of colours.

Here is a sequence of images, captured on my little Canon EOS-M that I keep in my bag when working, showing the beautiful, and most unexpected sunset across the fields opposite the entrance to our woods.

A pastel pink sky

As the sun goes down, a golden line on the horizon.

The sunset starts – apricot and orange sky

Gentle warm sunset sky

The sun sinks further

The sky is on fire!

Stunning Sunset

Spectacular sunset

Last Saturday, I was treated to the most stunning sunset at the woods, made the more amazing in that it was unexpected.  So unexpected that I went for a walk round the woods carrying only my small Canon EOS-M camera, rather than my larger 5D3.  It started with some lovely warm colours in the clear evening sky, but I often find that a clear sky doesn’t produce the most spectacular images.  But we were in luck!  Out of the shadow of the woods came a band of cloud, and this promised to produce some wonderful colour.

So it was that I stopped snapping images at the bottom of Betty’s Wood and walked briskly up to the top of the hill to capture the last rays of the sun as it set over the fields opposite our entrance.  Starting off with peach and orange colours, the sky turned vivid scarlet and magenta before the sun slipped below the horizon.  Here are a few images from the series.

Sunset over Betty’s Wood Ponds

Sunset over Betty’s Wood Ponds

Sunset over Betty’s Wood Ponds

Sunset across the fields

Spectacular sunset opposite our entrance

Spectacular sunset opposite our entrance

Spectacular sunset opposite our entrance

First Autumn Colour

Guelder rose in autumn colours

Tomorrow is the last day of summer, and it has been an unexpectedly long, dry and warm summer after the very long and late winter, and almost completely absent spring.  The first signs of autumn were evident in the wood the other night, with the leaves of the guelder rose changing colour, and the bright berries shining out at dusk.  The blackberries, wild blackcurrants, elderberries and rowan berries are also ripening, we have a good crop of apples and crab apples, and it is a mast year for acorns.  These are just a couple of shots of the coming autumn plenty – I hope there are plenty more to come.

Ripe bramley apples