British Summer Time

Posted on March 28, 2020 Posted in UncategorizedTagged British summer time, Clock, Daylight saving time, Evening, Light morning, Sunrise, Sunset, Time2 Comments

This time of year we change the time on our clocks by putting them forward an hour. This is known as British Summer time, or daylight saving time. It was introduced during the second World War when the idea was that farmers and workers would have an extra hour in the evening to do their work. The time changes back to Greenwich mean time in the autumn to bring us back in line with the normal time on the planet. The government did try and keep British Summer time for the whole year back in the early 1970’s because it was found there would be less road traffic accidents in the evenings when children were coming home from school, but there were complaints the sun didn’t rise in Scotland (which is in the far north of Britain) till around 10am.

As the northern spring starts there is a high pressure zone over us and air is being drawn down from the Arctic. So we are expecting cold weather in the next few days ( not that anyone is going out at the moment….).

Two sunsets, two days

Posted on February 5, 2020 Posted in UncategorizedTagged Dawn, Dusk, Horizon, Photos, Pictures, Sun, Sunset, TreesLeave a comment

A few days ago there was a reddish sunset, today it was more silvery. Each one was beautiful.

I like the glow in the sky on the second one. I’m sad when the sun goes down in the winter because of how long it is until the sun returns in the morning. As the days go on I look forward to longer days.

I’m already noticing the change of position of the sunrise and Sunset, gently moving along the horizon, gradually changing the time it rises and sets.

The weather should look very different on Sunday. A storm called Keira is on its way, due to give gale force winds.

In the meantime if I see more beautiful skies I will post pictures. X

Sunset (exposure)

Posted on January 10, 2020 Posted in UncategorizedTagged Exposure, Landscape, Life, Photos, SunsetLeave a comment

Have you tried moving your camera when you take a photo of the sky? When the sun is rising or setting people generally take photos of the landscape in the direction of the setting sun. Much more dramatic than the other direction. But include too much sky and the light entering the camera can be too much causing over exposure. Include more land and less sky and the sunset colours emerge more clearly.

By including more land the cameras automatic exposure changes. The area in silhouette may even reveal more detail than if you aim more at the sky. Also remember, if you have a crop tool on your camera you can remove part of the landscape while leaving the sky.

The only difference in these two photos is that I moved between the first and the second and I included more land in the second one.

Sunset sketch

Posted on December 29, 2019 Posted in UncategorizedTagged Art, Artrage oils, Colours, Doodling, Drawing, Evening, impression, Picture, Purple and orange, Sketch, SunsetLeave a comment

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I wanted to do a colourful sketch of the sunset which was all oranges and purples. I can’t get it exactly right as it is drawn in ArtRage oils, basically it’s a finger painting. I got the idea from a photo by a friend on a Facebook page, but as it’s just an impression there is no point in sharing the photo as this is much more impressionistic than the original.

Sunset over Alsager Mere

Posted on December 4, 2019December 4, 2019 Posted in UncategorizedTagged Alsager mere, Colour, Light, Photographs, Silhouette, Staffordshire, Sun, SunsetLeave a comment

It doesn’t get more spectacular, looking out over the mere as the sun set, changing from orange and blue to a peach and rosy purple. It was a long day but enjoyable.

It’s interesting that on Mars the sky is red with dust in the daytime, then the sun sets and the sky turns blue.

I live on the wrong side of the hill so that I don’t get to see sunsets very often. It was lovely to see this.

Sunset over the mere

Posted on November 26, 2019 Posted in UncategorizedTagged Fish, Mere, Pike, Predator, Short story, Sunset, Very short story, WaterLeave a comment

The clouds lifted over the mere as the sun set. For about five minutes it stopped raining and the drumming on the roof eased. The mere was almost invisible in the darkening evening. The only indication of it were reflections of house lights on the waters surface.

One strange ripple broke the surface. The wake of something moved across the glassy water of the mere.

A duck was heading for its nest for the night. Snap! It was gone.

A few feathers were all that were left.

The ripples stopped as the predator sank deeper. Patrolling now up and down the bank, a snap here, a snuck there, finding food…. The Pike picked its prey carefully.

Clocks, going back tomorrow night.

Posted on October 26, 2019October 26, 2019 Posted in UncategorizedTagged British summer time, Clock, Clocks go back, Daylight saving, Depressing, Sunset, Time7 Comments

I live in the UK and the clocks are due to go back at two am tomorrow night, that means :

Advantage… Extra hour in bed

Disadvantage….. The sun sets an hour earlier. The winter blues set in. I hate it when the sun sets before 5pm. It takes ages for it to set later than that in the winter. It’s so depressing. Why? Because the Earth is tipped by about 23? degrees. That means in the winter the sun rises further south east, curves in an arc further south than in summer and sets further south west. The hours it is visible in the sky are less. (in the summer around here the sun can set about 11pm and rise about 3am!).

Cold and dark, shivering, chilly. Even now you can feel the year dwindling.

And… WORDPRESS changes from one day to the next at midnight. Not 1am as it does in the summer. That means I have an hour less time in the evening to post before the clock ticks into the next day….

Drat…

Winter faces

Posted on September 24, 2019September 24, 2019 Posted in UncategorizedTagged Acrylic on canvas, Art, Colour, Design, Landscape, Painting, Sunset, Tree spiritsLeave a comment

I might be ill but I still need to paint.

This is called winter faces. I often paint images with faces in them. I think this one is because I used to walk in an avenue of trees in the park near where I lived. The trees seemed to each have a face, they were spooky but interesting at the same time.

I think I thought there were tree spirits, I hadn’t heard of ents or ent moots then! This is a 6 inch square acrylic on canvas. Solitary tree at sunset with stone lying snow.

Autumn equinox

Posted on September 23, 2019 Posted in UncategorizedTagged Autumn, Chill, Cold, Colour, Equinox, Fungi, Leaves, Sunset, Trees2 Comments

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When the sun sets tonight in the Northern Hemisphere night will last slightly longer than day. In the Southern Hemisphere day will now last longer than night. In six months time the tables will be turned as North heads back to spring and South to autumn.

Mists and mellow fruitfulness is the phrase from a poem I always think of. Finding mushrooms in the garden, seeing Robins looking for food, seeing the leaves change. Already there are tinges of red and yellow on the bigger trees, I think because, being higher up, their leaves feel the chill first. Driving up the local hill you see more changes. Presumably the trees on the lower slopes are more protected. Perhaps its a micro climate?

In a few months it will be winter. I’m hoping things don’t get too cold. But maybe I should hope for cold to cool the climate?

Happy Autumn Equinox.

Sunset

Posted on September 16, 2019 Posted in UncategorizedTagged Beautiful, Black, Blue, Bright, Colours, Firey, Maroon, Orange, Purple, Red, Sky, Sunset, YellowLeave a comment

When the sun set tonight it as like the sky was on fire. A deep purple/blue shading down to maroon, red, orange and then yellow.

I’m not sure I have quite the right colours on my phone camera, they seem slightly more intense, but that’s to do with how the eye accommodates in low light levels.

Whatever the colours the reality was spectacular. Beautiful. Colourful. Awesome. I would have liked to see the horizon but I was going into choir practice and didn’t have the time to drive over the other side of the hill.

Mallaband-Brown

Tag: Sunset