May 30, 2007

Sunset

Early sunset

My parents' camp faces west. Standing under an oak tree, I can look across at an island that lies between their quiet bay and the deep, cold river. The bay is shallow and weedy, about two miles long, and the southern end is filled with acres and acres of cattails. My parents' land is a peninsula snuggled into the marsh.

A marsh is a wonderful place to spend summer days. Sitting quietly on the dock, you can watch frogs, turtles, and watersnakes. If you lean over the water and look into your own shadow, you might see fish gliding by. The tourists, with their fast motorboats and annoying jet skis, don't come down to this end of the bay, so on a summer evening, we have the bay to ourselves. I'll go with my father on his sailboat to ghost about on a still evening, or some of us will take the canoes to explore the creeks that wind through the marsh.

In the evening, the sun slides down into the narrow strip of cattails that separates the mainland from the big island to the north that protects the bay from the rougher weather of the river. This weekend, the early sunset was blue and purple, sparkling from the rain that was still coming down lightly. But within minutes, the whole bay turned red, the water shining with pinks and purples, the spectacular sunset that is, to everyone in my family, both awesome and familiar.

Sunset at camp

17 comments:

Yankee T said...

aaaaaaaaaaaaah.

Mary Stebbins Taitt said...

WOW! Fantastic, super sunset. And yes, aaaaaaaaaaahhhhh!

Ianqui said...

What an extraordinary change! Beautiful. And this is a case in which it's particularly awesome how well your camera reproduces color.

Ampersand said...

Amazing and wonderul and well...it perhaps defies adjectives.

Andromeda Jazmon said...

Stunning. Thank you for both of these.

listie said...

Wow; that's beautiful.

Xtin said...

That is just effortlessly exquisite in the way that only reality can sometimes be.

Unknown said...

How smart to capture this view in two different lights. I love the way it makes me think about perception and relativity and light and color. Good writing too, as usual.

Rev Dr Mom said...

What a great pair of pictures!!

gwoertendyke said...

ugh, these images create desire.

Kyla said...

You are a beautiful writer...and the photos are stunning.

ccw said...

Wow!

That is a beautiful sight!

zombieswan said...

Do you carry your camera with you all the time? Or is it just luck that you capture such cool photos? I like having my camera with me, but I have to make a conscious effort to remember to bring it with. And I hate when I don't have it and see something that would make a good picture. These are wonderful. I'm glad the noisy tourists stay away and don't bug you in your heaven. I had wondered how you managed to be so isolated from that sort of thing since it seems to me to be everywhere.

jo(e) said...

Well, the nice thing about having a cheap camera is that I can just toss it into my backpack and have it with me. When I am camping, I leave it in the car.

This photo wasn't at all a difficult one though. The sunset looks that great just about every evening at camp. I just had to walk several feet to my car, take the camera out, and snap the picture.

Yes, it is wonderful how isolated my parents' camp is. The big marsh area is protected by the 1972 wetlands legislation. The law prevents anyone, including us, from building on the land, but we all just bring tents.

nimiecat said...

Just insanely beautiful!!!

Anonymous said...

absolutely gorgeous.

clever[art] said...

I felt as if I was right there. A moment in time captured perfectly through your lens, as well as the written word.