The days are now beginning to shorten and the sunsets are returning setting the skies alight before the dark clouds creep over the horizon. As summer drifts into autumn the sun sinks a little further to the north-west each night. In late June and July the sun glows beyond St Kilda and now it hovers over the isles of the Monachs.
To the south and east the hills are transformed by the approaching darkness, the lengthening indigo shadows emerge from the valleys and gulleys until their character is obscured, only to be revealed by the warmth of a rosy dawn.
Beinn Mhòr, the big mountain, a towering 620m (2,034 ft), sits on the eastern horizon with its smaller companions. It is not in the Munro class, but the hills of South Uist are recognised as wildlands and retain an aura of mystery. The beinns are cloud conjurors, draping their flanks with wisps of lacy cloud, cloaking their presence with banks of grey mist or summoning the dark riders of the storm from the Atlantic.
In the lands of the north mountains are the haunt of wizards, shamans, necromancers and sorcerers who will reveal their power with fiery celestial displays as they attempt to capture the sun before it disappears over the western horizon.
Enchanted the unwary dreamer is spellbound and as the curtain of clouds lifts a glowing citadel appears. Hy Brasil, Asgard, Tir nan Nog or something more mundane? You can never be sure in the islands on the edge of the world.
Stunning sunsets and lovely pictures.
Thank you. I almost missed this one was in the east, at the back of the house! In fact a refelection of the light from the setting sun!
Wonderful photos, ably accompanied by your usual rich prose. I suspect you are under the influence of some of these ‘wizards, shamans, necromancers and sorcerers’…
ps sadly sunsets are not visible from our house…not that they would anything like yours anyway
Honest, I was stone cold sober when I took the photos and wrote the post! Just an over active imagination on a very wet and windy afternoon.
Overactive imagination? Nah…just inbuilt wordmanship. Hmm, if we had a wet and windy afternoon sometime perhaps I could write some more poetry…
Fortunately I’ve been too busy to let the poetry muse out of the closet.
Hello Christine,
Fabulous words to capture stunning clouds. I really like this time of the year when the days start to shorten …but not yet too much, and cloud spectaculars fill the skies. Glad to see that the Beinns are looking glorious, and you’re getting these spectacular sunsets after a testing weather year,
BW
Julian
HI Julian,
I like the turn of the seasons and when we get a clear evening the sunsets are spectacular. It is still a little early for rosy dawns, I’m not inclined to go out in my ‘jamas with the camera at 5.00am!
The weather is still unsettled and I’m not even hoping for an Indian summer, but a few early autumn days would be nice!
Beautiful photos and words. No wonder sunsets like that inspire the imagination.Sorcery indeed.
There are times when the natural world puts on a display that can only be described as magic.