Three important things happened today in my world: 1) The sun actually shone for most of the afternoon; 2) Clouds were sufficiently absent long enough for the sun to be still shining as it sank beneath the horizon (below, at 4:41:08 according to my camera — above was at 4:25:39); and, most important in my little world, the earth has rotated enough now that it actually shines in the windows on my balcony for a few short minutes at the end of its time above our horizon here. (For a comparison sunset further north and west plus several hours later, check this past post from early August: my windows face mostly north, a decent amount of west, with only one little sliver of southwest.) Note that it might have shone in a bit for a couple days now, but with clouds omnipresent nearly full-time since early October (I do not exaggerate), wouldn’t know. So this is just me sending a bonus post to let the sun feel appreciated and welcomed.
I had every intention of getting back to photograph these lovely alleys of trees a bit later as the color of the leaves advanced further. Then we had weeks of rain that detracted from trying to take photos along with knocking off all the leaves. Oh, well – next year.
So I took all the photos in this post on one early-October stroll around my neighboring park at the end of a desk-heavy work-from-home day. Not long after I’d realized I could start splurging my “city lights” photos because I was entering the season where Urban Garden entries would be harder to find than City Lights ones would. 🙂
Recent strolls in the neighborhood have given me cause to revive this long-neglected, first-ever series. The taller, square building in the top right corner of the photo, to the left of the sign saying it’s not an official beach and swim at your own risk, is home for now.
Indeed any time I’m desperate for an island to fill a slot in this particular series (it happens – remember this one?), my life got **way** easier when I moved into this place. There are two islands visible from this vantage in my current home: both are around the middle of the image, near the far shore of Sloterplas, which is the name of this lake. The closest one is immediately in front of the large lighted building above, which happens to be the swimming complex where the Dutch national team trains. Above was a pre-sunrise full moon in late September; just below dawn clouds the morning after the beautiful sunset at the bottom.
Sunset from my apartment on my birthday, just over a month ago, was pretty much a full two hours later than it is already now :-(. That’s the seasons here…
(so much world, so little time....) 