Week 1: As the Sun Sets on Summer

This was taken from the air on the brief trip I made North to see my family at the beginning of the summer. I was in classes and working on the New Swan for the entirety of the summer sessions, so I didn't get to spend much time there, but it was a beautiful kind of punctuation to the end of my first year in Irvine. As well as loving the colors of sunsets, I've always felt calmed by them - perhaps by the idea that wherever you are in the world, whatever stressful things are happening, the sun will rise and set, bathe everything in light. It was a picturesque beginning to a much needed (albeit short) break. And I'm still completely fascinated reflection, especially of sunlight on water (I'm pretty certain I've written about it in blogs more than once before). All the different colors that sunlight is and makes hold a fascination for me. 

And not just that - this is cloud and sunlight and water and land, combining, mixing, and blurring. There's a little lens flare, as this was taken through the window, but I love that it captures the scope of the light, showing everything it touches (it's so difficult to not make a Lion King reference here. I just want to note that and add that I'm not sure if I've ever seen that movie all the way through, or if I have how long it has been. But I digress). The illumination of the clouds from behind, just a little, is something I also appreciate.

The title of this post is, I confess, stolen from the title of one of my 9th grade literature assignments. We had to write a poem with the title/prompt As the Sun Sets on Summer, and being someone who remembers the oddest things, I can still quote mine from memory (Oh, the things that stick). Being thirteen, it tended to focus on the sudden, sharp transition from summer vacation to high school, but there's a lot of feelings there that still apply. And the image still feels very much like it is something close to - or a reminder of - home.