I have to be out of the house by 7ish this morning, so we here we are at 6.30, Trixy and I, walking along the sea front in the semi-light, watching the white phantoms which are wave tips moving across the immense, grey mass which is the ocean.
Yesterday it rained, a very unusual event for the south of this island in June, and menacing clouds still hover, making the normally dry air humid. As yet there isn’t even that thin line of light on the horizon announcing the sun’s arrival, but shapes are becoming clearer as dawn seeps into day.
Above, a huge, purple-grey cloud is still. It hovers like ET’s starship, foreboding and immense. To the east, it tapers, making a triangular shape, so that its tip rests over the Montaña Pelade headland, making it look as if it’s emerging from the mountain. Its folds, like threatening chunks of dirty cotton wool, merge into its gloomy volume, but I know that as the sun appears it will wash the edges of the clouds which make up this conglomeration and turn them pink and then red, and finally suck the grey out of it all.
But I have to go, an early appointment calls, and I turn for home. As I drive out of the garage and onto the still-quiet streets the sun is still not risen, but the day is brighter. I join the autopista, it’s weekend and the traffic is light. I let my mind wander to the walk ahead of me.
There is something like a flash in my wing mirror, and I glance over. There, reflected in the mirror, as if it’s a tv screen, is a fantasy sunrise, the one I imagined. That ominous purple triangle is turning rosy around its edges, then red, then orange, and the colors spread and leak all over the sky. My heart aches to stop and whip out the camera, but it would be a waste, better just to watch in my mirror and enjoy. Soon the whole cloud is crimson, and then, quickly, because that’s how it happens here, the sun, early-morning but powerful drains the cloud’s color, until it’s just another large cloud in the sky. In a few minutes it will break up, disperse, and the heavens will be blue for the rest of the day.
I love early mornings.
Saturday June 9th
