Salmon waters

I squidged my way through the mud to get under the Arnside viaduct and see this view from the other side, of Whitbarrow with salmon skies reflecting in pewter water. Cloud was rolling off Whitbarrow and filling the Lyth Valley, indeed the same was happening off all the low and high fells. It was worth getting muddy and falling on my backside on the slippery stones of the sea wall.

There was a time when I used to think a camera could detract from the experience of a holiday. I have seen tourists squinting through cameras trying to get the perfect shot of a lion or elephant, without once looking up to savour the experience of where they were. Maybe I still feel like that about photography and holidays.

At home, though, the opposite is surely true. It was on a whim that I went out to the viaduct this evening to see what the sunset would look like from there. But I saw things I have never seen before. The first was a big gathering of swallows, that appeared suddenly, settled on the rails of the parapet and then quickly disappeared again (last night at Storth I had seen them moving down the estuary towards Arnside). Where are they heading? Are they beginning their migration back to southern Africa already? Then a flock of pied wagtails appeared, again stopping briefly then moving on. Had I not been there trying to photograph the sunset I would have missed these movements.