Vernal equinox sunrise

Woke early this morning for some reason, and so headed out on my run ahead of the sunrise. Along Erceg's Way (just back from the Snells Beach sand) I was treated to an increasingly bright and dramatic sky which produced the sun tipping above the horizon mere seconds after I had taken this picture, and ultimately a dazzling golden orb which would have blinded me had I looked too directly.

Before I started the run I thought to myself that I had missed the equinoctial sunrise; I have usually thought of the equinox as being 21 March and 21 September each year. Thought to myself that I didn't care, and I could call today the equinox, as it's sort of the same day, it still being 21 September in Europe when I was running!

Of all the pictures I took as I ran along (stopping while I use the camera; my hands aren't that steady that I can take photographs while actually running), I have chosen this. It was the last before the "top" of the disc of the sun became visible. I like the sunlight in the pools of water left behind by the retreating tide. And mostly, because of the swing.

A simple swing in a pohutukawa tree. A rope tied around a strong branch, with a piece of old fence batten (probably, therefore, totara) tied into the bottom end of the rope for children to sit on, or stand on, and swing. They might just swing backwards and forwards, or round and round. They might also jump from the swing onto the sand. And I am sure that with the imagination of children even more options are possible.

Later this morning I looked up the timing of this year's (southern) vernal equinox, to discover that it is on 22 September. Today. This IS the vernal equinox. And the sunrise.

Today has been spent doing the next report, solving the Kropotkin cryptic crossword in one sitting (for second week in a row, so no fading of neuronal disconnection yet!), and a tad of gardening with S, who did much more than I did. Next task is to finish my beer, finish posting this blip, and prepare dinner for S and J (and me).