Sunrise!

I was going to blog about two more hikes with two more friends today, but those photos still await editing. Instead, I must share these shots from this morning.  The dogs wake me up no later than 6 AM, go out in the yard to do their business, pester me relentlessly for their breakfast which they inhale enthusiastically, for back outside one more time, and by 6:30 AM are usually sound asleep again. Little b*ggers.   Meanwhile, I know there's no point me going back to bed - once I'm up, I'm up.  So around 7:15 this morning, showered, dressed, bed made, second cup of coffee in hand, I open the living room blinds to see this:

I could only imagine what that sunrise would look like on the bay, and I knew it wouldn't last long enough to rouse Shiloh and let her s l o w l y  wander down to the beach on our customary morning walk, her sniffing each and every blade of grass as we go.  So, letting sleeping dogs lie, I grabbed my cameras, slipped out of the house, and high-tailed it the block-and-a-bit to the water.  Was it worth it?  You be the judge:

As the sun slipped behind Maple Mountain on the south side of the bay, and the day lightened leaving the water its customary grey-blue, I returned home - in time to watch it emerge again through thick fog just around a hump in the mountain, lighting up the Indian Bean tree across the street, and painting watercolour fog scenes for one last photoshoot.

Fifteen minutes later, heavy cloud cover moved in and blocked out the sun, the rain started to drizzle, and the rest of the day was grey and dreary and wet.  But the colours of early morning stayed fresh in my memory. And the dogs never knew what they'd missed.