Sunrise on the Coast Road

I'm back from a lovely weekend in Barrow-in-Furness, which included a visit to Coniston.

I was taking my mother to Barrow: she's staying with Amy, wonderful Amy, her great friend since their schooldays, for the week. I wanted them to have a lovely time and they did seem to: here they are on a boat on Coniston Water: my mother's on the left.

They are both eighty-seven: my mother is just three days older than Amy.

I decided to travel back early this morning instead of last night, so we could have a full day out yesterday. I did need to be back to work in the agency's office this morning and to work with some first year medical students this afternoon.

So I got up at six and decided to travel the slightly longer way to Ulverston, along the Coast Road, as I was hoping for some early-morning light over the sea.

I could see the sea in the distance with just a slight glow of red above it as I left Amy's house and I hoped that I would get there in time.

As I neared the sea, I was listening to the traffic news on the radio about elsewhere in Britain - - traffic jams - - gridlock - - but where I was, near Roa Island, I was the only car on the road. And then I reached the sea: the tide was out and I saw this:

The colours were stunning. The round things in the foreground are tufts of grass, which is gradually invading the shoreline.

So I just stood and watched whilst the colours gradually changed:

the reds turned to pinks:

and purples and lilacs

It was a beautiful drive back to Leeds through the Furness Peninsula and the Yorkshire Dales. Some things make it well worth getting up early.