What if, I wondered, leaving the earth for ever were like this? The things we know growing smaller and fainter, made beautiful and abstract by distance, then partially obscured and mysterious by haze and spun out patterns of the first layers of cloud, and finally slowly ascending to the clarity of a higher level, gazing clear and truthful and equal into the sublimity of the westering light ...
Then my reveries were interrupted by the disembodied, pre-recorded insanely and inanely cheerful voice from the in-flight tannoy, bidding me to buy a Ryanair scratchcard, or why not try a pepperoni pizza?
Leaving the shores of southern England, the landshapes uncertain, was that Poole Harbour, and later the Channel Islands, then perhaps the tip of the Cherbourg Peninsular? I kept going to my bag to dig out the camera, but feeling that perhaps doing so made me hopelessly gauche, or perhaps I ought to just appreciate and remember what I was seeing, rather than trying to capture and record. I am still naively, uncoolly, overwhelmed by the whole experience of flight, when it is light and clear enough to see anything and I can get a window seat. By the time I did get the camera out, won over by the sunset over the wrinkled sea, it was nearly time to land, and the steward wagged a finger and ordered me to stop - all electronics had to be turned off at this point, even cameras, and I regretted my hesitation.
So, home again now, and a good haul of lovely things to go over and enjoy. Happy November, back tomorrow.
8 comments:
Being from that area that Larry McMurtry wrote most of his novels about, I have a great appreciation for the sunsets. That was quite the spectacular one for sure. Happy November.
Who said sunsets are corny? Maybe overused images of them in our image-saturated society can get corny, but the real thing is always astounding to me.
That's what I was going to say - who said sunsets are corny? I love 'em. And your photo is a beaut, Lucy.
amen to all of that
Well it's an experience you can quickly check out. The problem would be posting the experience. The Styx is all dial-up, you know; no broadband so no pretty pictures. I'm sure I won't be alone among your commenteers when I urge you to cover the rest of Brittany (photographically) first.
I'm also a fan of air travel just for the chance to look out the window. I realized during the last flight I took that it's a more satisfying experience if you're very short (probably 12 or under) because then most of your field of vision is taken up by the window. Nowadays I have to slump down to see everything. When I commission my private jet it will have some higher windows (if larger ones prove impossible).
It was worth taking your camera out. Sunsets may be corny, but what could be cornier than ignoring them for fashion's sake!
Beautiful. You remind me of how I love to fly, and haven't done so for many years.
But the sunsets from ground level are also lovely.
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