Monday Afternoon
It’s very windy. From my usual vantage point as I sit at the uppermost level of the lighthouse, the south westerly is blowing though the brass vents as it has for one hundred years and swirls round in this inner space once trapped inside. There’s a lot of noise as the wind churns around the tower. It’s very loud actually. Louder than usual.
The paper of my note book is flapping as I write this. And I’m adding layers. The T-shirt I arrived in has been superseded by a fleece and scarf. The sunnies replaced by a hat and as soon as my bodily thermometre – my nose and hands – indicate, I’ll have to replace my jeans with my ‘Ron ‘ills’ and heavyweight waterproofs. I’m regretting not bringing my salapettes. I may have to resort to sitting in my sleeping bag before long.
The rain has followed the wind. I was planning to work outside on this trip. Hoping to do exteriors of the lighthouse. Oooo I could always go and repark the car and go sit in it. Good thinking especially if this keeps up and there’s no sunset or sunrise to be had. Oh well.
Yes I could have checked the weather before I came but I was determined to get here whatever the weather. Ok feet are getting cold I think it’s time to change from trainers to long socks and walking boots.
Monday Evening before sunset 8pm
The little red spiders are back. They can’t be money spiders as I’m still as poor as I was last year when I saw them. Despite the lack of an obvious food source they must be eeking out a living somehow. I like to think I’m contributing to their little livelihood with the occasional dropped crumb or other miniscule food debris or skin flakes - as they must be having little families because they are back at the Lighthouse this year.
When my old friend Martin who lives in Canada read last years blog, I think entitled ‘I am not alone’ which described my first close encounter with the same little red creatures – he told me that it reminded him of the Tom Hanks character in ‘Castaway’ who befriends a washed up football! Which I agree was rather funny and perhaps a somewhat accurate comparison but frankly I can’t see what’s sad about befriending a football.
Was going to write that the wind had dropped. But as I’ve started writing it’s suddenly started to blast. The rains stopped certainly. And by the looks of the sky beginning to clear I’m due a sunset but one never knows which way it’s gonna go. With the May sun setting at the horizon of Immingham/Killinghome oil refineries it will be filtered by the polluted air from the oil refineries on the Humber bank which I’ve observed gives a yellow hue. So bets on for an orange sunset
Sketch 1 Cloud bank same colour as sea.
First layer of land – grey.
Back layer orangey with outline
Sketch 2 Layer of land grey/violet
25th May 2011
Wednesday 5.55am
Up at 4.30 to wait for the sunrise at 4.45am. It was a clear sky so as with the sunset and yesterday’s sunrise it was a globe. So not great from the perspective of the discriminating eye of the artist but great from a (ooooo dare I say it?) spiritual perspective. But I’ve written along the same lines before so I’ll try not to repeat myself.
Though watching the sun emerge from the sea is a very special moment and one that is rare in my life apart from when I’m here. So I discard my hunger and visual greed as an artist and just watch and be. And how beautiful. Beyond words especially beyond the inadequate verbal bumblings of a visual artist. I let it happen and allow myself to be moved in a silent, inexplicable, simple way which lasts only a couple of minutes before the sun becomes too powerful and starts to burn holes in my retina! It still gets me and will always foster intrigue and fascination. That the only time we can look at the sun with the naked eye is at those two periods of transition from night to day and day to night. At other times we squint from the suns intensity and we shade our eyes for protection. Occasionally through cloud cover we may see the suns globe but then the sun is small in comparison to the rising or setting sun and it’s white or silver like the moon. At the horizon she is fat and pink or orange or golden.
Today I watched the sun change colour as she entered the haze of cloud above the horizon. I watched the pink globe become orange as she moved into a hue of orange from a hue of purple. This was visually interesting. And although the sketch is rough and clumsy if I’d taken a photo Bam! The sun would be yellow and the sky orange.
But cameras do have their uses and are useful tools of reference. And after the sun became too intense, I dashed down the 140 steps to take photos of the lighthouse with the young sun.As I climbed through the sand dunes I came across a roe deer which spotted me and disappeared along the opposite path.
Obviously the photos never capture what the eye sees (the sky wasn't orange!) but next time I’ll be prepared with my chair, sketch book etc and set up shop in the sand dunes after catching the sunrise up here. 
Oooo cannee wait to be back.
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