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A brief rain shower at the end of a heavily overcast day had a clearing effect just before sunset last night.
We are frequently gifted these magic evenings that I am compelled to photograph and while they may seem redundant, I cannot not share them as they are all special in their own way.
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How to choose from among 60 photographs which ones to post?

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It does not help at all that my photos refuse to download in sequence, which is one of those annoying problems I keep meaning to solve but never get around to addressing.
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An hour after those first few images, a rosy cloud enticed me outside again.

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On the way out I called to Grant to look at the sky, but he had Sophia on his lap and couldn’t move.
She is an old girl and there will always be sunsets but we will not always have our dear old pussycat to pet.
Evening lap time belatedly became one of her favourite routines.
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Once out on the porch I realised that most of the earlier clouds had cleared.
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Cautiously checking for skunks, I ventured out and lifted my head.

It’s not easy when you have a crook neck and bad balance, but it’s important to look up.
It’s not “just clouds”. It’s light and texture and the impermanence of the whole thing.
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While looking up, it’s also important to keep turning.
Nothing changes more rapidly than a sunset.

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Sunsets are an immersive experience!
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There’s that skunk.
She was wet and not interested in me.
Luckily.

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Sunsets have been inspiring me since my days at boarding school in Cambodia where we were allowed to abandon homework to go look out across the sea and watch the Sun sink behind the plateau of Bokor.
Something I shall never forget.
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As much as I detested that school, there are parts of the experience I have always been grateful for.
Certainly it’s where I became an opacarophile.
No, Google, not a necrophiliac!
It was Google that offered opacarophile as being a lover of sunsets, so why does it now want to change the word and make me a lover of dead bodies, for heaven’s sake?
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The sort of sunset that follows rain comes with special sound effects, so I’ll give you a brief immersion…
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I now use Flickr for my blog photos. It’s easy to set up a free account that allows a fixed number of images to be downloaded. (Quite a lot) They always appear in sequence, and can be captioned and dated if you wish. Then you just cut/paste the url of the specific photo into your wordpress blog post, and the photo appears once you ‘save draft’. The best thing is that it doesn’t count against your wordpress allowance for images. I recently updated to Flickr Pro, which is not that expensive. Here’s a link. https://www.flickr.com/
Best wishes, Pete.
Thanks Pete. I’ve signed up and will give it a go. I like that it will save me using up inventory space.
Thank you, Carolyn, for the stunning photos of the sunsets, sky, clouds, and the new word I didn’t know!
Joanna
I always say that the sky is nowhere as blue and clear as here in South Africa, but I must admit, when there are clouds in the sky, it makes for the most beautiful photos – especially there where you live!