We went to bed on time Halloween night, thanks to the end of Daylight Saving Time. Both The Lizard and I got a good night's rest. This was a big deal because most of this year, I've had trouble sleeping until the alarm goes off. Then suddenly I just don't want to wake.
Typically, I hate the time change. I wish we could do away with it forever. November has been the most difficult adjustment since 2007 when it replaced October as the first month of really dark evenings when I get off work.
However, even though the change in time seriously affects my sleep patterns, I've believed since about 1979 that sunrises in November are the best of the entire year (when there are clouds). I think it has something to do with the angle of the sun and the typical cloud patterns (when there are clouds) during this forerunner to winter.
We recently discussed the topic "hope" in Sunday school. One woman suggested hope is what gets us up out of bed in the mornings. That may be true, but sunrises often are was yanks me from my weariness. I am so thankful for sunrises! (Even when we don't have clouds!)
On All Saints' Day (November 1) this year, I woke up wide awake at 5, the sky just beginning to get light, after more than a month of waking to total darkness. The lighter sky was so cool! My heart did somersaults! Yet I did go back to sleep until 6:15, at which time the sky began turning phenomenal shakes of red, pink, orange, yellow and purple. Plus just a small tad of some good old blue!
I remembered a few years ago when I shot the sunrise every day in November and made a photo calendar of the entire month with the all sunrises of November... and that collage gave me a new idea!!!
On 1 November 2015, I jumped up out of bed and shot a number of sunrise pictures. I didn't have enough sunrise left to drive to a planned-out sunscape, so I shot one of the dahlias I'd clipped a week earlier and placed in a vase in my kitchen to prevent the flowers from freezing overnight. My dahlia sunrise shots turned out great!
I snagged a few shots of the standing wave cloud to the west. It had been there since Halloween morning, denoting strong winds along the higher altitude of the Front Range, and the massive mattress-like cloud was pretty darned awesome in the colors of the sunrise. It wasn't the best angle I could have captured had I planned ahead. Yet I was so happy with the shots, and I decided to do another calendar, only this one will be for a full year of 2016 instead of a month-long collage of days already passed.
Then what do we get but a solid week of days with no clouds at all, and later two more days of nothing but clouds and a touch of snow. Oh, well, forces me to be creative, right? (I noticed the 2012 calendar has only three cloudless sunrises. 2015 had that number beat in the first week of November alone!)
I'm going to feature 12 of the best sunrises each month of 2016, and the calendar cover will feature the November collage. What I'm calling November Reign is a calendar theme I don't believe anyone else has ever used. The monthly shots and cover shots will all be different, which means I have to get more than one really outstanding sunrise shot at least 12 times this month. If we have more sunrises like All Saints' Day, that won't be a problem!
A sun rise is a good reason to get out of bed. I hate the spring time change, like this one way better. I don't know why they can't just stick it ahead 30 minutes or behind 30 minutes(whenever the next one comes that this idea sinks in) and leave it alone forever. Split the difference and that would be that.
ReplyDeleteThe calendar came out GREAT. :)
ReplyDeleteI've been looking at the sunrises here, thanks to your inspiration and Mr. M's. There are houses in the way, but it's still beautiful! Especially with all the bare branches against the sky.