On this particular morning, I had not been up at 5.30am exercising after pushing myself all week quite hard on my runs. So it was firstly unusual that I was still lying in bed at 6.45am when through bleary eyes I saw the curtains turning a decent shade of pink - which is usually a good sign that there's something well worth seeing behind them.
I opened the curtains and inhaled in wonder at the early signs of a stunning sunrise developing. To begin with, I just enjoyed the view and started the task of taking all the washing off the clothes horse. But I quickly realised this was going to be more than a 'nice' sunrise.
On a normal Friday I'd be getting ready for work and leaving at 7am to walk in and I wouldn't have had time to take the opportunity to capture it properly on camera. But on this particular day the boys had a teacher-only day at school so I was going to be working from home and could therefore take a little extra time about my morning before settling down at the computer for the day.
Quickly changing out of my pyjama bottoms, but not even bothering about the top - I just threw a jacket on over it and figured that would have to do, I hightailed it across the road to my favourite spot on the street - a carport that has the best uninhibited views of the city and hills.
More often than not, a sunrise is just a quick explosion of colour that dies away in a matter of minutes, but the colours of this particular sunrise just went on and on, changing from brilliant red to golden and then just when I thought it might start to fade away, the horizon then caught on fire all over again.
It was a very serendipitous morning to have had the time to stop and fully enjoy and capture creation's spectacular show.
