Seeing The Sunrise At Grotto Beach

I shot out of bed at 6h15 this morning, but it wasn’t the alarm clock; it was the house alarm, and it shrieks like a banshee.  Fortunately, the untimely visitor was a spider spinning its web over the “eye” in the sitting room.   

Our call to arms was to dash down to Grotto Beach for the sunrise; I wanted to share that sense of awe and hope that comes with a new day, hoping it inspires your own moments of wonder.

We made it to the lagoon just before the first rays touched the tops of the mountains, with pink, mauve, and blue skies and wispy cotton-candy clouds.   It was still early enough to see some waders before they took flight to greener pastures elsewhere.

Once the sun was too sharp, causing burnouts in the sky, I turned around and noticed a perfect picture:  dunes, the sea, early-morning strollers out for their constitutional, and a young man and his girlfriend with a vintage guitar from 1963. So, in the spirit of Woodstock, I asked him to strum a tune, connecting the scene to a nostalgic vibe.

After a morning coffee and a chocolate Croissant at the bakery, we headed home.

It was a much too perfect day to stay indoors, so we saddled up once again and headed off to Fernkloof Botanical Gardens.   I would try my luck at photographing the beautiful orange-breasted sunbirds.

Proteas are in full bloom, and their sugary scent attracts birds and bees.  I enjoyed the challenge of preventing camera shake while focusing on those tiny birds, hoping to share the thrill of capturing fleeting moments.

Grand Horreur, of course, was that I only had one memory card, so I had to remove the one I'd used countless times as I swapped cameras. I still don’t know what happened; my memory has lapsed again.

It was heartwarming to see how many people of all ages go for walks in this garden, enjoying the last of the Indian summer days.  We will return.   I do see the world through rose-tinted glasses, but today I didn't saturate it unnecessarily, keeping the hues as real as I see them in my mind's eye.

Today’s quote is on a musical note. “The history of music is mortal, but the idiocy of the guitar is eternal.” ― Milan Kundera, The Book of Laughter and Forgetting.

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