Sunrise

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Sunrise: 0801

Outlook: blue skies

Me: rise 0701

I put on my mask and rubber gloves (I was already dressed) and set off on the daily expedition – to the shop, three doors further along the road – to pick up our paper. Black dustbins were standing to attention on the pavements on both sides of the street. I could see the dustcart’s flashing, orange lights, further down the road. We’d forgotten that it was Friday.

I wheeled our bin out to join the bin parade and then went and picked up the paper.

Back inside the front door I sanitized my hands then walked through to the kitchen and washed them with soap and water – double precautions.

Quick cup of tea (as opposed to a slow cup of tea), a piece of toast with butter and marmalade. Coat on, gloves on, snood on and back door locked behind me.

I’ve taken to wearing the snood (what an awful name!) during the recent cold spell, it reduces the need for frequent sniffing and nose-blowing. Must be getting old.

The sky was bright but it wasn’t officially day-time yet so I switched on the bicycle lights. The back one didn’t work. Dead battery. Decision: rake around for the spare light that I know is in the shed somewhere? Or, given that the first half of my route to the sea is ‘off-road’, don’t worry about it?

I wheeled the bike across The Eastern Road – which was as busy as it was before the ‘lockdown’ – that’s another issue.

The paths across the common were muddy, but the walkers and runners and riders were mostly cheery. By the time I joined the quiet, residential streets around the eastern end of Locksway Road the sky was light enough for me to consider a rear light unnecessary.

I secured my bike to a bike-rack at the eastern end of Eastney Esplanade and climbed down the short set of steps onto the pebbles.

The beach was lovely: clean and sharp down to the water’s edge, the sea silver-blue, ever so slightly ruffled, right to the shore.

Further east the dark sands of the Winner Bank – only visible at low tide – stretched out for more than a mile from the south-west corner of Hayling Island.

I stood on the long, crest of the wave-built, shingle bank and looked towards the lightening sky. I’d worn thicker, warmer gloves this morning – the puddles were still ice ­– but I can’t operate the camera with both gloves on, so the right one had to come off.

I started clicking. It really was a beautiful scene. The tinge of red on the on the eastern horizon grew and the colour spread along the tops of the clouds still trying to hide the sun, and to their higher, wispy relatives above.

A path of delicate red stretched across the waves to the shore not far from my toes.

A few other walkers watched with me, and took pictures, until the magic spectacle gradually changed back to ordinary beautiful. We’re used to that so, for me anyway, it was time to go home and have another cup of tea.

I chose a paved route for my homeward journey, a little longer but without puddles of mud. And still a quiet journey, mostly on surfaced paths through parkland and common.

Back indoors, in the warm, with a cup of tea in front of me, I put the ‘photos up, one by one, on my PC screen. I try to limit the number of pictures that I save – I already have far too many – so I edit and discard carefully but firmly. I spent half-an-hour reducing my pictorial record of this morning’s sunrise to two pictures. It was hard to choose.

I clicked ‘cut’ on the two ‘equal firsts’ and pasted them into my ‘Sunrise’ folder. I opened Facebook – something I seldom do in the morning for fear of getting distracted from whatever I’ve planned for the day – with a view to posting my ‘prize pictures.’

And then I opened the Sunrise folder.

They weren’t there.

I’d remembered the last two digits of both of their identity numbers, so I checked the two adjacent folders. Not there either. I did a search of all my pictures and then the recycle bin and then the quick reference files and then the whole PC.

They’re gone.

But I still have lovely, visual memories and, so as not to disappoint anyone who has read this far, I’ll post one I took earlier.