A sky full of (faux) diamonds

It is that time again. Time to resume my reign as Queen of Darkness.... well, almost. The clocks changed back from British Summer Time to GMT last weekend, so we are now really into Autumn. A time of "mellow fruitfulness " it is said ... or in my case, of ever encroaching darkness on my journey to and from work.

It has been dark on my morning travels since about the end of August, but with the change back to GMT it will soon be dark in the evening too. I don't like the dark evenings that much ... they are connected in my mind with mainly cold and wet conditions .... and too many opportunities for car drivers NOT to see me on my cycle !! It is not all bad though, for a whole new world opens up to me now.

The failing light creates new pictures around me ... a world bathed in the gentle golden glow of an autumn sunset (or sunrise., if I am VERY late in the morning ! ). As light fades almost completely, a world of washed out colours on buildings and trees emerges, making the view around me turn into a series of moving silhouettes. When night finally descends , my world strangely turns back into a place of light again ( although only in patches ) ... into a place of twinkling lights and electronic rainbows. Looking out from the ferry I use each day to cross Portsmouth Harbour, I am , on a clear cool day, surrounded by a cloak of deep dark blue sky and sea, studded by thousands of stars. Looking up to the sky, they are real ... tiny points of clear crystal shining down. Looking across to the harbour entrance, or in the opposite direction towards Portsdown Hill, I still see thousands of stars, of points of light but they become, in the majority, not pieces of crystal but amber .... the glow of street lamps and neon signs in the distance ... thousands of faux diamonds shining in the darkness.

So the approaching autumn and winter is not all bad , for I have a world of diamonds and rainbows to look at ... even if they are not real. They light and bring colour to my journey to work, bringing me beauty and comfort until the true colours of Spring reappear.