This is not the Nut at Stanley, Tasmania, nor is it Capetown, South Africa – it is a cloud formation observed from  my usual beach here in Montevideo last week as I arrived on the beach just before sunrise .  That may sound impressive, but here in the southern hemisphere a third of the year’s gone already! and we’re well on the way to the winter solstice, 21/6, and so the days are getting shorter.  Frankly it is much easier to be on the beach to see the sun rise at 6-45 am than at 5am in the middle of the summer!  Today at mahjong a friend I often meet when walking there commented she hadn’t seen me on the beach in a while – that is partly because she has been going later! and partly because since our car’s been in the shop a few day this week I have been walking closer to home – it’s a good step just to get there from our place.  So, I thought I’d show you pics from about 10 days ago,  taken just before 7am with hardly a soul there…..  

About half an hour after sun-up, on my way back along the beach the  plovers were making a racket at the water’s edge.  I do love them.  They are so noisy, strident and insistent, quite bossy.

Inspiring – and yes, I am doing something about it; there is a new piece in reds and oranges now under way, non pictorial in just those colours.  It’s very red, and I’m off upstairs to work more on it right now.