Dawn Force

"Never, if you can help it, miss seeing the sunset and the dawn"

At Sheffield's Millenium Gallery there's an exhibition of landscape art called Force of Nature inspired by the thinking and writing of the great Victorian art critic John Ruskin some of whose collection is held here.

Dawn today was blessed with tranquility, hard to find these days. Sunrise was only slightly impaired by a swathe of cloud in the east and there were some excellent effects in the trees. Foliage is still sparse so the strong light of the early hours in May creates long shadows in the woods.

Birdsong is as good as it gets with that special star feature, the blackbird in a woodland acoustic, backed up by every small bird and a nearby persistent cuckoo.

Out on the moor a hind jumped up from nearby leggy heather and was picked out by low sun rays.

Another one refused to move despite my presence.

"Never, if you can help it, miss seeing the sunset and the dawn. And never, if you can help it, see anything but dreams between them."    John Ruskin