It was 8.30pm. The sun was shining, the world was bright.
The buckets that ‘reigned’ down on Queen Elizabeth II’s Diamond Jubilee Thames
Pageant last Sunday have been drained and the winds that disrupted both west
and east coast shipping in the middle of the week, are sleeping soundly. All
that’s left is the breath of their snore if you listen carefully!
The place is Holbrook Creek in Holbrook Bay. An inlet where
boats and yachts are moored, and at this time of the evening are stranded on
mud banks and mounds. Across the Stour
River are the river front houses of Harwich. To the west and with grounds
sloping down to the Creek is the Royal Hospital School with its distinctive
towers behind which the sun is slowly sinking.
The last rays of the sun are caught by the clouds who
stretch them across the bay in ribbons of orange and yellow and pink. They’re harvested
by the barley fields as their Midas touch. The bright red field poppies growing
intertwined with dainty white-flowered weeds in the gutter path of the field,
add their own brush of colour to this pastoral live painting!
The harmonious chimes of the school clock carry across the
fields and waters and blend with the nightly farewells of the chaffinch, robin,
blue-tits and pigeons, with the crystal clear cuckoo continuing where the clock
left off!
