Stupendous sunset, Sułkowice

The day's disappointing weather ended on a spectacular note; my planned bike ride down to Radom was cut short by a heavy downburst of rain just before Warka. I sat out the rain in the Orlen gas station before riding back to Jakubowizna - I could see that the weather would be far worse than forecast.

However, an evening walk made up for the showery day. I walked from Jakubowizna to Grobice, crossing the DK50 to snap an extraordinary sunset with a sun slipping behind the horizon through a narrow slot under the clouds.

Below: I'm standing north of the DK50 and west of the Warsaw-Radom railway line, looking towards Sułkowice, famous for its police-dog training centre (and where most of Poland's movie dogs were trained). Somewhere north of there, a plume of rain cascades down as the sun sinks behind the forests.

 

Below: thermonuclear sun, come back tomorrow to give us light and warmth. The last few minutes of daylight as planet earth spins away.

Below: under the DK50 bridge to look at progress on the trackside drainage. To the right (east side) of the tracks, the cutting has been lined with ballast to prevent slippage and erosion; to the left side, the ballast has yet to be laid - the drainage ditch is still no more than a muddy trench. The downpour is approaching from the north - will I make it back to the działka in time before it reaches me?

Below: further south, all that's left of the day's sun is that which is reflected upon the under-surfaces of the low cloud, pressing down claustrophobically. 

I turned the corner into my street just as the first heavy droplets started to fall. Made it - just.

Music for sunsets - Sunset - by Roxy Music, the final track off their third album, Stranded. Many's the time I'd listen to this on cassette while perched on the windowsill of our family home in West Ealing, watching the summer sun set over Northolt - something impossible today because of development.