Some things are not easy to write about. Things that remind you of times far in the past, things that make me feel uncomfortable and things that make me angry.
Now, this blog is all about being positive, but sometimes, all the good feelings make way for a sense of unreality (is that even a word?), an unsettling feeling.
Some people could say a sense of impending doom. I don’t want to go that far with this post as I was not that much impacted by this.
Already weak light
As you can see, the pictures are of a somewhat unnatural type of sunset and sunlight. I am in no way saying that it was bad out here in Liverpool, it was not nearly as bad as where the fires were raging.
Sunset before setting
We also didn’t lose anything to the fires, unlike others that were much closer. So, for me the idea was to make the best of the fires and shoot whatever I could find.
Already red
Birds had gone somewhat quiet and were not as visible. The faint smell of smoke and burning was everywhere, causing them to hide or flee to clearer places.
Air play
The sunsets here in these pictures should not have been sunsets… yet. The sun was still way too high in the sky to turn this red already. Even at 4pm, the sunlight was already slightly reddish and dimmed.
Too red for the time of day
The air was full of particles, making breathing for many people more difficult than usual. The above picture even shows the current sunspots. Those spots that are responsible for auroras. The picture was shot with a normal camera and lens, no filters applied.
Gone fast
This kind of sunset reminds me of my days in the south of France, on the Mediterranean. Every single year, hundreds of hectares of forests went up in smoke. Most of the fires lit by unscrupulous developers, hoping to get a shot at some cheap land. In later years, all forests were declared nature reserves and would never be able to be converted to housing. That led to way less fires.
Contrail
I remember places of lush forest that even today are desert. Topsoil was burned up until the rock and could never be replaced. I did get some “news” about “our” fires here. Some of them apparently had been started by people burning old tires. As if that is something that a normal, well-thinking person would do in a parched, wooded landscape.
Combustible
To have an idea of what some combustible wood looks like, this is a log that has not burned. It looks suspiciously like campfire logs, doesn’t it? This one is as dry as they come, I suppose a simple spark or two would be able to ignite this.
All in all, an unsettling period for Nova Scotia, that normally is quite humid or wet, lush and green. Not what you would expect.
The only thing that comes to mind for me is “Don’t be a flicking idiot!”. A slogan that has popped up several times here. Not only smokers can cause fires, anything hot, even a discarded bottle can cause them. Be careful out there!
Until next time…