Sunrise 19: Ault Park (back to gray)

My morning routine was the quickest yet. The birds woke me up at exactly the time I should have been in the park. As it turns out, I set my alarm to 6:10pm, not 6:10am; oops! My coffee was already packed in the thermos. I was up at the park within 10 minutes from being in bed – definitely a new record. In fact I had the bike in second gear the entire time – also a first! Fortunately the sky was overcast so I didn’t miss much. It was a nice opportunity to relax and check out the view. I took a few pictures of the sun rise, which ended up showing some color as the sun crept up into the sky, and headed back home for some early morning errands. More pictures, including the arboretum and japanese maple, click continue –>

The morning atmosphere was mostly overcast but there was a definite power struggle between two cloud banks on the eastern side of the valley. There was a bit of orange color coming through over the horizon. Definitely not as powerful as yesterday’s but it made for a better display than the sunrises during a spring rain shower. As the sun rose up from the horizon the downward projected rays of light illuminated some of the patchy openings in the clouds. After about 25 minutes from sun rise the orange peaked before being swallowed up by the thicker upper atmospheric clouds. The wind started to pick up and it felt like the temperature dropped several degrees. I took a lap through the arboretum and stopped to check out some of the smaller trees that have started to come to life. One thing that stuck out to me about this particular tree was that the flowering piece is attached to a leaf sheath much in the same way that a rose is attached to the bush. There is also this craggly old tree that sits low on the ground and has half started to blossom with these purple flowers. The japanese maples looked a deep reddish color in the gray light.

Armleder and Lunken are still wet, but they seem to be drying out. This is the lower overlook that allows me to see a nice view of Lunken and the eastern valley without as much obstruction by the trees. There are signs of the trail that goes around Armleder indicating the water may be receding.

On the way out of the park, just before hopping on my bike, a cardinal landed near by. I’ve found that any movement spooks them so I was fortunate to have my camera in hand to take a picture from where I was standing. Getting any closer is nearly impossible!

I zipped out of the park and made it home by 7:30am. Not too bad at all 🙂