photo #5877913

In England and, indeed, much of the Northern Hemisphere, the first few weeks of the year can feel relentlessly cold, damp, and monochromatic. But one morning in January, after a seemingly endless succession of grey, rainy ones, Linda Seward (Member 48,760) woke up to a ‘watercolour painting in the sky’ over Cookley Green, Oxfordshire, England. A deep honey- and rose-tinted Altocumulus sunrise like this is a sneak preview of the spring ahead and the colours and warmth that accompany it. ‘As I watched, a few Red Kites criss–crossed the sky,’ Linda told us, ‘as if they too couldn’t believe their eyes.’