Foggy autumn sunrise

This morning I went out before the sun had risen. It was an enjoyable run with a number of blippable photos taken. Wondered about possibly posting a picture of a train at the Morningside Station, and eventually chose against it because this picture shows what had happened in the little more than a half hour that I was out on the roads. From a clear pre-sunrise morning it had changed very suddenly with the risen sun to dense fog. This picture was taken through the fence of an establishment across the road from the NZ Army Regional Headquarters, a minimally defended building near where I stay.

Thinking about it, I believe that this meets the challenge word for this week; awful.

Here is what the online dictionary.com gives as the definitions for awful:

1. extremely bad; unpleasant; ugly: awful paintings; an awful job.
2. inspiring fear; dreadful; terrible: an awful noise.
3. solemnly impressive; inspiring awe: the awful majesty of alpine peaks.
4. full of awe; reverential.
5. extremely dangerous, risky, injurious, etc.: That was an awful fall she had. He took an awful chance by driving here so fast.

Since I was a young fellow, I have thought of awful as truly being awe filled; meanings 3 and 4. This picture does not portray extreme badness, ugliness, unpleasantness. Nor does it inspire fear, or suggest danger. I think these meanings show the way that language develops and changes, not always (in my curmudgeonly opinion) for the better.

What this picture shows (the brightness of the sun, the suddenness of the coming up of the fog, the power of the fog to dull the dazzle of the sun) fills me with awe for nature's power. It is truly an awe filled scene.