Fire and brimstone

Sunsets are so unpredictable.  I didn't see the sun setting this evening as we walked along the muddy shore and back.  I thought the pale pink sky colour was fading as we walked back along the prom.  But then the clouds caught fire, and reflected in the still water of the bay.  There was a feeding curlew on the spit of mud, but it wouldn't place itself at the pointed end.  A serene end to the day.

The extra photo is a complete contrast, taken at lunchtime under the grey blanket of sky, it shows Rowan keeping his eye firmly on the ball.  Rowan has excellent ball skills, great coordination between body, eye and ball in the air - he doesn't take his eye off it unless he has already calculated where it is going.  Gus, by contrast, loves to chase the ball but he doesn't follow it in the air, and Rowan triumphantly grabs it almost every time when Gus is still searching in the long grass.  Gus is such a beautiful boy, in looks and nature, but he isn't perfect.

We love our dogs, our friends, our families for their imperfections as well as their perfections.  We celebrate the idiosyncrasies that mark them out from everything and everyone else.  The sunset wasn't perfect because the curlew wouldn't do what I wished it to, but the pleasure was greater for the anticipation that it might.