Sunset on Thagard Lake

Thagard Lake - Whipering Pines, NC

I spend much of my time in a room with one wall of windows that look over Thagard Lake. It's true that weather, season and the time of day variegate the appearance of any landscape. However, a body of water seems to magnify that variability, and makes those changes appear with a suddenness and an intensity that can't be found in any other vista.

Yesterday my attention was riveted to a computer monitor when a sound distracted me and I looked over my right shoulder. The sun had just started to set. Colors that were vibrant shades of violet, blue and purple flooded through the windows. I picked up my camera, pulled open the sliding glass door and walked down to the dock - a distance of perhaps one hundred feet. It was from that dock that this picture was taken. I'm posting that picture one day later and now the sky is a nondescript gray. The light is blue, cold and hard, and the lake is entirely different.