False Light on Bliss Street

As I walked home from work yesterday afternoon, I was suddenly caught in a flash of ‘vals light’, or ‘strijklicht’, as the official term is in Dutch. I cannot find an adequate English translation for it. It’s translated as ‘flood light’, but that doesn’t even come close to it. It’s the sun light that – at sun set – floods under the cloud covers, and draws really long shadows. The rays are practically parallel to Earth’s surface. It’s often very warm in color, but has an almost fake quality, hence the Dutch word for it; ‘false light’.  It’s related to the amount of dust in the atmosphere, and the angle at which sun rays travel through this. (if you’re interested, and read Dutch, this guy wrote books about it)

The sun sets on Bliss

You don’t often experience this. Either the sun is not at the right angle, the cloud cover not there, or some other reason, but yesterday, it was exactly right. And just as I crossed Bliss Street, the sun set, at the very end of to the street, and for a short time, you could see it, from the beginning to the end of Bliss. Sounds like book title; False Light on Bliss Street’. Bit of an oxymoron too. But it was pretty magical to see the sunset in the middle of an urban setting.

A false light

Magical. I  took some pictures. A police woman stopped next to me and made a picture of it as well. And as I continued my walk, it started raining softly. I like small moments like this. Moments when you realize that beauty is in small things, and happiness doesn’t have to cost a thing.  Well, that’s my two cents of it anyway. Thought I’d share that with you.

And then it rained (on Hamra Street)