Crimson Skies

I was on my way to a local shopping center with the kids to pick up a few things this evening when I noticed a spectacular sight. The sky directly above us was mostly clear with just a few mottled clouds here and there. However, the far side of Lake Kasumigaura was socked in, and the setting sun was making that whole half of the heavens blaze with glory.



Unfortunately, I was on a main route with no shoulders, no viable turnoffs, and traffic coming up fast behind me. I also didn't have my camera. Not wanting to give up, I handed my cell phone to my daughter and said, "Shoot it!" She complied, and these pics are the result.



I'm afraid these pictures just don't do the actual scene justice. For one thing, they just don't reproduce the color accurately. The skies were blazing a deep, almost blood red. It looked like the clouds were smoldering.

We could just see the darkened, twin peaks of Mt. Tsukuba hovering over the mist in the distance like a pair of hooded figures standing there, eying us balefully, under blood-red skies. Unfortunately, that pic didn't turn out...but why am I hearing Judas Priest playing in the background?

You wont break me
You wont make me
You wont take me,
Under blood red skies

Speaking of which, my three-day, post school festival holiday is over. I'm back to work again tomorrow.