This was sunrise on Wednesday 31st December 2025. The sun rose as if out of the sea at Poole. Rising from the east.

It had been predicted by a lovely sight a few minutes earlier like a prophet announcing the impending arrival of the messiah!

I cannot give this photo pride of place for the gold of the sun’s arrival demands that! It did however come first at around 7.30 am

The sky briefly surrendered its  glory at around 8.30 am. The sun was no more new above the sea but competing with clouds that mobbed it of its brightness giving it a mystical latency.

and then changed wonderfully though the day. here from within our property

I retreated from our balcony, the temperature was below zero and I was freaked by that latent power fighting the clouds. Even when the clouds went, there was a strange aura coming from the sun.

And in this photo,  the sun rise gives way to something that looks like daylight but isn’t quite. The sun a a fire that works strange impact on the bay. Oh that I was Turner to capture what’s below in paints!

Then as daylight caught on the sun offers a beautiful clarity. The sky is now a pure blue ,  cloudless and brittle with cold. Here I am looking down to Sandbanks, Studland and Old Harry beyond.

As the day went on , the golden rays returned but this time from the west. I looked out over the trees, behind them the town of Poole and behind it West Dorset to Swanage, Weymouth and Lyme Regis beyond.

The sun had given us astonishing sights of the sea and shore and tinged our inland with radiance.

Who needs fireworks when nature offers you it all for free!

Bournemouth does not put on a new year’s fireworks show like London. But from the balcony of where I was staying I could see fireworks lifting in the sky and jolly good they were, miles to Christchurch and miles to Studland. This photo was taken in the summer when the state releases its best efforts to rival what nature can do. It is memorable.

I think you’ll agree we don’t need fireworks when the sky is so naturally beautiful. We enjoyed the most beautiful of days on New Year’s Eve and it was ours for free!

Today is now dawning afresh and from my table I can see a different view

This is the first sight of the bay before the sun arises. A light that gets fiercer as the sun fights its way to the horizon.