Evening Shower Wild West Yorkshire nature diary, Monday 19th July 1999

AN EVENING SHOWER gives a smoky blue cast to the valley. A flock of Swallows goes by, chittering, overhead.

Soft grey clouds are ragged at the edges, but there is so little breeze they seem as static as the veining in marble. The dark, still surface of the canal is animated into perfect ellipses by gentle rain. It is a scene muted in colour but rich in tonal values.

A timeless scene, but with a few late twentieth century touches. The youth sitting on the canal bank by his bike chats on his mobile phone.

Music drifts through the dense foliage of the riverside trees. A rock band is practising in the old scouring mill but we hear only the baseline, which reminds me of Frankenstein's monster dancing with his arms held out stiffly before him;