The Tenth Sunrise

Love comes to you and you follow
Lose one onto the Heart of the Sunrise
Sharp distance
How can the wind with its arms all around me
Lost on a wave and then after
Dream on onto the Heart of the Sunrise

These lyrics are from the song Heart of the Sunrise by Yes. This is actually the eighth sunrise I saw, but it’s a very special one to me, because I saw it during a period when I was listening to Heart of the Sunrise a lot, and also, this sunrise was used on the cover of my album Argentavis Magnificens.

So I know what you must be thinking as you read the title of this blog, “The Tenth Sunrise”, sounds like the title of the worst YA novel of all time, so bad in fact that it would be worth buying a copy of this novel, and burying it in the depths of the deepest ocean, so nobody will ever be subjected to having to read it. But no, that’s not what the tenth sunrise is; the tenth sunrise is the tenth sunrise I have seen, which was this morning. Why do I know the number of sunrises I have seen? Because I have a fascination with the numbers ten, and twenty, and thirty, all the ones with a zero on the end, so this was a special sunrise for me, the fact that I had prior to this seen only nine sunrises wouldn’t do, it wouldn’t do at all. Hey, I may be neurodivergent, but at least I’m not eh, neuroboring!

I don’t normally like getting up early. To me getting up early is like deliberately charging your phone to only ten percent and expecting the battery to not run out. Yawning is not a productive use of my time, so I like to get a good night sleep. However, I try to see at least one sunrise a year. I saw one a year from 2016 to 2019, and 2 a year from 2020 this year.

I first made an attempt to see the sunrise in 2016. I’d been humming and hawing about if for years,

mainly because if it clouds over you have left the warm safety and wonderfulness of your bed for nothing. But in August 2016, I decided to chance it, and saw this:

It was actually quite nice seeing the clouds turn pink, but it was so cloudy I don’t really count this as having seen the sunrise. But I would try again in August and would see this:

Now I had seen a proper sunrise. I actually stayed up all night to see this. I decided to kill two birds with one stone, stay up all night doing astronomy, and then go to Woodpoint to see the sunrise. Woodpoint would my location for seeing the sunrise for the next few years. I would never do an all nighter again, it is, SO, EXHAUSTING!

But this first sunrise is one of my most memorable. I walked through Woodpoint, one of my favourite places in the world, in the pitch black, the trees looked so ominous! Then I sat down next to the lighthouse (more of a light really, it doesn’t really qualify as a house), and gradually, the world woke up. The air went from cold as ice to much warmer, the birds gradually started going from silent, to whisper quiet, to relatively loud, as they, much like the human population, started to get on with their day. And then it happened. The sun emerged from behind a distant peninsula, and bathed the ocean in its light. It was wonderful.

This is sunrise number 2, and it looks a bit different, and the reason it looks a bit different is because of what I’m calling Colm’s Cloud Paradox, that’s copyrighted you can’t use it. Colm’s Cloud Paradox is that when you look out the window when you’re about to try and see the sunrise, you tend to groan a bit, and by a bit I mean a moderate amount, and by a moderate amount I of course mean an obscenely tremendous amount. But here’s the thing, clouds are often a part of what makes the sunrise spectacular. A cloud in the right place can bring it to life, as the emerging sun illuminates the cloud, and sets it alight, it gives it some of the most amazing colours.

This one is nice, the clouds and the ocean went such a beautiful golden colour. This was sunrise number three, so third time really was a charm. I wish I could have come up with something better to say.

Finally invested in a camera with a good zoom! From this point I would be able to capture incredible details of the sunrise previously impossible to me. This is my fourth sunrise, which is important to me because in addition to being fascinated by the numbers 10,20,30, etc, I’m also fascinated by the number four, so having seen only three sunrises would not have done at all I’m afraid. This one was hard to get up for, I got pretty much zero sleep beforehand, but it was worth it.

Isn’t it ironic that through such dark times I saw the light of the sun! It’s your fault that you read that tripe you’re the one reading my blog, blame yourself! I would relocate to a short distance from Ramsey Hill from this point on to view the sunrise, mainly because I was under the illusion that you could see the sunrise over the ocean from here (which is true during the Winter, but equally true of Woodpoint), but the main reason I stuck with this location is that I could get up about a half an hour later, I make no apologies for my love of being in a state of hibernation. I wasn’t sure which photo to go with from this sunrise, but I thought this might be interesting, the sun struggling to shine through the dirt and grit of the clouds.

My first sunrise over the ocean! There was cloud cover on the horizon, so I didn’t get to see the sun emerge from beneath the waves like I wanted, but any ocean sunrise is always a sight to behold. Worth getting up in the Winter for too, so cold!

“This picture is a lie Colm, it is a falsehood! Clearly that is a picture of a sunset, not a sunrise! I will never read your blog again, it is nothing but a gallery of deception!”

Alright, calm down extremely irritated person who is somehow able to contribute to this blogpost. There’s a really cool reason why I’m showing you this sunset. Because, that’s the last sunset of 2020, and this photo I’m about to show you is the first sunrise of 2021! It was one of my most memorable experiences, seeing the sun shine for the last time on 2020 and for the first time on 2021:

“What tomfoolery is this Colm, that is clearly the eighth sunrise again, which you showed us at the start of this blogpost, I’m never reading your blog again!” Then don’t read my blog again, but for everyone else, I thought you’d appreciate a different picture of this particular sunrise since it was so spectacular.

My third sunrise seen over the ocean, ocean sunrises are just the best, I really like this one, and I’m actually quite lost for words, but in a way, the fact that I don’t have the words to describe how amazing it is in a sense does describe how amazing it is, I’m calling this Colm’s Amazingness Paradox, that’s copyrighted you can’t use it.

The sun takes a first look out at the world, the beginning of the tenth sunrise! Only took seven years, and strangely enough, I saw more sunrises during the pandemic. I’m really happy to achieve this milestone of sunrise viewing (even if it is a milestone based on my bizarre fascination with the number ten.)

So why am I writing all this? To convince others to go out and see it. Seeing the sunrise always turns up on such lists as “10,000 things you must do before the Grim Reaper finds your Eircode) or whatever, but I think the feeling that a sunrise is a worthwhile experience is totally justified. It’s a hard thing to motivate yourself to do, knowing that you’re getting up early, often in the freezing cold, and knowing if the clouds move in it was all for nothing, but witnessing the world slowly waking up, the sky turning from dark to bright, and that first sight of the sun over the distant horizon, it is simply magical. As the sun rises further, it turns the clouds golden or sometimes bizarre psychedelic colours like pink and purple. I think getting up early is a crime against nature, and even I think seeing the sunrise is well worth doing. And if you’re not convinced, here are some more photos of the tenth sunrise: