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Rainbows
Rainbows have been
part of myth and legend since man first walked the earth and are celebrated
today in art, music and literature as a sign of hope and optimism, a place
where bluebirds fly and the skies are always clear. The fens around Bourne
are the perfect place to see them because there is an uninterrupted view
of the skyline whenever they appear.
A rainbow is an optical and meteorological phenomenon that causes a
spectrum of light to appear in the sky when the sun shines on to droplets
of moisture in the earth's atmosphere. It takes the form of a
multicoloured arc, with red on the outer part and violet on the
inner section. A rainbow spans a continuous spectrum of colours, the
distinct bands being an artefact of human colour vision and the most
commonly cited and remembered sequence, in English, is Newton's sevenfold
red, orange, yellow, green, blue, indigo and violet (popularly memorized
by mnemonics like Roy G. Biv). Rainbows can be caused by other forms of
water than rain, including mist, spray, and dew.
When visibility is good, with a dark cloud
behind the rainbow for instance, a second arc can often be seen with
an inverse order of colours but with the background of a blue sky, the second
arc is barely visible.
The most spectacular rainbow displays happen when half the sky is still
dark with raining clouds and the observer is at a spot with clear sky in
the direction of the sun. The result is a luminous rainbow that contrasts
with the darkened background and this is a frequent weather phenomenon in
the fens around Bourne and all of the photographs shown here were taken
from my study overlooking the fields between the north of the town and
Dyke village.
Mystery and mystique of nature surround the appearance of a rainbow owing
to its beauty and the historical difficulty in explaining the phenomenon.
Although a rainbow appears to be close, it proves to be elusive, receding
as you approach because it does not actually exist at any particular
location in the sky, thus disproving the legend of the rainbow's end and
the promise of a pot of gold.
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