out of the blue

There's something about the time between afternoon and night that enraptures the imagination. The sun hangs low on the horizon and the stars are fast approaching, making this a time of neither's dominion, but rather a strange mixture of the two. The clouds cast off their daytime cloaks, and don radiant gowns for the evening festivities. Out come all sorts of mystical creatures from the edges of the night to glory in the dying sun. The pheonix spreads her wings, and the fire streaks across the sky to be captured in the edges of the clouds and the arching rainbows as the rain imprisons her flame. Today, five rainbows arched across the sky. The mother, followed by her three small ones, flew across one next to another in brilliance, as her lover hung back, in his dimmer more subtle plumage. I've never seen the whole family arrayed so, and it did my heart good. Beauty still lives in the world.