The Sun Loses the Battle

4:00pm It's what I call grainy light. The kind where you squint a little and you can see bits moving about, making up the picture.
The lights are nearly all lit. The ones that were stubborn in turning off this morning are now the ones clinging onto the daylight.
4:08pm The ducks are on the path again, possibly a hundred of more birds. I wonder if this is 'something they do'. Every morning and evening do they all fill the path with their noisy laughter? It's possible...
4:11pm All but one lamp is now lit. A few of them are that bright neon red, still warming up to the orange.
4:12pm The final lamp is lit. The lamps have now decided that it's almost dark, only the sky is left to catch up.
4:15pm People have now started to put their lights on. Bicycles glowing in the torch light, faces illuminated by neon jackets.
4:17pm I can see a light on the other side of the Common. I can't tell what it is from here. Maybe another lamppost. It's the same orange glow.
4:20pm The birds are growing noisy. The crows and magpies are settling down for the night, the ducks are being terrorised by a dog that has just leapt into the boating lake.
4:23pm The trees on the path leading towards The Avenue are twinkling with the car headlamps that are passing them. Glimpsing a light through the branches makes them look like they're on fire.
4:26pm It is now officially sunset. Not that dark though, just getting grainier and orangier
4:28pm Realise I've been sat next to a glove.
4:31pm The ducks have filed onto the path again. It's as though they try to reclaim areas of the Common throughout the day.
4:32pm A safety conscious dog has just trotted past wearing a flashing red LED collar.
4:33pm Over the last 5 minutes, it has got considerably darker and the sky greyer and pinker. The trees that have already lost their leaves are sharply silhouetted against the skyline.
4:37pm The graininess in the air is now almost filling my eyes. It feels strange. As though someone has blocked them. I can almost physically feel it.
4:41pm It's now almost totally dark. I can only see the paper in front of me because of the street lamps The orange hue that I am so much a fan of is now making everything brown. Except my shadow, which is pink. The orange haze over the tops of the trees tells that there are other street lamps out there. Other people with pink shadows.

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