I remember sitting on a beach in Mexico, watching the sunsets every night. How the sun would, in just a few minutes, drop straight down in to the Pacific, sometimes with a green flash, then a few minutes of twilight followed by a velvet sky full of stars.

In Japan I've watched the sun sink in to the Seto Inland Sea (瀬戸内海) as the birds rush across the sky to roost in century old cedars.

But up here, on top of the world, with our white summer nights, the autumn sunsets that follow are even grander and seem to last forever, as the sun tracks slowly across the horizon before dipping, finally, below the trees and mountains.

Our sub-arctic sunsets often extend 360 degrees, all around the horizon orange, red, rose shaded clouds and in the blue vault above, thousands of ducks, geese, cranes, practicing their formations for their soon to be flights south, a few wing beats ahead of winter.

In this chaotic world not only need we remember to stop and smell the flowers, but also sit and enjoy the sunsets, where ever we are!

Watercolor and soft pastel on 5 1/2 by 14 inch Bristol vellum paper.