Halo in the sky, a supernatural glow

Wenlock Edge, Shropshire I resisted the temptation to point at the sky and yell at people to kneel before the vision

A strange glow, a halo, an aura? The sky was so bright I wore sunglasses. After weeks of dishwater grey the light that made me blink found bands of small birds brightening their browns, blues and yellows, making their voices empty like a drawer of silver cutlery tipped out on to the path.

My attention was drawn upward by a tree creeper spiralling an oak trunk through dark branches, up to where the wind shunted clouds about. At first I didn't believe my eyes: the sky bore a splash of mother-of-pearl opalescence, a blur of fairly indistinct rainbow colours of indeterminate shape as if smudged out.