On Tuesdays and Thursdays, I post a picture and just a few words.
Not the dark, gray, rainy sort that cover the whole sky and block the sun. I could do without those almost entirely.
(Which is why I will probably never live in the Pacific Northwest. Or in England.)
But fluffy clouds and thin wispy clouds and the seemingly endless other sorts that appear on sunny days? I never get tired of staring at them.
Often, viewing beautiful things requires work or travel or a purchase, but we don’t have to do, buy, or make anything in order to have the pleasure of looking at the clouds…they’re there for anyone and everyone to enjoy, anywhere on earth.
All you have to do is look up.
P.S. Did you know that clouds weigh, on average, 1.1 million pounds? My mind was quite blown when I learned that.
Stephanie
Thursday 22nd of May 2014
My partner loves clouds and skies too (and ducks). He's a professional photographer and recently worked on a project with a friend who is also a photographer. His friend is in Paris - France and my partner is in Darwin - Australia. They each photographed the sky daily for 1 year with their smart phones and created this book of their project.
http://www.blurb.com/b/5108567-sky-ciel-two-countries-deux-pays
You can preview their photographs on the book link without buying it.
At the moment their photographs are showing in a public government art gallery in Darwin on a DVD in a darkened cool room and we hope to have it showing in Paris soon too. It's very calming to sit in that room and let the photos of the sky take over.
As a busy, working and frugal mum (and neighbour to 3 kids with a struggling single dad) I don't spend enough time lying in the grass or sand just watching the clouds roll by as i did as a teen. I think this weekend I might treat myself to doing just that even if it's just 15 minutes - a bit of vitamin D and a bit of cloud calming.
This is me… 7.5 years ago. (Click on the image called My Pregnant Wife). I only learnt after the fact that I was hanging grumpily in the National Gallery of Australia. Friends had their photo taken in the gallery in front of the image to my mixed reaction - I now like it that I'm a grumpy star; age and child has made me crazier :)
http://www.portrait.gov.au/exhibit/NPPP/photos.php?startat=48
Melissa
Tuesday 13th of May 2014
We have clouds like that in the Pacific NW. I live in the desert of southeastern Washington :) I agree--I never tire of looking at them.
Kristen
Wednesday 14th of May 2014
Oh, I didn't mean that the Pacific Northwest had no beautiful clouds. I just meant that I would have a hard time dealing with the rainy cloud cover that happens in the winter. :)
Sarah
Tuesday 13th of May 2014
That's how I feel about trees. They're simple, cheap beauty :)
janknitz
Tuesday 13th of May 2014
Northern California (North Bay Area) gets cloudy and foggy and I LOVE it! Those beautiful, sunny, cloudless days are HOT (can get over 100 degrees) and we have NO air conditioning. Clouds and fog = free air conditioning. I'm always so happy to see the clouds after a few miserably hot days (like today!).
There's something beautiful about the light on an overcast day. I wish I knew how to photograph or pain the beauty it reveals.
janknitz
Tuesday 13th of May 2014
paint!
Aubrey
Tuesday 13th of May 2014
Unless you live in CA and don't get to see a single white wisp of a cloud for six months straight (single tear).
I know everyone thinks CA is great--"All that sunshine!"--but perpetually sunny skies can get very dull (also: all the plants die. for Californians, the grass literally is always greener on the other side). I travel out of state and completely lose my mind over how beautiful the skies are when they have clouds!
Kristen
Tuesday 13th of May 2014
Mr. FG and I visited CA a few years ago, and after living on the lush East Coast for all my life, I have to say that I found southern CA to be really brown. I mean, there are leaves and all, but even the green leaves are sort of a greenish brown. I liked it better up in mid-CA, like in Big Sur and in the Sequoia forests. The green there was much more like what I'm used to!