Sky Paintings

Sunday. I'd spent the day in town with my best friend celebrating her birthday despite torrential rains and thunderstorms. We had a lovely time and the drive home was dicey and slow thanks to standing water, water flowing over roadways, flooding and hail. Pulling into the driveway the sun broke through the clouds, blue skies dimming in the sunset. I ran in to see the family and leashed Baylee for her walk.


I was astonished by the westward clouds. It was as if a horizontal tornado was twisting and turning slowly in the sunset. Dark clouds beneath and above and to the north, this sunset tornado was golden and apricot and saffron in the winds. I ran in to get my camera as the show was beginning to fade. Baylee had to wait.

I'm no meteorologist but this sure looked like some of interesting weather phenomena.

It was as though the clouds themselves were raining particles of themselves as they twisted and turned.

The sunset spotlighted the extravaganza.

This only took about five minutes.

It occurred to me just how like the Eagle Nebula this phenomena appeared to me. Sideways and lighter and closer, but no more amazing and awe-inspiring.


This sight appeared to be so much like those of the Hubble telescope that has captured countless images of cloudy miracles in deep space.

So beautiful. So etherical. So inspiring. I feel so insignificant.

The eastern clouds and storms wanted me to notice them, too.

Downloading and uploading these sights, I'm also reminded of sea creatures - Chambered Nautilis and Sea Sponges, Squid and ocean waves and all many sea creatures Jacques Cousteau never identified in his day but showed us in film.


Sea and Space, Earth and Clouds and Water...all combined under the title "Nature," or "Cosmos" or "Universe." It matters not.


I'm almost without speech when I see these amazing cloud formations. As much as I love trees, and I do, not being able to see the sky's sunrises and sunsets would take away much of my joy.


A friend of mine admonished my blog for being random, but I swear to you I cannot think of one reason to stick to only one subject when there is so much beauty in this world. So random I shall remain and I hope that's okay by you. If not, I'll miss you but shall continue to enjoy the random beauty of this world while I can.

November 10, 2004

The heart of the beast.

I've posted an earlier long shot of this same sunrise. I don't recall when - you'll have to look it up. This particular November morning was clear, windy and frigid. Winds whipped my clothing, reddened my nose and fingers, and made my eyes water. Thank God for automatic focus as I couldn't see when taking the last few (tens of) photos. This is the heart of the sunrise. Looking back at the morning, with the cobalt blue and royal purples high in the sky, and tornadoes of winds and peach and fiery clouds lifting into the heavens, the heart....this deep red beating heart...of the sunrise was a warming force in the gale winds and one I deem favorite in the hundreds of shots of various and sundry sunrises and sunsets.

One day, when I get my head back on straight, I'll go back out and take photos and write pretty prose but tonight is a difficult one. Recently, I purchased John Mayer's "Where the Light Is" CD and have become fixated on his version of Free Falling, penned by another favorite singer and songwriter, Tom Petty. I LOVE John's version. John Mayer brings his own soul into this song and I cannot stop listening to it, and it makes me cry each and every time. Maybe I just need to do that.

How do you rally during the hard times? How do you put the daily crap, or Crap of the Year/Decade, into perspective and go forth and create? For me, today, my heart looks like this red, swirling dervish of nature.

We each have our devils who enter uninvited and unwelcome yet remain for dessert and one feels obligated to serve their best.

November 10, 2004

November 10, 2004 dawned with a vengeance. It was bitterly cold, with a strong wind from the north that cut right through you. There's no friction on the lake, therefore nothing to stop the icy blast except my pitiful excuse for a jacket.

The new condominium wasn't yet completed so I stole to their concrete decking with my Sony Cybershot to watch the show. It was a spectacular sunrise. Swirling clouds looked like tornadoes. The upper level winds must have been tremendous as this morning's play changed acts every few minutes. Deep, bright cobalt sky, violet lake. The Sony did a tremendous job considering it was just a 5.0 megapixel. It was one sweet camera, that Sony.

Flipping through the photos, frame by frame, I'm still amazed at how quickly the skies changed that morning. My hands red, ears aching, I had to leave the lake for the warmth of home and coffee, but it was a "really moment."

January 10, 2008

This is looking southeast across the lake and river channel during another particularly pretty sunset this past January. Interestingly, the sunset to my west was pretty but this view was fascinating. The mauves and pinks of the clouds reflected in the water was exquisite, and the cloud formations really popped. The Giraffe Head Tree was enjoying the show, as you can see.

January 8, 2003

The phones were ringing everywhere. "Are you seeing this sunset?" It was truly one of the more remarkable sunsets I've ever seen in my life. This photo doesn't really do it justice. We hadn't had the Sony Cybershot 5.0 for very long and were just getting started in the world of digital photography. Digital photography has come a long way since 2003.

Normally we cannot see much of sunsets from our house due to the house just west of us that juts into our view. However, this sunset spanned the entire sky from west to east in deep purple, blue, magenta, fuchsia, peach and yellow. The lake waters reflected the symphony of colors adding its own into the mix. It was truly spectacular.