Lonely Cloud

Taken at lunchtime just a few days ago, this cloud photo captures what was, for quite a while, the only cloud visible in an otherwise clear, blue, late March sky.

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While clear skies are, no doubt, good news for those of us with pressing outdoor chores to attend to, acres and acres of uninterrupted blue celestial real estate don't, as a rule, make for interesting sky pictures. In fact, they're almost as unphotogenic as the wall-to-wall dull grey rain clouds that have been so common here lately.

This solitary specimen stood out against the empty sky, a vaguely symmetrical illustration of delicate-looking water vapour, adrift in a sea of blue, and was quickly earmarked as potential cloud picture material. And here it is!

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Contrail Dawn

Today's post probably doesn't qualify as a sunrise picture since it was taken a little while before sunrise on a March morning in very early spring - note the outlines of new leaf buds on the silhouetted tree branches at the top of the picture.

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The red light in the distant clouds shades gently to pink and then up to a delicate blue above the distant trees, contrasting nicely with the silvery chalk-mark of an early morning contrail heading into the new day. Even without the sun itself, the returning daylight paints a striking picture of light sky and dark outlines that caught my eye while I was waiting for the main event (sunrise).

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Fluffy Clouds

This cloud image was taken yesterday lunchtime, as great wads of white clouds drifted around the mid-day sun and filled a sizeable part of the deep blue sky with intricate structures.

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I was struck by the way the light fell upon the large mass of clouds at the bottom of the picture, clearly highlighting the contours of its surface and the delicate patterns around the perimeter. The towering peaks and deep valleys of the cloud's surface are shown to have a surface as insubstantial as the outer edges - hardly surprising as, from another perspective, they are the outer edges, and, in any event, the cloud is nothing more than drifting, billowing water vapour. Even so, it remains a thing of (natural) beauty!

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Sunset

Today's sunset picture almost didn't happen at all. The sky has been a relatively monotonous and uninspiring dull grey for a couple of days, and, according to the weather forecast, that wasn't about to change before tomorrow. The break in the clouds that showed up at sunset this afternoon was, therefore, unexpected, and, had I not been out and about snapping pics for another blog, I wouldn't have been in a position to capture this rather pretty sunset photo.

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The sun had already sunk beneath the horizon-hugging clouds, illuminating the smaller, flimsy-looking clouds (and the remains of several contrails) from below with a golden light. The light show, and the delicate clouds, made a brilliant end to an otherwise dreary day.

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Sunrise

Sun rise pictures are something of a rarity on these pages, not least because, by definition, they happen early in the morning, and I'm not one of life's morning people - when it comes to pictures of sunsets and sunrises, I'm far more likely to take the former than the latter! But sometimes mornings are unavoidable, and when that coincides with the right conditions, we get images like this:

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This sunrise picture was taken on a cold, largely clear morning in early March, as the sun crept above the layer cloud beyond the distant hills. The dark outlines of leafless trees serve to frame the burst of brilliant colours on the horizon, filling the sky with yellows, golds, pinks and blues. If they're all like this, maybe I should try to see more sunrises!

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Cloudy Sky

One more shot from the batch of cloud pictures I've been posting for the past couple of days, this time showing a wider view of the sky - doesn't it look busy, packed with swirling, disintegrating rain clouds as far as the eye can see?

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As the clouds scuttled across the sky, driven by a strong, cold wind, they inevitably began to form seemingly-recognisable shapes. A quick glance at this photo shows a dog, something that might become a stegosaurus and the wraith-like, ghostly image of a pale face peering down from the dark clouds. If pictures in the clouds are your thing, maybe you can spot some more!

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Breaking Clouds

This cloud pic was taken a few minutes after the photo in yesterday's post, showing a clear patch of blue sky surrounded by angry-looking rain clouds.

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The "silver lining" around dark cloud towards the bottom of the image, and the light, high altitude clouds visible high above the stormy formations, hint at fine weather to come after the stiff breeze has blown these rain clouds away. This sky picture just goes to show that there's a lot more going on in the sky than is necessarily visible above our heads - layers of complex natural beauty reach all the way to the edge of space, and beyond!

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Rain Clouds

Yesterday was cold, wet and windy. Early rain gave way to gloomy skies by midday, and early afternoon saw the dark rain clouds breaking up in the high winds to reveal blue sky, weak sunlight and occasional glimpses of wispy high altitude clouds.

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This cloud picture is one of several I'll be posting over the next few days, taken as the wind-blown clouds scuttled across the sky, forming and reforming into dramatic patterns that threatened to renew the morning's deluge.

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Sunset Drive

This sunset picture was taken just a couple of days ago - the first opportunity I've had to see a proper sunset for quite a while. The sky was almost completely clear, shading from red around the setting sun up through copper and down into a beautiful deep blue at the opposite horizon.

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The clear sky contrasted nicely with the congested road, as the evening drive ground to a halt for commuters chasing the sunset out of town. Unfortunately for them, the tailback lasted much longer than the sunset - they were still queuing long after the sun had dropped behind the distant trees.

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Ring of Clouds

Early one sunny afternoon in late February, I spotted this ring-like formation of fluffy white clouds drifting almost directly overheard. The unusual shape, together with the delicate details clearly visible around the edges of the larger clouds made it a prime cloud picture candidate.

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Even though the clouds are the star of this particular photo, the blue sky in and around them - and even peeking through them in places - is hard to ignore, recreating the impression of cold, clear afternoon in late winter. Well, I thought so, anyway!

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Clouds in the Trees

Snapped at sunset on a cold and damp February afternoon, the clouds in this pic seem to be hanging so low in the sky as to be sitting right on top of the bare trees. Their upper peaks catch the dying rays of the winter's sun, contrasting nicely with the blue sky and their own shadowy depths.

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Yet more rain was a definite option from these clouds, and it wasn't long before they delivered on the promise"

Contrails Y

More contrails in today's sky picture, this time crossing in a Y shaped formation that reminds me of graffiti scrawled onto the natural artwork displayed on the sky's infinite canvas. Not that I have anything against contrails as such - they're capable of forming strikingly beautiful patterns in their own right.

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But, in this case, the contrails serve only to detract from the delicate cloud formation that was going to be today's picture of clouds in the sky. Ah well, better luck tomorrow!

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Ship of Clouds

A mid-day cloud image for today's sky picture. This wad of fluffy-looking vapour put me in mind of a stately ship of the heavens, drifting sedately through the beautifully clear blue sky. The triple peaks at the top of the cloud make convincing sails, and a hint of prow and stern at the ends complete the impression.

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Unusually, the subject of this cloud photo sailed alone amongst a background of far less substantial clouds, rather than being part of a larger fleet, which is probably what caught my attention in the first place.

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