April 2021

Digital painting of a dark grey sky with different shades and shapes of clouds.

April 2nd

We report, today, we took the time to notice the blues, and the greys, and the browns; our heels sinking into the muddy path that kept getting narrower though our destination was neither here nor there, and the drops of ink dissolving into the atmosphere.

Digital painting of an overcast morning sky, bluish greys with yellow undertones. A few white birds are flying high up in the sky.

April 1st

We report a thick layer of nimbostratus praecipitatio in the early morning, a bit after a polar air mass made the atmospheric pressure go for a dive. There has been a light but steady drizzle going on, although it seems to be starting to slow down.

Digital painting of a sunrise sky in orange and purple/blue tones and a few small, wispy clouds.

April 4th

We report: this morning, there were colours that we would rather stay unnamed, for we suspect that it might have made them disappear in between nuances that we could not wrap our minds around. Who was to say, in the first few fistfuls of sunlight, what was periwinkle or peach?

Digital painting of a twilight sky with dark clouds in the lower half, and a small half-moon in the top half.

April 3rd

We report places that are silent and peaceful, but certainly made out of their own fury and ecstasy all the same; it is just all wrapped in their distance and scale, fraught with shadows and ice.

Digital painting of some dark grey clouds mostly blocking the blue sky.

April 5th

We report: there is a human ability to summon kinship to the strangest things; we do indeed find ourselves projecting our own mind onto clouds. The thought of the water cycle, the purpose of fulfilling that cycle, long journeys that always lead back to the sky.

Digital painting of cirrus clouds in a blue sky, bits of it curling back against the wind.

April 7th

We report the nucleation of ice particles in the upper parts of the troposphere, leading to the apparition of cirrus uncinus; or, as we understand it, oh, look at those pretty ice clouds.

Digital painting of a dark blue, almost black starry night sky.

April 6th

We report that we woke up very early this morning, still caught in dreams, and fully intent on going back to sleep. We sleepily walked up to a window, and in those silent hours, the stars felt closer than usual to us, definitely out of reach, but seemingly just barely.

Digital painting of some orange clouds expanding upwards and outwards at sunset.

April 11th

We report: everything we know about the sky rewrites itself every hour. We could never fully capture the way clouds only ever give the best of themselves, the way light takes possession of these immense spaces; we always find ourselves tripping over the pragmatic chaos of it all.

Digital painting of a big stormy cloud curling into itself above a dark greenish sea.

April 8th

We report: the storm sky curled into itself, swallowing in its heart the wind, and the rain, and the electricity that was roaming along from high above. The sea was especially big and dark, mirroring the furious display.

Digital painting of a pink sunrise in the country, fog over the fields and the trees, and small, fluffy purple clouds rising from the horizon in a row.

April 9th

We report chilly mornings at 2°C, low winds but high humidity in the air; frozen fields, and low visibility at the horizon.

Digital painting of a mammatus cloud formation, grey pocket-like clouds hanging from the sky.

April 21st

We report a mammatus formation, which is a phenomenon that is yet to be fully explained and understood. We cannot say that we know more about them than any given person, but we certainly have a consequent admiration for them.

Digital painting of a big cumulus in a dark blue sky, flat and dark at its bottom.

April 10th

We report the slow movement of some cumulus in a clear sky, unconcerned and peaceful; confident that they will reach their destination, wherever that may be.

Digital painting of a grey, rainy type of sky, stringy clouds in various shades of grey.

April 12th

We report that the rain soaked us to the bones, and now that it has ceased, the wind that picked up is raking its icy fingers through our hair, crawling down our spines. We cannot remember how it feels to be warm, and we are fully aware of how dramatic we are being.

Digital painting of a cloudy sky at nightfall, dark blues above the black silhouettes of some trees in the lower left corner of the frame.

April 13th

We report: it is not that we do not know that the night always comes at the end of the day; that is a fact that almost everyone is expected to be aware of. We just get caught by surprise, sometimes. That less rarely happens when the day comes at the end of the night.

Digital painting of a top view of some big, cauliflower-like cumulus in the sunlight, a lot of contrast in the lights and shadows of these clouds.

April 14th

We report that clouds always get the first rays of sunshine, and we do get absurdly jealous of that fact at times.

Digital painting of a sunset or sunrise sky, filled with fluorescent red and dark purple clouds.

April 15th

We report: we feel a certain responsibility to be watching the sky as much as possible, just in case nobody else is watching, and a moment of grace goes unnoticed and unappreciated.

Digital painting of some tiny cirrocumulus, small freckles of clouds clumped together far off in a bright blue sky.

April 16th

We report that the sky holds immensities, but we also know about the tiny things that live there, the particles of dust and ice, and the smallest clouds that we sometimes barely even see. We ourselves in comparison are not too big either, and so we can relate.

Digital painting of a partly cloudy, dark, starry night sky.

April 17th

We report washed-out memories of celestial giants, the bright shadows of worlds so huge and numerous that we can hardly ever register their existence. The clouds tonight are just one more obstacle that stands in between us and those beacons that are millions of light-years away.

Digital painting of an overcast day over the grey sea, white clouds with blue shadows separating them.

April 18th

We report: despite the fact that we have specific calendar dates for when Spring begins and when it ends, we know it to be something far more fickle. What is Spring, if not the combination of all seasons and then some rolled into one? As it happens, today felt more like Autumn.

Digital painting of an orange and yellow sunset above a line of clouds at the horizon, one cloud rising higher than the others and catching the light.

April 19th

We report, on a windy evening, standing on a high hill and squinting against the dry air to catch sight of the slow colour gradient falling behind the horizon. The humidity is condensing in the cold and gripping some of the last lights.

Digital painting of an overcast sky over a green field, a few black birds flying in the sky. There are also a few trees in the distance.

April 20th

We report: certainly, there is something to say for the moment before a thunderstorm, just like there would be for the silence between music notes or the bit of blue that appears before sunrise.

Digital painting of a pink sunrise with bright yellow contrails crossing off the sky. The pink fades into purple at the bottom of the frame.

April 22nd

We report two dashes across the sky crossing off in the middle; same place, different time, and in the end this differed encounter will simply fade away, dissolve and join all other long-gone paths.

Digital painting of a horseshoe-shaped cloud in a bright blue sky.

April 23rd

We report a horseshoe cloud resulting from a horseshoe vortex. We have read up some on this rare phenomenon and have encountered concepts such as "vorticity", the "Kutta–Joukowski theorem", and "inviscid theory", which made us promptly turn away from the encyclopedia.

Digital painting of thin, hair-like cirrus in a blue sky.

April 24th

We report a flurry of cirrocumulus lacunosus, unraveled fibers of ice flowing high and free in the wind.

Digital painting of the tail end of a dark sunset above a town skyline, a gradient in the sky fading from a burnt orange on the horizon to black, higher in the sky.

April 25th

We report a blink-and-you-miss-it moment, in between the full glory of the sunset and the beginning of the night. Not that it was such an important moment that you really had to see it, but it happened, and you might have blinked, in which case you effectively missed it.

Digital painting of a heavy sky with rain in the distance, dark, interlocked wispy clouds.

April 26th

We report: we found some blue in the sky, in the shadows of waterlogged clouds. It was not the blue that we were looking for, but we appreciated it all the same; we don't get to choose what the sky does.

Digital painting of a large cloud in the sunset light, blue in shadows going into orange and yellow where the light hits. The sky is a blue-green.

April 27th

We report, on the coast somewhere: light north-east winds (8 to 11 knots) with moderate choppy seas, very small very short period waves (2 feet at 4 seconds). We are waiting for the tide to come in.

Digital painting of dark grey bands of clouds, with light streaming in between.

April 28th

We report sheets and sheets of altocumulus layered above and under one another, barely letting the light filter through, lingering on immovable and silent for what seems like an eternity of an afternoon.

Digital painting of a foggy morning on the coast, pinkish light filtering through the mist with a few barely visible birds above the calm, grey sea.

April 29th

We report: early in the morning, we got wrapped into the fog as we walked into the water droplets suspended in the air. There were only birds around, as busy as we were idle, watching the light unfold by increments.

Digital painting of big, fluffy cumulus in a bright blue sky. The colours on those clouds vary between whites, grey, and blues in their shadows.

April 30th

We report a windy day with the lofty pursuits of big cumulus in a big sky. We saw some people put their laundry to dry in the breezy air, and we thought about telling them about the oncoming weather variations. We perhaps forgot about it later on.

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May 2021

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March 2021