April 2024

Digital painting of a cloudy, twilight sky, dark but vibrant blue. The blue is solid in the background, with some darker clouds standing out here and there, and a few much lighter, voluminous clouds in the lower tier of the frame.

April 2nd

We report, tonight, from the depths of soggy darkness. It is a day for night set out here, the clouds are practically shining in the sub-horizon light. Our expert talks at length about the Purkinje effect, the fact that the colour our human eyes see best in low light is blue.

Digital painting of some grey clouds, some very pale, some quite dark, interlocked in a light blue sky. The light is catching a few specific spots, tinting them a pale yellow. The shapes are bulbous, or wispy in other places. The clouds are large.

April 1st

We report: oh the messiness, oh the inconvenience of beautiful weather. We could leave it be, go through our days without care for what the sky is doing. The intricacies, after all, do not matter in the grand scheme of things. But, truth is, we abandon everything for a nice cloud.

Digital painting of a bright blue sky with white clouds, blurry at their edges, fluffy, soft-looking.

April 4th

We report: the clouds are masquerading as soft and sweet, summery even, but do not fall for their treacherous appearance. In a few moments, when the blue sky has your trust, it will start raining again. Curtains of rain, a bucketful, right on your head, when you least expect it.

Digital painting of a sunrise sky, purple-grey clouds in a pale blue sky. The lower right corner is a bright, bright orange-pink that lightly tints everything a little bit pink.

April 3rd

We report: early in April, we can already feel the visceral pull of deep spring. The roots and the leaves, the wet earth and the wriggling worms, and the bumblebees. At dawn, the horizon is set ablaze, and the world comes up to a roar - might as well see how bright it gets.

Digital painting of a pale grey, cloudy sky, above an expanse of tall green grass.

April 5th

We report: we are teetering on the edge of full-on rain. How shall we declare the presence of rain? Drops per minute? If so, we count a mere five that we can feel on the back of our hand. The wind shimmers with sharp icy teeth. It gets into our shirt, and bites our ankles.

Digital painting of a sunset sky: big, dark blue clouds with a band of light yellow sky underneath. In that band, there are peach and orange-coloured clouds, and rain falling in the distance.

April 7th

We report: it all ends with diaphanous sunshine, streaming in underneath clouds that sit solid and heavy. It was raining earlier, and we can see it will rain some more - nothing that our expert would be impressed with, but the horizon is rain-wrapped, and the wind blows our way.

Digital painting of a starry night sky, deep dark blue with some small, grey clouds peppered across the frame.

April 6th

We report about the wind that has only gotten stronger through the night. There are all those different folds to the wind that we cannot usually hear quite as well. We can barely see a thing, but there is a deep rumble coming from the ground, sending vibrations through our feet.

Digital painting of a pale pink sunrise sky, with lilac clouds gathered at the bottom of the frame, also catching the pink light.

April 11th

We report: every morning around this time, as we lie in bed, we hear someone walk down the street in high heels. Their pace is always about the same, fast but not quite urgent. These days, the sun rises at the same time; barely awake, pink light streaming in, high heels clicking.

Digital painting of a blue sky covered in tiny, wispy clouds that form complex shapes in their winding paths.

April 8th

We report about the loveliest, kindest paths in the sky that unfurl easily over long moments. They are weak and fragile, yet they stay. We watch them remain still, way up there, while everything moves under them. Then, they start diluting slowly, washed over in the sunshine.

Digital painting of a mammatus formation, large, dark grey clouds shaped like pockets. They are precisely outlined in the sky. There is a plane flying very high up in the lower right corner of the frame.

April 9th

We report: the sky has welled up in strange tears. We only saw them because we are always looking for odd shapes in the clouds; these slightly ominous ones faded in and out of the grey quite gracefully. The rain picked up again once they were out of sight, carried by the wind.

Digital painting of an early morning sky, traces of yellow and orange at the bottom of the frame. There are many clouds in different shades of grey, from bluish to yellowish in the lighter parts. The bits of blue sky are very pale.

April 21st

We report: quite early, we are taking a look at the weather for the first time today. It seems that much time has been spent stacking clouds over the night, some sort of misshapen pile of grey that could topple over at any point. We do not know how we are to sort this out.

Digital painting of a deep dark blue sky with a single star, and the black silhouettes of mostly bare branches in the foreground.

April 10th

We report in recent news about our night sky: lately, it is Capella that we see through our window after sun down. For this reason, we would like to personally congratulate Capella. Great job being one of our regulars, Capella! You are doing your constellation (Auriga) proud.

Digital painting of a blue sky covered in contrails, closer together towards the bottom of the frame. The trails are all white, thin, straight lines crossing one another. There is a gull in the lower right corner of the frame.

April 12th

We report in the company of gulls and their snide shrieks: warmest day of the year so far for us and our expert. The sky is full of contrails. They endure the wind, remain unmoving, but become gossamer-thin in time. They all, eventually, fade back into the sky.

Digital painting of a light grey sky full of wispy, dark grey clouds.

April 13th

We report: the sky was a uniform, light grey all afternoon, and it rained throughout, fat, heavy drops. These clouds come after the rain. Smoky, sooty little things that hasten across the sky while our sodden trousers slowly dry. The flowers drop low to the ground, full of rain.

Digital painting of a cloudy twilight sky, with hints of dark blue, red, yellow and orange coming through.

April 14th

We report between one breath and the next: colours are not burnt out yet, there are a handful lying around there. In just a beat, the day will have been consumed, down to the very last bit of candlewick. We are trying to cram all our hopes and dreams into that last second.

Digital painting: this is a sunset or a sunrise sky, bright orange and faded grey clouds revealing bits of yellow above them. The clouds are soft at their edges, but sharp in their shapes.

April 15th

We report: our expert has been experience hay fever, and their eyes and nose are running running running all the time. We bring them tissues and try not to bless them every time they sneeze. The flowers rushed to bloom these past weeks, as though some were scared of being last.

Digital painting: a tiny, waxing crescent moon in the blue sky, among white clouds of different shapes and sizes.

April 16th

We report about our moon in broad daylight. We heard something interesting happened with the moon recently. Our expert told us that it barged into the sky, and caused a bit of a ruckus. We can relate; last week, we accidentally slammed a door in the middle of the night. Awkward!

Digital painting of a voluminous cloud taking up most of the frame, white on top, and dark grey underneath, with a bit of rainbow in the lower left corner. There are some small, light grey clouds standing out against the darkness.

April 17th

We report: even the rainbow seems a little washed-out in this rain. This cumulonimbus has been maturing over a long time, and there is finally some precipitation that we can see. It has been long enough, in fact, that we have managed to put some distance between the storm and us.

Digital painting of a twilight sky, a gradient from blue to green. There are dark silhouettes of a roof, some cables, and some small birds in flight.

April 18th

We report about the green sky before the sun rose this morning. All the sparrows in the hedges have been emboldened by the spring, these days; louder than ever, they will not flee even when we walk a little too close to them. The swallows, however, still give us a wide berth.

Digital painting: a cloudy sky at sunset, lit bright pink, with purple in the shadows.

April 19th

We report: we were having a pleasant walk at sunset, lovely, even. Around the time we started to lose light, we tripped on a rock and scraped our knee. Nothing too bad; the walk remained quite nice, and we got a fashionable rip on our trousers, plus a little blood on our sock.

Digital painting: some yellow-tinted clouds in a pale blue sky, shaped like curtains, moving sideways in the wind.

April 20th

We report after a silent storm, the air remains confused, all jumbled up. Cold air is descending, the wind is twisting up and sideways, and there is a bit of rain, but only in very specific spots. The light wanes on us as a signal to wrap it all up. Let us settle down now.

Digital painting of a night sky, dark grey with shades of purple, covered in many, many stars. There is some foliage blocking part of the frame.

April 22nd

We report after staying alone in the dark for too long: it is a nice thought that after the Sun burns out, so many of those stars will be left. So that the small handful of minerals that is in our ribcage and our teeth and nails may yet be part of something else, in a long time.

Digital painting of a sunset scene: the orange sun skims the horizon, right at the centre of the frame, among the trees. There is a wide open field with a flimsy wire fence in the foreground. The pale sky is mostly clear, slightly misty.

April 23rd

We report: the sun is falling down, but it is all going to be alright. It is going to get colder, but it will be alright. And the shade grows to take our shoulders and our neck, but we will be fine when our head disappears too. Ah, but in our sleep, we will dream of the sun.

Digital painting of a bright blue sky with some white clouds, one of which, a cumulus, is a bit taller than wide, slightly bubbling outwards.

April 24th

We report about a curiously vertical cumulus shooting out for the heights of the atmosphere. We are suspecting a certain amount of humid, warm air that is pushing up the steam. It is well on its way to becoming a cumulus congestus, if it keeps developing this way.

Digital painting of the sky: small, grey, swirly clouds are intertwined in complex shapes. There is a lot of contrast going on in the shades of grey.

April 25th

We report: we are having trouble making sense of the clouds today. Whenever we attempt to follow a swirl, the way it bends hurts our eyes, and we lose track of the shapes. The barometer has had a significant drop; we blame it for any strange behaviour we might witness.

Digital painting of a dusk sky, early morning. It is a middle shade of blue, not quite dark but deep, with wispy, dark grey clouds. There is a small gibbous moon, yellow, in the top right corner of the frame.

April 26th

We report in the last dregs of the night: this waning gibbous moon is making its way down to the horizon, while we painfully attempt to make our way up. Half of the city is awake and busy - we would not mind belonging to the second half for a little while longer, asleep and idle.

Digital painting of a pastel sunset sky, light blue with a stripe of pink, and blue-grey clouds lining the horizon. There are some trees peeking out from the lower left corner, way in the distance, and a solitary black bird flying high.

April 27th

We report: evening, a drizzle. Even through the light rain, this sunset seems remarkably late in the day, now that April is coming to a close. The clouds are pooling overhead, but many parts of the sky remain clear. A blackbird hops around, cheerful trills in the dying light.

Digital painting: a blue sky, gradient from dark to light, some white clouds with ragged edges catching the sun.

April 28th

We report in the sun: it is certainly not warm enough that we feel it through our clothes, but we can feel the sunshine on our face. We stand there, our eyes closed, facing the sun. It is bright crimson, and we can hear the new foliage swaying, whispers in the spring breeze.

Digital painting: a seascape. The ocean is calm, dark grey. The sky is clouded over, save for a tiny bit of blue in between some distant clouds. There is some land on the horizon, and the sun seems to reach down for it, through curtains of rain.

April 29th

We report: it is loudly raining at the moment, and the sea is a large sounding board for it. The shower seems very local, as the coast on the horizon is enjoying the sunshine while we are drowning in open air. We need to shout to be understood by our expert, much to their dismay.

Digital painting of a twilight sky filled with long, thick, dark blue clouds, with the dark silhouette of a utility pole appearing in the frame.

April 30th

We report about our daily devastation, each time our favourite, the blue hour, the inkwell that spills over the whole sky. The wind changes, and it rains a little bit, but it is not cold. We face darkness once more, and the sky is starved for lost light, still, always.

Next

March 2024