August 2024

Digital painting of a blue sky with a variety of clouds there: some cirrus, and some altocumulus, an agglomerate of tiny clouds fanning out in the sky.

August 2nd

We report about the first days of August: we have not yet been able to grasp the colour of this summer. The weather is moving through the shades one by one, with little care for what our expert thinks it should look like. Now that August is here, we only want to keep watching.

Digital painting of a sunrise sky in pastel colours: a pale blue, covered in pink and lilac cirrus. There is a bird, flying near the middle of the frame.

August 1st

We report: we have kept an eye on the sunrise through each of its phases, from the darkest shade of blue to our burning retina in the sunshine. This feels like a hot day in the making already - everyone knows it. Our expert is still asleep, but they know it. It is in the smell.

Digital painting of the night sky: dark grey clouds are arranged around a hole that let some stars shine. There is a falling star right in the middle of the black sky.

August 4th

We report under the sightless new moon: at times, the heat of the day is more than the night can bear, and the clouds pool in the darkness. We found a small interstice, enough for a handful of stars to appear. It is a perfect frame for a piece of the Perseid shower to fall into.

Digital painting of a bluish-grey sky covered in tortuous dark grey clouds, spiralling tendrils of steam winding all over the frame.

August 3rd

We report: early evening, and we think we somehow lost the sunset in the rain. Our expert confided that they were excited for autumn to come, and we said something along the lines of "Come on, it is the middle of summer still!". Secretly, we very much agree. The rain is lukewarm.

Digital painting of a bright sunset sky, long, flat, orange clouds that are bright yellow underneath in a pale blue sky that turns into a peach tone above the horizon.

August 5th

We report: there is an intimacy to observing someone watching a sunset. Our expert's eyes track a bird, and then trace each bright cirrus that catches the light. Their gaze often comes back to the same details, as though they had trouble looking away. We look at their eyes.

Digital painting of a cloudy sky: the clouds are dark, with yellow undertones, silver where some light hits them. They are heavy and voluminous.

August 7th

We report: this day follows a week of unrelenting heat. It has been muggy, hot air trapped under the clouds without much wind to speak of. It seems that we have reached a point where the atmosphere is saturated with humidity, though, and the clouds have changed - darker, heavier.

Digital painting of some long, thin, bouncy white clouds in a pale blue sky. Everything looks a little bit washed out.

August 6th

We report about a day of August dripping with sunshine. The clouds parade through the sky like a rehearsed number. The blue of the sky is pale and tired, having withstood the passages of many clouds in the heat of the afternoon. The sweat burns our eyes when we look up.

Digital painting of a cloudy sky, a dark grey, messy mass of steam with rain falling underneath, and straggly edges in some places. There are some off-white clouds in the distance, against a completely washed out sky.

August 11th

We report: one more in a series of storms, this one we see from a respectable distance, and it never comes any closer. A long sigh, inevitable, drawn out. There is no tension in the way the clouds gather and darken. The rain evaporates in the air long before reaching the ground.

Digital painting of a dark purple night sky with lightning bolts all over the left-hand side of the frame. There is a darker cloud from which the storm seems to burst out in that lower left corner.

August 8th

We report a dry storm - so far. Lightning shoots in the warm air, sizzling in a few places at once, and the rain does not come - yet. When thunder growls, we think the clouds will give too, if the sky opens like this, then surely the rain... Not yet. The air is full of static.

Digital painting of a sunrise sky, a pale blue with brink pink tones in the wispy clouds. The lower, thicker clouds are mostly grey.

August 9th

We report: the rain fell for a long time yesterday, and even through most of the night. The temperature dropped as the heat fell into the gutter with the rain, and this morning, the sunrise is happening through a slight fog. We keep blinking to try and see more clearly.

Digital painting of a sunset sky, massive orange clouds that turn golden in the light at the top of the frame. The shade is a purple grey, behind and underneath the clouds.

August 21st

We report: August is on its last legs, and the days are messy, dusty, rusty, and the air weighs more and more with each passing moment. There is dry grass in the puddles that today's shower left behind. The light exhausts itself in sunsets, stretching the evening thin.

Digital painting of some tall clouds in the blue sky, with smaller grey clouds scattered across the frame.

August 10th

We report a lot of wind this afternoon. It is picking up a lot of dust, lifting warm air off the ground, and pushing the clouds upwards. It was supposed to be a hot day, and it is; but the wind is making it light and easy, instead of the heavy mugginess we had been worried about.

Digital painting of a cloudy sky around dawn, dark purple clouds and pink ones above, all at different altitudes.

August 12th

We report: this morning sparkles in suspended water. The humidity has trapped both the chill and the heat, and we step around shallow puddles while wondering whether the mist is rain instead. There is no answer to be had; we, as always, struggle to fully wake up.

Digital painting of some dark blue-purple clouds behind which the sun is setting, casting bright orange light all over the sky.

August 13th

We report: the darling light of the day briefly glows brighter before it vanishes. We watch the evening slip through our fingers, and we breathe in the silence. We forgot that the sunset would come earlier than it used to; there is a little bit of sorrow in that, just a bit.

Digital painting of the sky: blue, filled with wispy white clouds. They are slightly bowed in the sky, creating a bit of a strange and unfamiliar shape.

August 14th

We report while the barometer is suffering a sudden drop: the clouds are behaving in a slightly odd way. We have met our new friend the storm chaser at the edge of a field. No oncoming storm, but he stood with our expert and us as we looked up, a bit puzzled with the bent clouds.

Digital painting of some wavy, dark grey-blue clouds, laid out in a way that looks a little bit like the surface of the ocean from underneath. The lighting suggests dusk.

August 15th

We report: we stayed up late talking with our expert, last night. It is now morning, a few paces before sunrise, and we got woken up by the wood shutters slamming against the wall in the wind. The sky looks like mercury, slicks of liquid clouds laid out from east to west.

Digital painting of a dark blue night sky, with a few clouds of a lighter blue shade, and a few stars scattered across the sky.

August 16th

We report: the rain only cleared out after dark. It felt like an ocean and then a lake's worth of water had dropped on us that day. And though the clouds are sparse now, the stars still look teary-eyed up there. The wind shakes the trees, and it almost sounds like rain again.

Digital painting of a bright pink-orange cloud in a dark brown sky. At the top edge of the cloud, where it is fading into the sky, there is a slight green tint running along.

August 17th

We report about a shimmer we saw on the tip of a cloud. The sun was just about done with this day, and we were going home when we looked up one last time. The touch of green caught our attention, subtle but out of place. It was gone by the time we got our expert to take a look.

August 18th

We report: it is nearing noon, the sun is getting high, but the heat is not quite following. The breeze carrying from the sea feels cool on our neck, and it comes to disturb the sand whenever it starts to warm up. Stratocumulus are slowly starting to appear on the horizon.

Digital painting of a cloudy sky, dark blue in the top half on the frame, transitioning towards a light grey in a gradient. The clouds are dramatic and turbulent.

August 19th

We report in the middle of the day - yes, it was daytime, but suddenly it is nighttime, or at least, it feels like it. The clouds took over the sky in a few minutes. The darkness settled in, and now, utter silence. Something is about to happen, it is on the tip of our tongue.

Digital painting of a twilight sky, a gradient of muted lilac to grey-blue. There is a field and a line of trees in the distance, and a round, white moon in the sky.

August 20th

We report about the moonrise at dusk. There has been time enough since sunset for the leftovers of the day to grow cold and brittle. Invisible clouds are drifting under the half-light, muddying the outline of the moon. Our expert muses about fog as the horizon turns grey.

Digital painting of a blue sky filled with large, voluminous clouds in various shades of white and grey.

August 22nd

We report: the clouds are new and shiny after the rain, the blue of the sky is squeaky clean in a way we had not seen for a few days. It could rain again soon, probably, judging from the look on our expert's face. The wind feels wonderful; there is no other way to put it.

Digital painting of a cloudy sky, one dark grey cloud on a light grey background. The cloud is large in the frame, with shredded edges. There is a gull flying towards the top right corner of the frame.

August 23rd

We report about this one cloud today, moving like a fish in deep water. We have been paying attention to it for some time; it looks rather low in altitude, has changed shapes so many times as to make us think about the ship of Theseus. We wave it goodbye as we lose sight of it.

Digital painting of a dark blue dusk sky half filled with ink-dark clouds bleeding into purple. Their edges are wool-like, torn up in the wind.

August 24th

We report: there was that autumn wind this morning, just that little bit sharper, that made it a little bit more difficult to get warm once we got inside. Our expert pretended that they had made too much tea by mistake. Later on, we watched the sunrise together.

Digital painting of a sunset sky: the sun appears through clouds, giving it a fuzzy, oblong shape. Above the sun, a long purple-blue cloud. The light is orange, and all the colours are rather muted.

August 25th

We report about this evening: there was a series of back-to-back sunsets tonight. We said goodbye to the sun for good a few times, but then the clouds would rearrange, over and over again, revealing more sun. We stayed out well past the nautical twilight, just to make sure.

Digital painting of a blue sky filled with semi-transparent, long, fluffy clouds. A half moon sits among the clouds.

August 26th

We report: noon, the moon is still high in the sky. This is the last quarter, even though we were rather certain that the full moon was only two days ago. Our expert had to show us a calendar, and explain time to us for a little bit. The temperature is back up after a short dip.

August 27th

We report on a drizzly morning at sea: we have been combating a persistent seasickness with little to no success. When the waves get gentler, we manage to get a better look at the coast. There is a northern gannet circling the boat from afar, looking for the right moment to dive.

August 28th

We report: it smells like dry ferns in the undergrowth even as the humidity is beginning to permeate the air. Our shoes are covered in dust, and full of pebbles. Our expert is whispering for fear of spooking some bats. We do not recall ever seeing bats in this place.

Digital painting of a dusk sky, covered in a large dark blue and purple cloud against which smaller, bright pink clouds detach.

August 29th

We report: from way down below the horizon, the sun still projects precious few rays high up the sky. The clouds all start to blend into the atmosphere, featureless patches of grey and blue while dusk moves in. The highway traffic in the distance sounds different in the dark.

Digital painting of a bright blue sky covered in intricate cirrus, delicate white clouds describing odd shapes.

August 30th

We report: we have opened two windows in opposite directions of the house, and it has created a draft. Just a breeze at first that got the curtains to sway, but now it is nothing short of a gust blowing through the rooms. As usual, we cannot bring ourselves to close the windows.

Digital painting of a grey, cloudy sky, where sun rays are cleanly cutting through crevices, creating patterns and shadows.

August 31st

We report on the last day of August: the sky is being overtaken at a sluggish pace. There was first a veil that thickened through the morning, and now, in the afternoon, the hills on the horizon are being washed away by the clouds. We see the path of rain over there.

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