January 2025

Digital painting of a light grey, cloudy sky, with wide brushstrokes of a darker grey haphazardly placed in the frame. There is a stripe of light in the bottom right corner of the frame.

January 2nd

We report: it ought to be an interesting life, we think, to be a cloud. Half a ghost, only somewhat tangible. A nebulous presence that may sometimes rub shoulders with birds and planes, with a chance to contribute to some sort of precipitation at some point or another.

Digital painting of a blue sky, filled with twirly, wispy, translucent white clouds.

January 1st

We report on the first day of the year: it seems the weather is all over the place already, perhaps as a way to avoid blank page syndrome. Still early in the day, and we have seen fog, and rain, and wind. Now the sky is just beginning to clear, a spot of sunshine in the cold.

January 4th

We report: the sunset is pressing down on us with all of its might this evening, insisting we pay attention; as though we are not always looking, even just from the corner of our eye. Once we are watching with our full field of view, it all goes very quick, over within minutes.

Digital painting of a dark, early sunrise sky. There is bright orange light colouring the bottom half of the frame, but then, the clouds are a dark purple, almost black, long, and clumped together, covering most of the sky.

January 3rd

We report while the sky is taking on colour: we have dreamed a lot last night, several days' worth of living in dreams. As we are waking up, we are attempting to remember what the weather was like in our sleeping mind. Quite chilly, we think. On the bluer side, a little muted.

Digital painting of a bright blue sky filled with cirrus of all kinds of swirly, twisted shapes, entangled with one another.

January 5th

We report as the wind is picking up: if we listen closely, we think we can hear the waves up there. The weather is changing, a taste of storm that carries from afar. We are taking a dive for cold waters, and we are watching the birds attempting to stay afloat.

Digital painting of the dark blue night sky, a yellow half moon casting a glow across the whole frame. There are long, dark clouds occupying the bottom half of the frame, and tiny ones, lit by the moon, arranged in a circle around it.

January 7th

We report on the moon side of things: one, two, three nights in a row we have been able to see the moon on its way down. For the month of January, this is nothing short of a miracle. A waxing gibbous, kept from the cold by the small clouds surrounding it, or so we hope.

Digital painting of a dark cloudy sky, a mammatus formation that looks like swirls of pockets of clouds. The bottom right corner is a triangle of yellow light. There are birds flying all around, high in the sky.

January 6th

We report: while the sky is doing its best to swallow itself through its impossible maw, the hail starts falling. It is, at first, a handful of pebbles on the roof, but once it gets going for good, the sound is almost deafening. The afternoon is stitched out of these showers.

January 11th

We report while we are still in the grasp of slumber: Mars, Castor, and Pollux are all holding hands, slowly descending towards the horizon. As they complete their journey across the vault, the sun is beginning its own on the opposite side. Our expert is still snoring lightly.

Digital painting of a peach-coloured sky, with a bit of more saturated yellow and red in the lower half of the frame. There are straggly, grey clouds scattered every which way across the sky, falling apart from all sides.

January 8th

We report: someone has lit a fire in the neighbourhood, and we have trouble telling smoke from clouds. The days have not grown much longer yet, and the sunsets still seem to last hours, holding on tightly to each end of the afternoon. We tread well-worn grooves in muddy paths.

Digital painting of a deep blue sky, half-covered in cirrus. It is fibrous, gossamer thin in many places, more solid where the light is directly hitting it, like a spiderweb.

January 9th

We report on a slow day: the clouds, too, are taking all the time in the world this morning. The ground is frozen solid, and we are finding a shimmer on every surface. We briefly thought time itself was not moving, until it all started to melt in the low winter sun.

Digital painting of a bright blue sky with a delicate weave of cirrus going across the frame, thin wisps tangled together, bright in the sunlight.

January 21st

We report in the wake of a dream: we took a nap mid-afternoon while it was pouring down. We fell asleep to the pitter-patter of rain on the roof, and woke up to a ray of sunshine on our pillow. The whole sky has opened up, and the puddles are quicksilver in the light.

Digital painting of a foggy scene, houses and trees lost in the distant blur, and some utility poles, closer to the foreground. The fog is particularly thick.

January 10th

We report: today, the fog is so dense that even our expert's keen eyes are starved for details. The sky seems a nebulous concept when brought down so low to the ground. We watch minuscule droplets of water dance in front of the fog lights, and the day goes by unseen.

Digital painting of a sunset sky, long, dark purple clouds with orange light filtering underneath. The sky is already dark, a lilac hue above the clouds.

January 12th

We report: the sunset was cut a little bit short by the gathering clouds. The sky was clear throughout the day, but come dusk, a few wisps of condensation started to appear above the horizon. The west wind quickly brought more with it, and the humidity is now palpable.

January 13th

We report in the space of a few seconds, while the light shines just at the right angle, through the correct type of air: there is a small bit of iridescence sojourning on the edge of a cloud. This time, for once, we let it vanish without alerting anyone to its presence.

January 14th

We report: there is only a light breeze on the beach, but it is enough to carry a substantial amount of sea-spray. Only the ocean can tire us out this way, make us bone-weary, and the cold has gone to our feet despite all our layers. We also feel particularly alive.

Digital painting of a black night sky, dotted with bright stars. There are dark grey clouds scattered across the frame, without much order.

January 15th

We report long past our bedtime, whatever it is meant to be: the moon has prematurely vanished from the night sky, and we unfortunately do not have the patience to seek it out for very long. The clouds are moving at a leisurely pace, and we feel rather sleepy.

Digital painting of a sunset sky: large, voluminous, orange clouds are rising into the faded blue sky of dusk. The highlights and shadows are soft and diffuse.

January 16th

We report: for the second time now, we struggle in our attempt to button up our coat with our numb fingers. There is a robin hopping around the feet of bare bushes, rummaging through sodden leaves for worms. There is that complicated smell of white rot fungus in the air.

Digital painting of some roofs underneath a clear sky, before the sunset. The light is waning, colouring buildings from the side, casting sharp shadows. A bird flying left-hand side of the frame. Sky is a gradient of pale blue to a peach colour.

January 17th

We report at the shorter end of the afternoon: the light has come to glaze the world with honey. Though it is the coldest it has been since the early morning, there is a warmth to the clear sky. Our expert is still looking for the presence of clouds somewhere - typical behaviour.

January 18th

We report: the stratus fractus of wet weather have come, and we are wondering as to what kind of wet weather we are supposed to be having. Until very recently, we were quite certain the weather would remain very dry throughout the day. Our expert puts on a second coat.

Digital painting of a dusk sky, a gradient of deep blue to a very pale yellow, partly covered with dark blue clouds with straggly bits. There are a few stars still in the darkest parts of the sky.

January 19th

We report on a brittle January morning: the dew point is rather low, and along with the wind, we think that we might freeze solid if we stay out too long.  We count the handful of remaining stars in the sky, and the air inexplicably smells like dawn, brisk and sweet.

Digital painting of a sunset sky, blue and purple layers, with a voluminous, bubbling lilac cloud rising in the foreground. Soft pink light is pouring over the clouds.

January 20th

We report: though the frost melts easily during the day, when we reach dusk once again, we can see car windshields fog over with ice. Still, though winter's hold is still strong, we can feel something stirring in the light. Our expert remarks on the sunset being a little late.

Digital painting of a cloudy sky, thin trails above the horizon, and big, grey-blue puffs higher in the sky. There is pinkish light creating purple tones in some spots. On the horizon lines, some buildings are bright orange.

January 22nd

We report: this is a messy morning, unsure of itself. It is pelting down with rain, and yet the sunrise is somehow coming through, soaking the clouds. Our expert took us up a path where ice patches are melting down into slushy mud, creating a sluggish stream under our feet.

Digital painting of a clear, dark grey night sky, full of stars. There is the dark silhouette of a tree in the foreground, naked, with ivy climbing up the trunk.

January 23rd

We report while the night is thickening, darkness grabbing at our feet. A few stars have caught onto the bare branches of a tree, taking the place of leaves for a moment. Meanwhile, our expert is disturbing the peace by winding up their faltering dynamo torch every few minutes.

Digital painting of a bright sunset, long, horizontal clouds stacked in layers. There are deep reds going into vibrant oranges, and bright yellow stripes of light at the bottom of the frame.

January 24th

We report: the way this sunset is going, we think that we have enough light remaining for another day. We could simply pretend that this is not a sunset, and perhaps the sun would even rise back up a little bit. We would try, even, if we were not so eager to go to sleep.

Digital painting of a bright blue sky, partly covered in puffy, light grey clouds. There is soft, yellow light catching in some spots.

January 25th

We report in the last handful of January days: we keep thinking about the sun lately. It is showing up more often, for longer periods of time. It is much too early to expect spring, but it is on our mind nonetheless. It slips away when we feel the morning wind on our neck.

Digital painting of a cloudy sky, a thick cover of dark grey. There is a bright lightning bolt splitting off into different branches, some of them barely visible. There is a faint purple glow around the bolt.

January 26th

We report: the storm starts raging sometime around dawn. The clouds had been gathering for hours, and there was rain long before thunder. Our expert is sleepily muttering about the colour of the flashes, and black-body radiation. The flyaways dance across the sky.

Digital painting of a dusk sky, cloudy, a deep blue that stains every shape. Some clouds are fuzzy and dark, others are bubbly and a lighter shade.

January 27th

We report in the blue: we think it is capital to spend some time in the blue whenever possible. The blue evens everything out, fills in the cracks and quiets down the other shades too. We think we could take the blue with us to the end of the world, a lovely thing to keep.

January 28th

We report: there is rock salt on the sides of the roads, and black ice on the parking lot where our expert's car was parked through the night. A surprising quantity of birds can be heard in the countryside. We find a few gathered around mistletoe in an aspen, picking at berries.

Digital painting of a bright blue sky, mostly covered in a messy array of clouds, a range of blinding white to dark grey, straggly edges and fuzzy wisps entangled together.

January 29th

We report about one of these days made of shifting light, unpredictable winds, short showers of rain and hail. We feel like we are endlessly catching up to the events above us, walking against the elements when they are not pushing us. But the sun is so bright when it comes out.

Digital painting of a rainy scene, uniform grey sky with a lighter band above the horizon, where even a faint blue is visible in some spots. The distant landscape is difficult to see, greyed out with rain. A few roofs in the foreground.

January 30th

We report: we watched the rain come from a long distance, when the horizon blurred, and when the wind pushed the blue sky away. It is falling at an angle, varying in intensity. Sometimes, we think it stops, but it picks up again immediately, much louder. We breathe raindrops in.

Digital painting of a night sky filled with an aurora, streaks of bright pink, pastel green, lilac and purple that span the whole frame. There are stars coming through the colours. There is a dark field of grass in the foreground.

January 31st

We report: we constantly underestimate the fabric of our universe, even as we are aware that it is a much larger, much more colourful tapestry than we could ever conceive. For every little thing that has been understood and explained, there are millions more that escape meaning.

Next

December 2024