July 2024

Digital painting of a landscape, flat land with patches of woods and mountains off in the distance. The sky is clouded over, and it is raining heavily, but there is bright sunshine coming from somewhere.

July 2nd

We report: we cannot quite tell where all this light is coming from all of a sudden, and frankly, the light itself is making it hard to tell. Each raindrop is catching the sun and casting it into our eyes, and we do not have sunglasses with us. It is getting warm.

Digital painting of a bright blue sky filled with delicate cirrus structures, curly, fibrous tendrils stretching out across the frame.

July 1st

We report on the first day of July: the clouds parted in the morning like a magic trick, and we thought it would get hot in the afternoon. Instead, though it was not especially cold either, other clouds came, and the sun remained an intermittent guest for the rest of the day.

July 4th

We report: there was a mosquito in our room last night. We never managed to see it, but the sound kept us awake for much longer than we would have liked. When the sky started brightening, we almost started crying with relief, until we realised we had not gotten any sleep yet.

Digital painting of a twilight sky, a gradient of dark blue to orange, with some very long, thin, and wavy clouds that are faintly glowing white in the dark.

July 3rd

We report about some of those special summer clouds that our expert describes as "cloud-like". The sunsets still run long and late; while we dip into Earth's shadow, we begin to see the outline of noctilucent clouds. We almost hear the clinking sounds of ice crystals.

Digital painting: tiny white clouds in a blue sky, very tightly packed into the frame, almost no space between each one.

July 5th

We report: the sky is too full. Or rather - there are too many clouds, densely packed together until there is absolutely no way to squeeze any more in there. We are trying to determine whether this represents an issue. Time passes, yet the clouds only seem to crowd even more.

July 7th

We report: it still smells like the rain from this afternoon, but also like the sunshine that came after, and the chilly twilight wind. There are crickets, sparrows, and bats in the fields. It is busier than ever in the blue light. All the things that are happening all the time.

July 6th

We report: while it was raining earlier, it was much harder to imagine the type of cloud that was above our heads, by virtue of it being above our heads. Now that it has moved away, it looks even bigger with the way it rises into the atmosphere. It is still raining, somehow.

Digital painting of a dusk sky, a gradient of dark blue to bright turquoise, in which big, long, largely shapeless dark blue clouds float.

July 11th

We report at twilight: we have moved through the day with sleep in our eyes. We slept last night, but we carry the insomnia of another night. Now, as the day slows down, we feel even heavier. Even so, we notice the summer wind that pushes blue clouds, and the smell of wild lilac.

Digital painting of a sunrise sky, blue-grey clouds in the top half that are faintly lit by the stripe of yellow light in the lower half. There are a few shades of orange in a few places, and some smaller clouds floating haphazardly.

July 8th

We report: a little bit of space in the vast has been made to allow the sunrise to show through. The clouds have dutifully pushed themselves out of way so that there is a little pale glow in their stead. There is a drizzle patiently waiting backstage to close the curtains again.

July 9th

We report from the beach: the wind is blowing hard, parallel to the sea, shearing the waves. The sky has been mostly wiped clear, and we see gulls gliding across it with not a single wing flap. Whenever we face the ocean, our hair flies all over our face, so we stand at an angle.

Digital painting of a bright blue sky, partly covered in white clouds, some fuzzy and bulbous, others, thin and sharp and wispy.

July 21st

We report about how time is different in the sky. Clouds among themselves have no clear expectation of one another. The clear sky waits for nothing. The rain comes whatever the time, and whether we had expected it or not. Some clouds stay forever, others exist within a blink.

Digital painting of a cloudy sky, all shades of grey. The clouds are long, stacked against each other neatly, darkest at the top of the frame.

July 10th

We report: there are brambles growing on the pavement. They have been escaping a garden for years now, and they hang over the road - full of flowers and unripe fruits at this point in the year. The sky is heavy and dark, but not in a stormy way. It will keep carrying the weight.

Digital painting of a sunset sky, a faded green tint with bright orange and dark grey clouds mingling.

July 12th

We report: our expert has taken us to see the sunset so that they could point out certain elements in the sky. Not for the first time, we try our best to follow, taking notes, asking questions. Not for the first time, we are glad that they are the expert, and we do the reporting.

Digital painting of a pale blue sky covered in cirrus, thin fibres of clouds interwoven, reflecting the sunshine. The light is a very light yellow.

May 13th

We report threads spun out of ice roaming in the golden light, weaving clouds in a fabric so thin and fragile that it keeps tearing apart.

Digital painting of a cloudy sky, dark grey with blue and brown undertones with some light, yellow clouds extending their tendrils all over the frame.

July 14th

We report: we thought we had lost time when the light came out yellow through the window. The sun was not supposed to set for another hour, but the clouds were thick enough to bend the sunshine that way. We came out to get a better look, and felt a fine mist on our face.

Digital painting of a cloudy dusk sky, deep blue, and dark. The clouds are more voluminous and closer together in the lower tier of the frame, and much wispier, and further apart at the top, letting some blue light through.

July 15th

We report from the kitchen window, before dawn: we thought the deep rumbles we heard would have been a truck, slowly driving past our house. Upon closer examination, the sound comes from much further away. We have stayed by the window, listening to the thunder. No lightning.

Digital painting of a partly cloudy sunset sky, shades of pastel pink that get lighter at the top of the frame. There is the moon, small, in the middle of the frame, waxing gibbous.

July 16th

We report: since the sun has already vanished from the sky, the remnants of colour there are quickly fading. The daylight is diluting into grey fog, drops in an ocean. Our thoughts etiolate just as much, turning into an ellipsis, so we open a parenthesis. A moon follows the sun.

Digital painting of a partly cloudy, deep blue sky. There are some white clouds bubbling up, and a few grey clouds with fuzzy outlines, all moving from the lower left corner of the frame.

July 17th

We report during the hottest hour of the day: the glare of the sun has turned the pavement gummy. We have tried to avoid the worst of it, but the soles of our shoes have gotten tacky, and we feel it with every step. The blue of the sky gets deeper as the light gets starker.

Digital painting of a golden grass field with a grey, cloudy sky above. The clouds are gathered in dark waves, and the light is yellowish above the horizon. There are swallows all over the sky.

July 18th

We report: it is a windy day. The field is breathing in ripples, dry grass whistling in rhythm. The barn behind us sounds like it is about to collapse, but it has held on until now. The swallows are swaying about the sky like paper planes. It still smells like sunshine, somehow.

Digital painting of a dark, cloudy sky at night, with a bit of diffuse pink light coming through, tinting some clouds purple and dark blue.

July 19th

We report in the purlieus of night: the sky is crowded with clouds that are working hard to stifle the eventide light. It is only just working, though it is even raining quite a bit. The darkness is busy and loud, and the wildlife sounds raise hairs on the back of our neck.

Digital painting of a sunset sky, pale yellow with purple and red clouds in the bottom half of the frame. Some of the smaller clouds are rimmed bright yellow right in the middle of the frame.

July 20th

We report: the clouds have rusted through. They were steel; they were iron blue. They covered every inch of the sky. It rained, shower after shower like it was spring all over again. And then, at the end of the day, the iron clouds oxydised and crumbled down in a russet fire.

Digital painting of a cloudy sky, dark grey in the middle, framed by light grey clouds, with a couple of small breaches onto the clear blue sky. Some of the clouds have jagged edges.

July 22nd

We report: walking in the rain with our head down, we noticed some splashes of blue in puddles. The spots of blue wobbled and split under the weight of the falling raindrops, but we found them again in the next puddle, and when we chanced a look up, they stood out in the grey.

Digital painting of a night sky full of bright stars, with the milky way sprawled across the frame, clearly visible.

July 23rd

We report in the dead of night: there are too many stars. It has been weeks since we saw more than a handful at once. The sky has been overcast and opaque most nights. So it is late, we are in the middle of nowhere, and we think we woke up because there are too many stars.

Digital painting of a translucent cloud in a bright blue sky. The cloud is cirrus-like, a delicate structure with tendrils fanning out at its top, elongated and spanning the width of the frame.

July 24th

We report: this is one we saw while lying on our back. We were determined to keep our mind as empty as possible, and so we made it our task to let our eyes follow it through its journey. It was a slow one. Our neck feels somewhat tender. Our mind is suitably empty.

Digital painting of a sunset sky: the top half is a pale blue, and the bottom half is full of long, dark purple and pink clouds.

July 25th

We report something sweet and sour about the sunset. Sitting on a bench, we feel the breeze coming in waves around our neck, but every so often, warm air rises from the ground. We touch our hand to the earth, and the grass is full of sunlight. The candy floss melts in the clouds.

Digital painting of a pale blue sky, half full of long, dark grey clouds. There is a little portion of a cloud that is a bright yellow-orange colour, and there is a small, waning gibbous moon in the top right corner of the frame.

June 26th

We report: good morning, we are feeling a complicated blend of emotions; the sun is rising, the moon is here, it is raining. Our expert has brought us some tea to go, and our gratitude is overwhelming. We feel cold enough that we expect our breath to turn white.

Digital painting of a lightning bolt escaping from behind some black clouds. The light diffuses slightly, producing a pink-orange tone around where the lightning starts.

July 27th

We report in the smallest hours of night: the thunderstorm gets its start right above us, with no preamble. The cumulonimbus formed quietly in the darkness, and the first flash of lightning precedes thunder by only a few seconds. It sounds like sheets of metal banged together.

Digital painting: in a dark, dark cloudy sky, a cloud with jagged edges catches bright golden light from the side.

July 28th

We report: it does not mean anything, right now, that it could rain any moment, that the sun is setting, that the breach in the clouds is about to close. For a few seconds, we are completely dazzled by the light. The wind keeps pushing. The light fades. It rains.

Digital painting of a blue sky in which tall clouds rise, bubbling white steam pushing up like small castles. In the foreground, a band of fuzzy grey clouds.

July 29th

We report under the early afternoon sun: it is hot. We have not been walking in the sunshine for long, but our expert's cheeks are red with the effort. The shade is still hard to find, even in streets where buildings are tall. The breeze that comes later is more than welcome.

Digital painting of a mass of clouds, half in the sunshine, and half in the shade. The clouds are bubbling outwards, not too different from cauliflower, many shadows and points of light creating relief across their surfaces.

July 30th

We report: we met a storm chaser today, and he and our expert chatted about amateur radio licences for a long time. While they were talking, the storm that the storm chaser had come to meet slowly started to unfurl. The clouds' shadows moved as they exchanged call signs.

July 31st

We report on this summer night: the heat has not let up yet. Though the glare of the sun is gone, it feels as though the air that comes in through our nose is as warm as the blood in our veins. Our expert notes the presence of Cassiopeia in the sky, faint, but familiar.

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