September 2024

Digital painting of a sunset sky: long, thin clouds, progressing from pink to orange above the horizon. There are a couple of roofs, and a line of trees in the distance.

September 2nd

We report after walking in circles trying to find the perfect sunset spot. The sun has been moving further west ahead of the autumn equinox, and we could not see much anymore at the last spot. The streets are quiet as we walk around; we hear swallows, and blinds rolling shut.

Digital painting of a night scene: the landscape is completely dark, but in the sky, a small, blue lightning bolt reveals the shape of the clouds, and the silhouettes of trees and a small house on the horizon.

September 1st

We report: we are just about to go to bed when a blue flash illuminates our room, and we immediately start counting, slowly. One, two, three... Thunder shakes the floor; the storm is right next door. Through the window, we see a lightning bolt take shape. It stays for a moment.

Digital painting of a grey, cloudy sky, full of odd shapes, mammatus and cumulus merged together in a dramatic landscape.

September 4th

We report, unsure whether the storm has ceased yet: the clouds are twisting, tangled up waters crashing at the edges of the sky. All the rain is still in the air, and the cold damp is keeping us alert. The sky already looks new to us. The wind is changing direction again.

Digital painting of a bright blue sky, filled with large, voluminous white clouds. The light is tinted a faint shade of yellow.

September 3rd

We report: we are here with our expert, watching the light change. We close our eyes against the dusty wind, we feel the sunshine move, hot and red. The clouds are pressing against the top of our head, and we squint our eyes tighter. Our expert brushes an eyelash off our cheek.

Digital painting of a dusk sky, mostly covered in a large, voluminous, dark blue cloud.

September 5th

We report: the clouds looked taller and taller as the darkness took over, like a little cup of water that got spilled into a thrashing ocean. Each minute of the nightfall was another cyanotype of gigantism, and in turn, we felt smaller and smaller, prone to vanishing in the vast.

Digital painting of a huge, bubbling cloud, like a head of cauliflower in a bright blue sky. It is lit sideways, creating strong contrasts between light and shadows.

September 7th

We report: after a rainy week, the day got too hot, too fast, and the clouds are rising like over-hydrated bread dough. The expansion is seemingly endless, and the air is still warm, and we are wondering what will happen when it finally cools down. We hear thunder far away.

Digital painting of a sunset sky, completely clouded up over; a bright flare of red is surging up from the horizon. There is the roof of a house, and a few swallows flying around the frame.

September 6th

We report: of this day filled with clouds from morning to evening, we had no sunset expectations. Through the east-facing window, however, we noticed distant fields dazzled in red light. We scrambled out, wound up at a deserted parking lot, minutes before street lamps turned on.

Digital painting of a tall and narrow, smooth, white cloud in a bright blue sky. There are other, more typical wispy clouds framing it.

September 11th

We report: this cloud was strange enough to make a few passersby pause for a moment. It stood tall against the wind for longer than we thought it would, while the rest of the clouds vanished or moved on. Later, in the evening, a storm started to gather in the same place.

Digital painting of a rainy sky; dark grey, twisted clouds in the top half, and light grey, almost featureless in the bottom half. A small opening shows a very pale blue sky amidst the rain.

September 8th

We report late in the afternoon, as rain is starting to fall in earnest. We came to watch the clouds advance, but the smell hit us like it was the first time we came across it, deep, organic, and crisp. "Petrichor" is almost too easy a word to describe the smell of rain.

Digital painting of a night sky, the darkest shade of blue, filled with stars.

September 9th

We report: we got up with the firm intention of getting right back to sleep - in search of a cup of water. We found ourselves drawn to the window, which was to be expected. The memory is foggy, but we think we dreamed up the stars. There could not have been so many.

Digital painting of a dusk scene, just before sunrise: the sky is a gradient of dark blue to a pale peach colour, a few tiny clouds floating above the horizon. The mountains are a dark blue-black, surrounded by a sea of clouds.

September 21st

We report: this morning, the mountains are drowned in clouds. We could perhaps live here, where the air is thin and crisp, when the sun is busy taking precious, careful steps to rise. For a moment, we do not think about what will happen when we move on from this specific minute.

Digital painting of a sunrise sky, pale blue with yellow undertones, covered in long, straggly clouds that are lit a pastel orange.

September 10th

We report today, again, like all of the days before and the days to come. It is perhaps absurd, but we did not realise things would keep happening. We knew, certainly, but we did not intimately understand about how the sun keeps rising, and we are alive, and the wind is strong.

Digital painting of a cloudy sky: swirly, intricate patterns in the dark grey clouds, like ink in water. There are two black birds flying in the middle of the turmoil.

September 12th

We report about shapes in the sky, surprisingly enough. We do realise that it is all mostly about shapes in the sky, and the way they help us understand other, future shapes. Our expert takes offence when we voice these thoughts, but then they tell us some more about the shapes.

Digital painting of a cloudy sky at dusk. It is all a dark, vibrant blue, fields layered on top of one another with smooth textures.

September 13th

We report: the night fell on us much faster than we had expected. There has been this little spell of autumn this week, a taste of what is to come when October gets here. It is not quite cold, but we carry the wind with us in the dark, and the moon is misty between the clouds.

Digital painting of a cloudy sunset sky, a triangle of red light emanating from the horizon. There are some vibrant yellows, reds, oranges and pinks, and in the shadows, many shades of purples.

September 14th

We report: the clouds were mountains in the shadows of the sunset tonight. We were walking backwards so as to not miss one bit of the spectacle, which our expert chastised us about. Slightly hypocritical, as they were just as distracted, constantly looking over their shoulder.

Digital painting of a contrail in a bright blue sky, with flimsy cirrus scattered here and there around it.

September 15th

We report: the sun is not the same anymore. We kept track of it throughout this day, and we saw how it skims the clouds and the top of the trees, how it has started circling around shadows more and more. We still got a little bit too pink when we stayed out in the open, though.

Digital painting: a cloudy sky, a pale blue in the distance, with layers of grey clouds overlapping one another. They are lighter in the background, and darker in the foreground. The shapes vary.

September 16th

We report: we have had the sentiment of looking at the sky through curtains, this morning. It may be that there is rain hanging somewhere between the clouds and us, or a little bit of fog remaining from the dawn. Perhaps we have not scrubbed all the sleep from our eyes.

Digital painting of an early night sky, dark blue with purple notes. There are small pink clouds, thin and short, stacked on top of one another. There is a full, golden moon there as well.

September 17th

We report: we had a heated debate with our expert over the phase of the moon. We were convinced that the calendar promised a full moon tomorrow, but our expert said it was already full the day before. As it were, we were both correct. The moon stayed silent through the argument.

September 18th

We report right at the very end of the day: the sun has gotten to be a very odd shape as it is dipping into the water. A hot drop of hydrogen, helium, carbon, nitrogen and the like, about to boil the ocean dry as we helplessly stand by. Our expert says this happens every day.

Digital painting of a pale blue sky, half-filled with wispy, wavy white clouds, lit from below. There is a black bird flying high in the sky.

We report: we spend too much time thinking of what is summer and what is autumn in those September days. We ponder on smells and temperatures, foggy mornings and sunny evenings, "it is quite chilly today, isn't it" and "when is the equinox again?". Meanwhile, the birds fly south.

Digital painting of an overcast sky, layers of clouds in different shades of grey contrasting with one another.

September 20th

We report a few hours after we hung the washing out to dry: this is rain, it absolutely is rain. Our expert confidently told us it would not rain this morning, and we listened to them. We keep feeling phantom raindrops. We have half a mind to take the laundry in.

Digital painting of a sunset scene, dark roofs, street lamps are on, phone lines crossing the frame. The sky is a gradient of a pale blue to orange, with fluffy grey clouds all over. Above them, long, thin, bright orange clouds.

September 22nd

We report: the sunset was mostly over by the time we went out, and it was already dark enough that we were looking for our feet on the ground. More bats than birds, their lopsided flight swooping low in odd curves. The lights turn on, street by street, and the clouds turn grey.

Digital painting of a bright blue sky filled with wispy, intricate cirrus, and a vanishing contrail.

September 23rd

We report after the rain: in the space left by all the rain clouds, cirrus have spread out, forming with little care for boundaries, overlapping with one another. To our eyes that have not seen direct sunlight in a few days, the sky is overwhelmingly bright. Everything shines.

Digital painting of a cloudy sky all in lights and shadows; a large, dark grey cloud takes up the foreground of the left-hand side of the frame. Behind it, light comes through among grey wisps.

September 24th

We report: the clouds are looking darker for the sunshine coming from behind them. There is some rain skimming the horizon, and we keep expecting it to come closer, but it only moves laterally. This day has been spent in half-happenings, always a little to the side of things.

Digital painting of a black night sky above a field of grass lit by something off-frame. There is a waning crescent moon surrounded by wispy clouds, and a few stars dot the sky.

September 25th

We report late at night, the misty moon barely risen: we think it might start to rain. We have felt a few drops on the back of our neck, but it is, for good reason, a little bit difficult to make out potential rain clouds. This is a chilly night, but we hear a few crickets still.

Digital painting of a sunset sky, pastel blues and pinks with tall purple and dark blue clouds in the foreground. One of them catches a bit of sunlight from the side.

September 26th

We report: the past few weeks have stolen an hour of sunlight from us, but we relish the smell of cold in the air. Looking at the thermometer, it is not all that chilly, yet it is both humid and windy, and we have not yet switched coats for the season. October already draws near.

Digital painting of a deep blue sky filled with fuzzy, white and grey clouds, a confusing display of conflicting weather.

September 27th

We report on a slow morning: we find it hard to focus on the work that we have to do, when so much is happening on the other side of the window. The wall in front of our desk gets dappled with sunshine, and our eyes are again and again drawn to the fast-moving clouds.

Digital painting of a cloudy sky, horizontally split in two. At the top, a lighter grey, some relief and some smoother parts as well. Underneath a clear cut, the clouds a dark blue-grey.

September 28th

We report: when the tide goes in, it brings slate grey clouds and the brackish wind from the open sea. The sand is still wet from the last tide, and there is spume fluttering in the breeze. A few brazen birds are gliding in place, surveying the cloudy waters beneath them.

Digital painting of a dark blue night sky, surrounded by the black shadows of trees in three corners of the frame. The sky is filled with stars.

September 29th

We report as we are standing here in a field: we are trying to discern the movement of our planet by looking at the stars. Our hands are icy in our pockets, and the spinning remains imperceptible. After long enough, we feel a rumble under our feet. A train sounds in the distance.

Digital painting of a sunrise sky, a pastel gradient of blue to orange, with long, wispy, dark red and orange clouds coming in from the left-hand side of the frame.

September 30th

We report: we almost missed our train this morning. We were half-running, out of breath, cursing ourselves for misjudging the time we had; we still had to pause for a few seconds when a flash of orange appeared at the end of a street. We made it with a minute to spare.

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