Summer Skies
Monday, July 5, 2010 at 6:00AM I like to watch the sky. Summer skies can be crystal blue or gray or white hot, and sometimes all in the same day. I can get lost in the clouds, dreaming of heavenly worlds or mystical creatures that float above the earth. Sometimes I search for angels. I have never seen one, but I know a man who says he once did.
As a gardener, it's one of the first things I do every day: open the door and look up to evaluate the weather. The summer sky is ever shifting, and as the day progresses, I watch the horizon.
Will it rain today? Is the hazy sky a prelude to afternoon thunderstorms? Will those black clouds bring hail and high winds?
Here in Helena we get about sixty inches of rain each year. Last week we had a fierce storm which brought down a large dead limb from an oak tree. I had eyed that limb before. It was up very high, and I knew someday it would come crashing to earth. It was about twenty feet long, and it landed in the middle of a path, just missing all the nearby hydrangea shrubs.
The days are long now, but around eight o'clock in the evening a pink and golden glow begins to spread from the west. It shines over the garden and house, tinting the world in rosy tones, a gentle hint at first, then more fervently painting the end of day.
May beautiful skies shine over you and bring blessings to your land. Deborah
Sunset, clouds, summer sky in summer, weather
Reader Comments (16)
Storms to fascinate me. I remember growing up in Hoover, a small tornado struck nearby and the cloud cover had sort of a green cast to it. After a few close calls, I am a lot more concerned when stroms pass through. Nice photos.
In my area, if clouds are coming from the west, then it will be a big storm. If they are coming from east, than it might be just a nice rain.
These are beautiful photos!
My small porch has windows that are too high to see out into the garden, and when I lie down on the couch out there, all I can see is the sky. I lie there and watch what your camera has so beautifully captured --- the endlessly changing fascinating summer sky. Great post.
We had a storm at the weekend and today I had to tread carefully along the little path as there were quite alot of branches down - smally compared to yours though.
I love looking at the sky too and seeing all the different shapes of clouds and predicting what weather is ahead for us but its very rare that we would get a beautiful sunset like yours. Great photos Deborah.
I love your evening skies. When I was growing up, we had a family name for this color: "Sky blue-pink." I think I was thirty before I realized that this was not a commonly accepted color designator! (But it should be, don't you think?)
Your cloud share is wonderful. Today was very hot and humid in our neck of the woods.
Deb - I mentioned you on my latest post at by blog. Send my your email address again - I'm at jobranch@yahoo.com.
Your pics tell a wonderful and peaceful story. Thank you for your kind remarks on my blog. jim
A lovely essay on your summer skies, Deb. The sky has many moods, though it is always beautiful. You are lucky to get so much rain every year! Ours is usually under 50 inches here in my piece of Florida, though we might get 60 in a good year.
Your sky photos are beautiful! Storms are fun to watch...big fan! Florida has been so hot lately, and a very wet weekend! I hear we're in for more rain, but it is the rainy season, after all!
What beautiful photos. Like you, I love to look at the sky. As a child, my sister and I would lie on our backs on the ground and look at the clouds, sharing with each other what shapes we saw. There is nothing quite as marvelous to watch as a sunrise or sunset - especially over the water. Unfortunately, we haven't seen any rain clouds in the sky here for a number of weeks and it's 100 degrees today!
What amazing pictures Deborah, and thank you for them, I do not get to see the sky all week, just very tall office buildings, so I really needed this.
Falling trees and branches are not uncommon here. It's always such an alarming sound. I'm glad your oak limb spared your hydrangeas. I often take cloudless blue skies in summer for granted here, except this week...where they seem to be obscured more than usual with our grey coastal fog. Hopefully the sun will peek through soon.
I love seeing thunderclouds forming and wondering if they will make it into our valley and provide rain showers. Your photos are truly beautiful :-)
HI Deb those are wonderful clouds and magnificent skies. Like you i also have the fascination in picturing different forms of clouds. When in airplanes mostly i normally take the window seat just to get lots of photos. They never fail to amaze me. I have an experience a long time ago when the plane took off before the sunrise and the pink color of cumulus clouds sparkled like bright cotton candies. That memory still lingered in my mind because it arose an emotion so very different. However, that time was still when films are the norm, and i did not carry my camera. So it is just saved in my mind's eye. Thank you.
Beautiful skies, Deborah. Are you familiar with the Cloud Appreciation Society? They're worth googling... you might even be able to submit some of your shots. When we were kids, my sister and I used to call those sunbeams "God Fingers." I guess they're also the inspiration for the idea of a Stairway to Heaven.