Blue skies, nothing but blue skies…
Since the jetstream moved north again a couple of weeks ago and summer arrived at last, I can’t get that song out of my head. Here’s the version by Frank Sinatra…
We had maybe a fortnight of dazzling blue skies and scorching sun here in Wales but now it’s turned changeable again. Which is the way I like it, as it makes for such wonderful cloud patterns. My favourite is always a good mackerel sky (“never long wet, never long dry”).
So I started looking at my old pictures to see what skies I had captured – and here are a few of them, from Wales and Dorset. Of course, my snaps can never compete with those wonderful examples from all over the world on the Cloud Appreciation Society website and I urge you to head on over there if you have never looked.
When I was a child, there were only three main sorts of cloud to identify: cirrus, cumulus and stratus. If you were a show-off you could boast of seeing cumulo-nimbus thunder clouds, but that was it, really. Now there are so many subdivisions of cloud types that I don’t intend to name those I picture here, in case I get it wrong.
Mackerel skies over Poole Harbour…
God speaking…
When I see rays of sun through clouds in an otherwise dark sky, I always call it “God speaking”. Appropriately, these two examples are both from Christmas Day, although in different years…
The Botanic Garden of Wales, Llanarthne…
The Glamorgan Heritage Coast in winter…

Another picture on the same day – a tornado-shaped cloud over Dunraven on the Glamorgan Heritage Coast…
Big skies over Penarth…
Castles in the air…
Under Cardiff skies…
And here are a few scraps, snapped from my own garden, purely because they looked interesting…
I can’t end this post without a reference to Joni Mitchell’s wonderful Both Sides, Now…
Bows and flows of angel hair
And ice-cream castles in the air
And feather canyons everywhere
I’ve looked at clouds that way
But now they only block the sun
They rain and snow on everyone
So many things I would have done
But clouds got in my way
I’ve looked at clouds from both sides now
From up and down, and still somehow
It’s cloud illusions I recall
I really don’t know clouds at all…
Here’s a cloud shot from April from my home in west Cardiff: http://www.flickr.com/photos/paul_seligman_cardiff/7516567576/in/photostream/ or the slightly enhanced version: http://www.flickr.com/photos/paul_seligman_cardiff/7516569408/in/photostream/
Excellent! How could the lighting effects make that one in front so inky black, I wonder?
I love being mesmerised by watching the clouds passing by. Something really hypnotic and meditative! Lovely photos Pat.
Thank you for your kind words – and yes, high places and the seaside are particularly great places to be mesmerised 🙂
Best wishes…
A wonderful selection of skies there – I find it fascinating how the sky changes by the minute – especially at sunset.
One of the great things about living in changeable Britain 🙂
I shall have that song in my head for a while..I love it..I don’t know how you turn out these wonderful posts…amazing..Michelle
You’re too kind!
I love your nature blog, too: http://ramblingwoods.com/
Pat..awesome photos…funny how clouds photographed over sea,mountains and flat land always appear differently…Mother Natures’s fashion show..My G-children and I enjoy laying on our backs and picking out many animals ( cloud shapes)..sometimes we have captured them in photos….Thank you so much for sharing..I love your website..
What a great selection of skies and views!
Carreg Cennen is one of our favourite places too.
Thank you for the kind comments. Yes, Carreg Cennen is one of the “great” high places of Wales 🙂
Best wishes…