Blue skies, nothing but blue skies…

Blue skies over Penarth Pier – although this was a winter sky, in December 2009…

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…

Mackerel sky over Poole, Dorset, summer 2011

A closer look at the mackerel sky over Poole, Dorset, summer 2011

Same day, different patch of mackerel sky over Poole, Dorset, summer 2011

Another close-up of the mackerel sky over Poole, Dorset, summer 2011

A cumulus sky over Poole Harbour, summer 2009…

Lines of clouds over Poole’s Baiter area, summer 2009

Red sunset sky over Poole in summer 2009

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…

Sun through cloud, Porthcawl, Christmas Day, 2005…

Sunshine on a ship out at sea, seen from The Knap, Barry, Christmas Day, 2009…

The Botanic Garden of Wales, Llanarthne…

The Great Glasshouse, Botanic Garden of Wales, January 2012…

The Great Glasshouse, Botanic Garden of Wales, summer 2009…

The Glamorgan Heritage Coast in winter…

Winter sunshine over Southerndown, on the Glamorgan Heritage Coast, December 2005…

Another picture on the same day – a tornado-shaped cloud over Dunraven on the Glamorgan Heritage Coast…

Big skies over Penarth…

A great cloud pattern over Penarth, summer 2007…

Penarth, summer 2007…

Penarth, summer 2007…

Looking out to sea from Penarth, summer 2007 – the islands include Flat Holm and Steep Holme…

Castles in the air…

Impressive clouds over Corfe Castle, Dorset, summer 2010…

Cotton-wool clouds at Carreg Cennen Castle, Carmarthenshire, summer 2004

Another view from Carreg Cennen Castle, Carmarthenshire, summer 2004

Not far from Carreg Cennen is Black Mountain, where sheep may safely graze under cumulus skies…

Under Cardiff skies…

Clouds over Cardiff City Hall on a mostly wet day in April 2012…

Back-lit clouds over Sophia Gardens cricket ground, September 2010…

And here are a few scraps, snapped from my own garden, purely because they looked interesting…

Feather-shaped Cirrus – or maybe a vapour trail…

A sheet of cirrus with vapour trails…

The sky after a storm, November 2010…

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…