Spring has returned. The Earth is like a child that knows poems. ~Rainer Maria Rilke

Saturday, October 27, 2012

Waiting for Clouds

The day after the rain, last week, I went to town. I shop at WalMart. I don't have the luxury of "boycotting" WalMart because I would have to drive 60 miles to find another store that has as good prices. So please don't ask me why I was in this store. I'm ALWAYS in this store... at least once a week.
When I finished shopping I drove up to the end of the road that dead ends in a field above the store. Someday this road will probably have more stores...hopefully a Target or a Kaiser clinic. We need more population and we need an improved economy. It will happen... some day.
The clouds were beautiful. I had to get out and take some pictures. The sky was so blue and filled with the most amazing clouds.
This was looking from the dead end road above WalMart...
 north, toward Sutter Creek. The clouds went on for miles. It was like a painting.

I turned around and took this one toward the south.
There were still dark areas of rain waiting to be released. I think that one on the left was  sitting over my house to the southeast of town. I love the dark ones. Such potential for mother nature to show us her power. I'm sure a good therapist would have something to say about my love of storms. I feel so alive when we have something besides the clear and sunny atmosphere that is so common in these parts.
I love nasty, windy, stormy weather. I love to be out in it. Standing in it. Breathing in its strength and anger. Yep! I'm sure I need a good psychotherapist to help me explain this appetite for storms.

Then I turned to the west, toward the Central Valley of California, where most of our storms come from.
More rain was coming...rolling in on the thermals. Thermals are one of the many sources of lift used by birds  to soar or float up into the sky. Maybe that's what I wish for... to fly with the red tail hawks and the turkey vultures.
I wrote a poem about dreaming that I could fly once. I wrote it in a post about four years ago.
I don't want to be in an airplane up there. I want to fly like a bird... free of the trappings of earth.
A little more about me that you didn't know...

That night the sky reflected the sunset as most of the clouds blew east.
All the clouds were reflecting the last rays of the sunset.
 The TV news was talking about SNOW in the mountains for the first time this year.

The clouds are gone now. The sky is clear. The sun was hot as I sat on the porch a while ago. The snakes must be confused, feeling the warmth in their underground holes. Maybe the cold nights will keep them down there. Hope so.
The clouds will return and the wind will blow again. So I wait, with as much patience I can muster, for Winter to arrive.
 It will be worth waiting for, like the joy of Christmas morning when I were a kid.
It gives me hope and restores my faith in something tangible and new. Winter is the present under my tree... the long waited for gift of Nature.

12 comments:

  1. I shop at Walmart because it's the cheapest.

    I like storms also but when there's a lightening storm I get scared. The thunder is like being in a bowling alley, actually worse, and the lightening gets awfully close. As if that wasn't enough, we have tornadoes also. Regardless, the change in the weather has a certain kind of energy to it that is awesome.

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  2. Great pictures of the clouds, you are getting good use of that new camera. I was hoping that rain we had would be enough to get some grass to sprout, just did not get enough. I don't like the wind, rain is ok, but I prefer a soft gentle rain, if I don't want to be out in it I feel bad for my critters that are.

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  3. Great pictures of the clouds, you are getting good use of that new camera. I was hoping that rain we had would be enough to get some grass to sprout, just did not get enough. I don't like the wind, rain is ok, but I prefer a soft gentle rain, if I don't want to be out in it I feel bad for my critters that are.

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  4. we are just getting ready to start the storm here....sandy...could get a little crazy...walmart sadly is about the best we can do here...not much local left...that first pic is so crisp it is almost surreal, it is beautiful...


    hope you are having a great weekend...

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  5. I like the power of storms too, especially thunderstorms over the lake where I grew up.
    Your cloud photos are dramatic and beautiful.

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  6. You really are getting that camera to sing, aren't you? Those cloud shots are fabulous. After you visit your psychotherapist, will you post the diagnosis, please, as it will apply to me as well. Nothing, but nothing, beats a good storm!

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  7. Funny how where we live influences our attitudes to the weather. Although I appreciate the beauty of clouds, I don't always welcome rain as we get so much of it in Ireland. Sunshine and warm weather, on the other hand, is always something I look forward to, because as the old Irish saying goes 'what's rare is wonderful'. Great cloud images.

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  8. I love clouds too. So many of these photos could be inspiration for paintings...I think we need to have these tumultuous skies to wake us up from the calm and mundane. I like the idea of the whole of winter being a gift for you. I welcome it as well.

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  9. I shop at Wal-Mart all the time. Great prices. I love all the cloud photos very nice. Have a blessed evening. Madeline

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  10. first of all...shopping at Walmart circulates money to all of our economy....like blood it needs to circulate to keep us alive....so go ahead and shop whereever you darn well please...this is America for pete's sake
    .....secondly....love those clouds...fainted dead away lady...I love clouds....hope I see a few on my way up...if you know what i mean

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  11. Beautiful post. Love the photos and the words! xo, Cheryl

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  12. LOVED the clouds pics! You should frame some of them for sure.

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