"Clouds are Nature’s poetry, spoken in a whisper in the rarefied air
between crest and crag"
-- Gavin Pretor-Pinney
Clouds touching the mountains at Grayson Highlands State Park
As a child I loved to lie out on the lawn and stare up to the sky and watch the clouds. I tried to make out various shapes and decide what they looked like. I still do it today driving down the highway. My husband is used to my exclamations of "oh look at that cat." With no introduction he usually knows right away I am talking about the clouds and not some poor cat at the side of the road.
The clouds are blowing bubbles at Caledon State Park
The term person x has "their head in the clouds" makes you think of someone completely oblivious to what is going on around them. I would like to argue that people focused completely on mundane everyday things are the ones who need a derogatory nickname. Perhaps if more of us spent some time looking up at the sky we would be better people. Okay, so that might be dangerous if you are crossing the street or even driving, but we need to take the time to appreciate nature. Instead of "stopping to smell the roses" maybe we could say let's "stop and look at the clouds."
The photographer who captured this cloud at Staunton River State Park saw a frog
In his article "Five Great Ways to Nurture Your Inner Hunter and Gather," Richard Louv mentions cloudspotting as an activity to "expand the senses and help our children become better learners, better observers, and better people." For more information on clouds, check out the resources he mentions:
The Cloud Appreciation Society
Of course, there's nothing like a visit to a Virginia State Park for an uninterrupted view of the day or night sky.
Mirrored clouds at Claytor Lake State Park
