Clouds can be so pretty and songful and worthy of guessing games – but not these clouds. These clouds are like a blanket of white grey from horizon to horizon- the colour of snow – a lid that is closed, ephemeral and full of gloom.
Interesting that this kind of rainy, snowy, inclement weather is called a depression and if the weather is like this for too long it makes us feel depressed. But they don’t call a wave of warm settled weather an up-ression ( although it does lift our spirits) they call it an anti-cyclone as opposed to a cyclone that can blow your house away and curls clockwise or counter clockwise depending on your hemisphere. So who claimed the word: depression, first. The studiers of the weather or the studiers of the mind? (As usual we will not consult Aunty Google. My questions are only ever for mulling over. I can google it too but sometimes it takes all the fun out of a conversation).
These clouds make me want to eat.
I would like to go to space simply to look down and study the weather and watch the sky from within it.
See that pile of branches – that is the edge of a huge pile of branches that the ice storm brought down. The first thing I see every morning now. Piled up in the front yard. So sad.
I am sure I have told you of my dream to have a huge world map on my wall, that is as big as the wall – it would be a massive screen showing the weather drifting or surging across the world with no borders, dotted with tiny unobtrusive notations on temperature and wind speed and precipitation. It would be topographical. Wherever my curser landed a little box of notes would report exactly what was going on. No entertaining speech, no histrionics, no predictions, no interpretation or experts or victims, just that moment. Soundless and true. All adjectives banished. All spoken words gone. Just the facts of that place and that moment in that tiny box and the swirl of the clouds and wind drifting around border less world. Imagine that. How inclusive it would feel. I could see at a glance the temperature and conditions at your place. The heat above cities and silent sandstorms in the desert and winds across the sea. And when I am not in the room the weather quietly moves about unwatched because the screen would never be off. I wish I were clever enough to create this wall of world weather. I think it would be a life’s work to create.
I do love my job at the mill – I think I have helped literally hundreds of people learn how to bake by now – but I miss the weather. I miss the sky. We have two tiny windows way up high in the warehouse that houses the mills and I must look up to them a thousand times a day. You can only see a patch of sky but it is enough.
I wish for you moments of joy today. Joy is so singular and not as rare as we think. But we have to be open to it. We have to feel it and note it. Otherwise our moments of joy rush past too fast and are easily forgotten under the ominous heavy lid of thickening cloud.
I hope you are all well today.
Celi
The Kitchen's Garden 
59 responses to “CLOUDS”
I’m so happy you enjoy the mill. A much needed mill for sure. Hope things are good on the farmy.
All good – getting quieter and quieter
That picture of Boo made me think of Narnia.
Yes!
I have always wanted a wardrobe I could walk through
Ha ha – me too!
I am learning to bake bread from you! I just placed a second order of flour. I baked boules on Thursday, so delicious.
That is the best! I love this comment. Thank you! I too am baking today – just waiting for Godzilla.
Good morning Celi……What a beautifully written heartfelt post this morning. Each word resonated with feeling about the state of affairs in the world right now. Good job.
Jo
Hi Jo! Keeping it simple works the best for me. Though ( like everyone) I am feeling a little exhausted by it all
Oh Celi!!! Great to hear from you ~ I’ve really missed you ~ and Boo ~ and the farmy!! Yes it’s all white again this morning ~ that was quite the winter white heavy ice storm we had ~ beautiful for several days ~ but really hard on the trees ~ and some real damage. I’m glad you are happy with your mill job ~ you need to have some guy install a bunch of windows for you!! Stay healthy ~ as we are ~ Hugs to you and Boo!!!
Where is that guy!?
Cecilia- so good to hear from you! I am glad you are at the Mill right now as it is a positive place to be- especially with so many of us learning how to bake and it is a healthy and creative outlet! Your photos are stunning- albeit I know you would like some sunshine PLEASE! Hugs to you and all the animals on your farmy! Cheers!
Yes! I am looking pale!
awww may the sun shine soon!
…joy-flashes… yes… ❤ !!
…rather, “joy-flash”, I think… then, lots of them!
Yes! Joy- flashes!
Yes!!
Lovely pictures and words. Today we woke to a blanket of snow (in the UK) but it has gradually disappeared over the day. Dull, grey and cold. Despite the weather hope all is well on the farmy. How l miss it.Glad you are enjoying your work at the mill.
Yes – I miss the farm too – it was an excellent period in my life.
That is a very white landscape indeed Miss C, but perhaps a silent reminder to be mindful for what might be discovered in small or partially hidden pops of color here and there. While not obvious I bet there are numerous bright spots hidden away in that landscape, the fire hydrant being one! I am surprised to find myself saying this, but I am rather envious of your snow. That is just the perfect amount to allow one to still move about, drive and avoid being lost in person size drifts.
These dogs love a good fire hydrant
You brought my flash of joy this morning, Miss C. It has been many years since I experienced that muffled whiteness, that silent snowy landscape, where it’s hard to tell where the sky starts and the land stops because they all blur into one. The coldness, and the huff of breath, and the deadening of all sounds. A wonderful nostalgia trip, from one whose current reality is rain, humidity, soaring heat, occasional flooding, having to empty the rain gauge daily, and glasses that fog up the moment I leave the car or the house. Also depressing, in its way, and occasionally, I miss the sharpness, the mental clarity that cold weather brings. I’m very happy to have heard from you, and I love the sound of your Weather Wall. I am a http://www.windy.com addict, and I love their animations of weather passing across the world map over the course of the forthcoming week, the ability to choose weather to look at rain, or wind, or temperature, or thunderstorms.
Oh yes! My fisherman son is quite addicted to windy- it is a beautiful app
I too find weather fascinating, often scrolling the radar to check others’ (for instance Kate’s above) as well as my own region… a world weather wall… you should patent that 🌞 Currently in my hinterland valley we are experiencing perfect summer weather, coolish nights and bearably hot, humid days on the back of a few weeks of weather similar to that which Kate describes which will possibly make its way down to us. I also once worked in what is best described as an almost underground bunker with only high narrow windows for the respite of glimpses of sky… walking out into the day was bliss. Take care ♡
I long for those summer evenings when I come out into daylight. At the moment I arrive in the dark and leave in the dark. But this is just a period in my life – one day things will change – it always does for nomad me. I am still enjoying it.
I love your idea of the dynamic weather map. I wonder why the mill doesn’t have more windows? What does it smell like? Is there something baking in the mill, even as the grains are being processed? I wish you a break in the sky and send you some blue patches from your homeland. We have plenty to spare here at the moment, and they are summery and warm.
We have no kitchen – it is just two enormous mills – forklifts – my bagging and packing teams, very busy – very industrial.
My joy this moment is typing left handed on my phone in order to keep holding hands with my daughter.
That is just lovely. I cannot say how joyous that makes me.
It’s 5:15 p.m. and I am first seeing your post. Yes the sky is really really grey/white, I don’t know what! So happy that you love your job at the mill. And happy too to see Boo! I miss seeing the creatures! Which reminds me of the new series on Sunday night Channel 11 All Creatures Great and Small. It seems to be as good as the original–which is a tough act to follow, believe me.
Yes. I understand . I miss those days too but now that John is retired I need to make the money – the farm fed us well for a while and I learnt an enormous amount but our time is changing