All day, yesterday, the clouds promised change. The skies are huge with information out here on the Midwest prairies. There is just SO MUCH sky. The sky has no secrets. The sky is sending us stories all day long. When I see these cirrus clouds breezing past I look for a change in the weather.
We need to keep the our eyes upward and learn to read the language of the sky. She will tell us. We don’t need to know all the proper words (though I am always grateful when one of you supply them for me) we just need to interpret the sky. Tune into her. Watch on purpose.
Everyone has a sky.
My family has me travelling a lot and it takes me a few weeks after landing anywhere to dial back into the local weather. I miss all kinds of clues as I have my head down just trying to get shit back in order again and tune back in, but yesterday I saw the sky again. It came back into focus for me.
Change did come – the squalls began rushing through about 3 am. In the deep dark. Hours after the shot below was taken.
Wind and rain and lightning. Great swathes of rain. It is almost 7am as I write this, the little storms are over now, the humidity is pouring in and Boo is still hiding under the bed!
Remind me to find a good rain gauge. I have not had one of those for years! I just keep forgetting. Just the way I keep forgetting to have someone put a new light fixture in the pantry so I can see in there or to fix my broken flour fridge.
I need to employ someone to do these things. But those people are expensive. I am advised to just buy a new one because there are no parts for fridges anymore. The parts have to go on forever back order and no-one has the time and where does one find the technician anyway. This kind of advice is easy for me to ignore. If I cannot fix it I will do without the flour fridge.
And it is taking hours every day to get this farm back in order. Every gate is a little bit broken. The barn will take days to clean up. But this is work I can do myself so I love this kind of work.
What’s the name of that site that people can go and book a field to park in. Like Airbnb but no house. I think that might bring in a bit of cash.
I managed the AirBnB for such a long time and it paid for pig food and rates (land taxes) for years. The rates here are getting so high now.
People could come and bring their tents or RVs and bikes and ride for miles. There are sites where you can book a field. I saw one once. I just cannot remember the name of it. Not glamping – there will be nothing glamorous about it.
I will keep looking.
Have a lovely day now.
Find little moments of happiness and label them today. Happy is so fleeting. We need to look those glimmers of happy in the eye and smile back as the glimmer dances by. (I like that word glimmer.).
Do you?
Out to work for me!
Celi
The Kitchen's Garden 
31 responses to “The Sky has no Secrets”
You’ve remeinded me that the sky in Australia looked much faurther away than it does in the Northern Hemisphere. That’s a bit abstract, when looking at the American prairies, but it just popped into my head.
Poor Boo!
Further away. That is an interesting description. I like it. And so real. Sky and Light are very different country to country. Maybe more so – continent to continent. But I found Lisboa Light much brighter than London Light for instance – so many variables.
Probably less light polution and the sea.
Probably.
I keep an eye to the sky when I walk, especially now that we are back into rains, sit in a valley and have our weather blow in from the Pacific. Things get all swirled up quickly, there’s no looking on for miles and miles here and sometimes storms are suddenly just on you. While I don’t mind getting wet I would rather not be hit by lightning bolts as the currents mix 🙂
Interesting about the land/parking rental. Never heard of that before. Must the land owner provide and maintain water and toilet facilities? Allow cooking fires? How far would you have to go to accommodate renters I wonder?
I think you can make up the rules as you go along. If no toilets then we would specify only RVs – have a fire pit and supply fire wood maybe.
There are very few mature trees here – but you get what you get. It is a thought that has been in my head a while.
Here in France, I look at the sky ALL the time. It is full of surprises. Things change fast. And it is always beautiful, whether it is scary or peaceful. My mother gave me a book a few years before she died called the Cloud Collector’s Handbook. I love it and read it over and over and over, glancing up to see what cloud I can collect today. Here, today, just the wispiest of wisps. But that won’t last long…this heat always bring lovely big banging storms!
Oh! I am going to find that book! Is it geographically specific? Or are the same clouds everywhere? I never thought about this before.
It’s a Chronicle book. Not geographically specific. It’s here and it’s still in stock! Sweetest, most useful book. https://www.amazon.com/Cloud-Collectors-Handbook-Gavin-Pretor-Pinney/dp/0811875423
Awesome!!! I might have a quick look for a second hand copy too. Just in case. I love pre-read books!
In the UK it is just known as Wild Camping and l think it is generally accepted as providing no facilities. Getting more and more popular here especially when campers can have fires!
Wild Camping!! Thank you for that. For the life of me o could not remember the name.
One of the things that I most like about your blog are the vistas that you have and the beautiful cloud formations. Here, it’s hard to see the sky unless you look pretty much straight up. We had a visitor here who remarked while walking through our yard that it must be like living in a forest, although we are near downtown. Most of the trees in our yard are older than our house which is around 75 years old so they are biggies.
You probably wouldn’t want the twits who insist on gamping rather than real camping. I don’t have much use for folks like that although you might be able to educate them at least a little about the need to forego luxuries and how it is very possible to live without them.
Yes! That ties in perfectly with my message. Living simply!!
I love that you have those big old trees though. So good for our earth – their canopies are huge and their roots run deep.
I think “the sky has no secrets” should be the name of your memoir.
Oh I love that!!! Thank you Charlotte.
what a great idea!
Love cloudy skies
Harvest Hosts is another option
That sounds promising – thank you!
My husband camps at Hip Camp sites sometimes. No amenities, just a place to pitch a tent. He loves them.
https://www.hipcamp.com/en-US
Aha! Thank you! Very much appreciated!
Here in the city, unless there is a storm coming, the clouds don’t seem to change very much. A couple of days ago, when looking out at the sky, I saw that rain clouds were forming, even though we were assured that there would be no rain that day. And so I got the towels in off the line just as the skies opened up.
By the way a few days ago, I said I would like to sponsor Wai and asked how I go about it.
My days are directed by the sky with a bit of backup from the weather app. The early spring forecast here for coming days is hot, windy, probably thunderstorms (yay possible rain) and fire restrictions (hmm heightened bushfire risk). But the night skies are my favourite. At the moment the sky is dark and clear and the Milky Way visible.
the skies is the reflection on environment,or how the weather will be.
We have a farmer outside of the city who has a fenced in field and you can book it for your dog to run free in. People rent the field for an hour and the dog can run free and play. Mainly used for people who have dogs that don’t do well at dog parks so they can run around off leash. I’d like to book it for my dog who does not like other dogs. We have a back yard but I’d like her to have the opportunity to walk or run in a different place. She’s a naughty dog, Scottish Terriers are know for their stubborn attitude. She chooses not to listen and has no regrets! Anyhoo, the farmer was on the news and saw this need with all of the pandemic dogs who are having behaviour issues. Apparently he is fully booked well into the future.
This sounds amazing! Fancy. How much does he book an hour for?
I imagine Boo would be a horror in a dog park too!
It is a 1.5 acre fully fenced field and it is about $12usd per dog an hour. He started it for dogs with reactive issues or people practicing recall to have a safe place. I think he did it first because of his own dog with issues and then other people asked about it and he started renting it out online in 1 hour time slots. They also have some agility props so you can give your dog some extra stimulation. I’d like to try it out sometime.
I was recently made aware of individuals who rent their outdoor space for safe and private dog parks with a wide variety of “amenities”. There is a website to find these locations. It is sniffspot.com
Aha!! Ok!
I think our skies Down Under are like your prairie skies; gigantic, and full of information and drama. I bet your starry nights are epic too, unless there’s too much light pollution. Once we get out west and up over the Great Dividing Range, the stars are huge and brilliant and as thick as snowflakes. I’m keeping an eye on the skies today; we had a bit of much needed rain yesterday, enough to restore the grass but not hinder the cane harvest. More promised today, but I have to go to a charity fundraiser at lunchtime, so do I carry a brolly or not? As you can tell, my weather-related questions today are not very deep!