Always my pleasure to pass along the CAS Newsletter. I recently became the leader of an Imperial County Cloudspotter group. If you’re into clouds – and I am – in fact at the moment I’m writing this I’m inside a cloud because it’s raining – you should consider joining – and if you’re in Imperial County, join the cloudspotter group too. We don’t always have a lot of clouds around here, so they’re more of a treat!
It was inevitable. At some point someone was going to challenge me to write a sonnet about Covid-19. Despite my science background, I was mostly inspired by the roadwork at the corner of Highway 86 and State route 22.
Behind the cones
Workers dismissed, how long for, they don’t know.
Equipment lying folded by the street’s
half torn-up surface; they’ve been here for weeks –
the crane, the gravel truck, the red back-hoe,
all wondering if they’re going to start again.
It’s been a month now since the workers left –
something is wrong – the world’s been set adrift
and they are out here rusting in the rain
that’s also started to erode the work
they’ve done so far. Nature takes back the earth
freed from the blacktopl strange kind of rebirth
spawned from the fear of one small viral quirk.
One day when covid-19’s finally gone
the work behind the cones will carry on.
I love the desert rain when you can see it falling from a distance – sometimes the air below being so dry the rain never reaches the ground – the effect known as virga.
#1409 Desert Virga. Watercolor collage on foamcore, 7.5×5.5″ in mat to fit 10×8 frame. $45.
Contains the haiku:
Desert virga falls,
precipitation transforms
into a thin veil.
Tomorrow is Black Friday and I’m a retailer so I’ll be at a show in Palm Springs. Today is Thanksgiving so I wanted to find something to be thankful for:
The flood got deeper as I continued the setup
This Thanksgiving I am thankful that:
I’ll take any kind of water – rain, hail, flood, fog, sleet, snow – (I’ve only so far done shows with the first 4) – and even earthquakes (yes, been there done that) over wind any day. Wind is the true 4-letter word. Nevertheless, it’s not easy to set up in the rain.
The ground was sodden when I got there, hence tarps under everything. The 4th wall is doubling as a second ground tarp inside the booth.
Soaked items include: sneakers, socks, jeans, inside of truck tailgate (it has rug), some corners of the cardboard boxes, eventually the outside of the partial walls you see set up, hoodie, mat bin, cooler, ground tarp. The weather forecast for Litchfield Park, AZ, though is better for the actual show days.
As ever a pleasure to pass on the Cloud Appreciation Society Newsletter. Now I have to just think of the best reason for them to visit Salton City on that US trip!
Here’s the monthly what’s-happening-in-the-skyscape-world newsletter. Powerful storms! We certainly live in a wacky climate.
Well, it is sky, after all. That is my biggest inspiration. Set up in warm weather on Friday, regretting not having brought a pair of shorts and a tank top with me! But there were a few clouds around.
In the evening I was outside at the airbnb where I was staying in Cornville – about 25 mins drive to the south east. There were clouds and a beautiful double rainbow. At one point I thought there was a hint of a triple, which is a first-time-in-my-life experience for me. Unfortunately I was on the phone so didn’t catch the triple.
Double rainbow in Cornville
Today was a nice day until about 11am. Then we started with a steady drizzle. At about 2:30 it let up a little, enough to run to the restroom. From there I could see these clouds low between the mountains.
My booth is on the row second from the right, with the white wall hanging out covering half of the front.
We were thinking tomorrow will be better, but I’ve just looked at the forecast. <sigh>.
I had bought some tshirts for a summer camp class last year that didn’t run, so I had a clump of white tshirts. I decided to have a little fun with them over the last couple days. Not that I need any more tshirts…. Let me know if you are interested. All these are an adult medium, but I can recreate them in a different size. $20+tx/sh.
“So, I’m different. So?”
“Neighborhood watch”, the inspiration for this came from my chalk painting ‘The artist as part of the environment
The detail on Neighborhood watch
“Disappearing butterflies”
“Always dance in the rain.”
“Circles and splashes”. Front of tshirt
“Circles and splashes” tshirt back of tshirt.
I love to forward the Cloud Appreciation Society’s newsletter. This time there is a very interesting item about a song written about Luke Howard who is the man who classified the clouds. You can hear a couple of these through the link, on youtube. I have the CD on order!
Skyscapes for the Soul - Jeni Bate 