Reports From Unknown Places

Digital painting of a snowy landscape at twilight. The trees in the back are all bare, dark silhouettes with lights showing around their feet like the eyes of creatures. The sky is mostly cloudy, opaque, a dark blue-grey. There is a slender gap just above the horizon letting through a slightly lighter sky. The open field is covered in snow, dimly lit by something out of frame. There is a large group of birds in the sky, barely visible in the dark.

We report: last days of January, and winter still has a long way to go. We see between scrawny trees the extra hour of daylight that has been earned back, and we really, really cling to it. The wind has a whistling, howling quality that we only hear around this time of the year.

Digital painting of a large, developing cloud, mostly dark grey, white where the light is catching it from the side. To the other side, a smaller, white cloud is also rising, and behind it, an anvil is growing into the blue sky.

We report from a hollow in a cloud: extremely cold at this height, but everything is light and shade, and we cannot see the ground from here. The cloud where we are is at mid-altitude, but we watch it expand above us, and we watch the lower clouds move very fast beneath our feet.

Digital painting of a slightly washed out blue sky, with a very thin cirrus cover over a good half of it. There are long, scraggly, wispy white cirrus scattered across the frame; in the centre, one of the clouds is a bright, solid white with iridescent edges. The light is coming from the left-hand side, a slightly yellow swathe.

We report: the sun is obscured by the clouds, but there is a bright castaway to the side - almost brighter than the sun itself. The weather has been frazzled all day, so we came out in full rain gear, but the scales will not dip one way or another. We end up needing sunglasses.

Digital painting of a snowy landscape at dawn: the sky is a gradient of a very pale blue to pastel yellow, with gauzy, grey and bright orange clouds stretched across the width of the frame. Just above the horizon, a line of bubbly grey clouds. Underneath, an open field covered in snow, with trees sprinkled here and there, a house with a white roof, and a phone line running across the landscape.

We report at dawn, in a place where it does not snow very often. Our expert attempted to wake us up when the snow was falling in the middle of the night, but we did not even remember it upon waking up. We slept well, so we cannot bring to ourselves to regretting it too badly.

Digital painting of a twilight sky: a soft gradient of blue, with a row of undulating, dark blue clouds crossing the frame diagonally. A small crescent, waxing moon glows in the centre.

We report: we heard somewhere that the moon is pulling away from Earth at the rate of 3.8 centimetres a year. All around, we know this will not amount to a noticeable difference over the span of our life. We still think we ought to find a way to bring it back closer to us.

Digital painting of a dark grey sky in which the clouds are woven together in complex braids. The relief in the clouds is especially pronounced.

We report under especially cloudy clouds. When the clouds are like this, we have a hard time thinking back to a time when the sky was blue (though it was only yesterday). Curiously, there is not even a hint of precipitation; it is cloudy simply for the sake of it.

Digital painting of a blue sky with long, wispy white and light grey clouds in the bottom half of the frame. Some of the clouds are combed up and sideways into short curls.

We report: this morning, the clouds weigh nothing, and the sun is high. It is so bright outside that it is a while before we can fully open our eyes, but it is hard to feel irritated when the light feels so invigorating. There is excited chatter between two blackbirds in a tree.

Digital painting of a cloudy sky, dark clouds lit golden from the bottom of the frame, from where diffuse, bright yellow emerges.

We report on the train: it is a little too early for the sunset, so the overhead lights are still off, but this surely is sunset light already. The specks of dust and old rain stains on the windows are glitter. Across the aisle, our expert’s face is outlined in gold.

Digital painting of a starry sky, dark blues and purples mixed together in a slight haze. There is the dark silhouette of a skinny, bare tree detaching against the stars.

We report: we chance a last look at the sky before going to sleep, out of habit. We think we know it will be too cloudy to see anything, but we can never go to bed without a last look. We remember why that it is upon seeing the stars. A bit of fog moves between constellations.

Digital painting of a cloudy sky: a large, dark grey mass takes up most of the frame, save for the lower right corner. There is a bit of pale blue there, with small, wispy clouds, and the sun, half-hidden by the larger grey cloud. The lighting is overall rather dim.

We report in the shadow of this large, dark cloud: there was hail earlier, and we know this is hail again. We should perhaps get out of its path, but we feel hypnotised by the way this cloud is eating the light, the ravenous thing. Its underbelly seems to dip from its own weight.

Digital painting of a blue sky filled with long, wispy, fibrous cirrus clouds flowing from the lower left corner of the frame.

We report: when we listened to weather predictions this morning, and no rain was announced for the whole day, we heard our expert snort quietly. It did not take very long for them to be justified. It was true, however, that it sometimes did not rain, and the sky was blue then.

Digital painting of a sunrise landscape: an empty, open field, a line of bare trees in the distance. The sky is mostly cloudy, pastel purple-blue clouds, and a halo of bright pink above the horizon to the right-hand side. The clear bit of sky showing through a gap between the clouds is almost white, washed out.

We report in the pink few minutes of sunrise. In the morning, the sun veers more and more northeast from its wintry southeast position - although it is not any warmer that we can tell. We follow a host of sparrows from tree to tree as we are trying to dodge a very thin drizzle.

Digital painting of a foggy country road around blue hour. The sky is opaque, with a few birds flying there. There is a road sign, and phone lines running on the side of the road. There are trees in the distance, caught in the fog.

We report: there is enough fog that we keep wondering whether there is something wrong with our eyes. We could easily get lost in there. The landmarks we take note of disappear in short distance, and we do not see them whenever we retrace our steps. Luckily, we are not lost.

Digital painting of a cloudy sky: thick, opaque, dark grey layers. There are pocket-like formations of various sizes bubbling downwards on the top layer of the clouds.

We report in generally stormy weather: it is quite windy, and quite rainy as well. Nothing is terrible, but there is a lot of weather happening, and it is reflected in big, liquid clouds spanning several lengths of sky. We notice that some leaves had yet to fall from their trees.

Digital painting of a waning crescent moon closeup in the daytime. The sky is a bright, clear blue, and the moon is in its centre, a few craters and mountains faintly showing.

We report: mid-morning, the moon is firmly past its upper culmination, and on its way to the horizon. It is waning, a week away from the new moon. In the nighttime, it is a late visitor we see when we should not be awake; in the daytime, it is a wild cryptid we stumble upon.

Digital painting of a sunset sky: tall, voluminous clouds rising into the blue sky, caught in golden light, grey and brown in the shade.

We report on the road, after our expert filled the petrol tank. Our fingers jump across clouds behind the window, the way we used to do it as a child; it is still covered in droplets of past heavy rain, weeping sideways from the speed. The wet road looks like it is on fire.

Digital painting of a seascape at twilight, dark blue sky overlooking the choppy dark blue sea, with a swath of pink on the horizon.

We report: when we come here, we know it will be much windier than everywhere else, and in the winter, the ocean wind is always harsh. It gets in our ears and rearranges every thought and memory we have ever had, until we too feel like wind and water. This is why we come here.

Digital painting of a cloudy sky: a large, sweeping veil in the top half of the frame, and smaller shapes with sharper outlines at the bottom. There is pale golden light coming through a gap of pale blue sky, illuminating the edges of the clouds.

We report: we think of the weather as alive, always, but today especially. There was a storm last night, and the sky is still sorting itself out from the mess it caused. It is raining disorderly, in short bursts. There, between two clouds, the sun finds room enough to shine.

Digital painting of a blue sky in which white, swirly clouds swoop this and that way; the largest one in the middle of the frame features a subtle wavy pattern on top of it.

We report: over time, we have taken to collecting the small incidental waves caused by the Kelvin Helmholtz instability. Not too differently to four-leaf clovers, we superstitiously imagine that our being there and then, looking for it, is bound to bring us good luck.

Digital painting of a dark, snowy landscape before sunrise. The layer of snow is thin on the fields, and the trees are bare. The sky is cloudy, dark blue, slightly lighter above the horizon.

We report: on the way home, we look for high ground to watch the sunset, hoping it is not nightfall when we find it. It feels familiar, walking fast in brisk weather for a moment of colours. We never find the right spot, and we realise our two eyes are not enough to see it well.

Digital painting of a dark, snowy landscape before sunrise. The layer of snow is thin on the fields, and the trees are bare. The sky is cloudy, dark blue, slightly lighter above the horizon.

We report in those very cold hours of the almost-morning. The snow is untouched on the fields, barely any fox tracks in the hollows of the furrows when we look carefully. The wind is moving the clouds along, and the sky is already less opaque than it was yesterday.

Digital painting of a blue sky half-full of grey clouds. There are large sweeping ones with precipitation at the top of the frame, and voluminous ones with silver linings in the bottom half. The dark greys are tinted blue.

We report in the mid-afternoon: we have been keeping track of the weather acoustically today. It is all in the nuances of the muffled sounds of the rain versus the sharp attack of the hail, and the freezing rain somewhere in between. If there was snow, we missed it.

Digital painting of a quiet blue sky full of wispy, translucent clouds arranged in wavy and twirly sorts of patterns.

We report: so far today, no rain, no hail, and the wind is awfully dry too. We have chosen this day for a walk, thinking of the clear weather as great conditions. That it is, but we are feeling the chill on our face very well. We carry a sun glare in the corner of our teary eyes.

Digital painting of a sunset sky, a pastel gradient of blue to pink. There are pink and purple clouds scattered throughout the sky, and two birds flying in the distance. There is a wide expanse of woodlands, dark in the twilight.

We report after a shower of fine hail: we thought the night would have well and truly fallen once the sky cleared. We now realise that since the solstice, we have gained a handful of minutes of sunlight. It is still practically nothing, but we are eager to notice these things.

Digital painting of a night sky, a full moon glowing behind a group of clouds. Around the moon is an iridescent glow, more diffuse than a halo. Behind the backlit clouds, the sky is pitch black.

We report: there is a lunar corona tonight, and this is the first time we are able to observe one so closely. When it is a solar corona, even the darkest of sunglasses cannot help us see it. We feel just fine watching the moon; we only have to accept that it is looking back.

Digital painting of a moor landscape: a bright blue sky above a path among the tall brown and orange grass. The light catches on the vegetation, and the puddles on the path. There are a few trees far on the horizon.

We report well-immersed in the brand new clouds of the brand new year. And it is what it is, because the year is so very new, everything in it is quite new, including the mud from yesterday's walk, still caked on our boots. We try to hold on to the shininess of the moment.

Digital painting of a moor landscape: a bright blue sky above a path among the tall brown and orange grass. The light catches on the vegetation, and the puddles on the path. There are a few trees far on the horizon.

We report: this is a bluebird day. It went below freezing last night, and when we got out this morning, there were icicles on branches, and a thin layer of ice on puddles. The sky is big and empty; we can only assume this year is all out of clouds, which is only fair.

Digital painting of a dark sunset sky, the kind of dark purple of shadows with bright red, squiggly clouds creating islands of light.

We report from high in the clouds, where there is warmth in the perishing light, and where things move fast in a way that makes sense. For this little while, we do not think about the tiredness of dark days, and the languor that the cold has wrapped our bones in.

Digital painting of a purple night sky, filled with large, dark purple clouds. There is a handful of stars shining through a gap in between the clouds.

We report: we have seen this bright, bright spot in the sky enough times over the past few days that we remembered to ask our expert what planet it is. This is Jupiter, bracketed by Gemini and Canis Minor. We spend some time imagining we can see the storm raging on its surface.

Digital painting of a wide sky, mostly engulfed in large clouds; half of them are voluminous, dark grey, with white highlights where the sun touches them. The other half is a flat, opaque, yellowish drape engulfing the sky diagonally.

We report as we are losing blue sky to this cumulonimbus. It has been noted throughout the day that it is still quite cold, which our expert attributes to the mean sea-level pressure remaining high throughout the week. We think it should snow, if only because we would like it.