Reports From Unknown Places

Digital painting of a countryside landscape before dawn, in morning mist. There are many white flowers in the foreground, trees and electric poles in the distance. The sky is a foggy blue, with a thin gap of light coming through.

We report: along country paths, a lot of umbels have been going to seed early. In the dark and the fog, our expert is trying to figure out what is hogweed, and what is Queen Anne’s lace - crouched in the tall, sodden grass, their neck craned to examine the leaves and the stems.

Digital painting of big, fuzzy, dark grey, clouds spread out across a light grey sky.

We report: welcome to a short moment in time when the clouds are just like this. It took the wind, the amount of humidity in the atmosphere and the pressure of it too, some seawater, and us looking up at the whole picture. The sky has never been and will never be this again.

Digital painting of a blue sky filled with a variety of small clouds, all arranged in clusters, some of them wave-like, others similar to freckles. The whole thing is a little chaotic.

We report: July was so full, bright, and hot; August meets us with a slow burn, and shy glances from the sun. The clouds will not settle into any one shape. We appreciate the lack of extremes in the mild weather, and even the wind that has us keep a jumper in our backpack.

Digital painting of a sunrise sky, a diagonal swathe of purple and bright pink clouds over the orange sky, and the dark trees standing on the horizon.

We report in between large yawns: there had not been pink in the dawn sky in a little while, and we had forgotten how much fondness a pink sky brings up in us. We watch the gulls fly overhead with each a bellyful of light, and this sunrise is anything but quiet, but it shines.

Digital painting of a night sky, dark blue clouds in a blue sky with a gradient. There are numerous stars where the clouds do not block them out.

We report: we ask our expert whether they are inventing brand new meteor showers for the fun of it, spiteful because the night is a little colder than expected. They talk about Comet 169P/NEAT and its Alpha Capricornids dust cloud, and we have to believe they did not make it up.

Digital painting of a sky full of developing, voluminous clouds, a slight yellow tinge to it. There is a veil behind those large clouds, fibres of steam catching the light.

We report while the developing clouds are beginning to conflict with the late afternoon light. The world is bathed in a milky sort of sunshine, the shadows are defined, yet pale and fleeting. The sky looks full. Yet again, we wait for something to happen, some kind of spark.

Digital painting of a field of tall yellow grass, with tall, voluminous clouds casting blue shadows underneath. There are tall, dark green trees in the distance.

We report: our expert is convinced of future rain, which does not seem to far-fetched at the moment. We are always expecting rain anyway, somehow. They wait for meaner, taller clouds even as these ones already seem very tall and a little mean. We make it an exercise of patience.

Digital painting of a sunset sky over some dark roofs, antennas and chimneys; the sky is cloudy, pale blues and lilacs on long clouds, with just a breach of bright yellow sunshine above the horizon.

We report on a damp evening: it took us all this time to get used to the summer heat, and now that we are going through a slightly colder spell, we feel a little bereft. As the light grows dimmer, our expert urges us to walk faster. We keep the sunset to our left.

Digital painting of a dusk sky, long blue clouds in a powder blue sky, a little bit of volume on them, a little bit of dim light hitting them. A few more small, smooth clouds are scattered across the frame.

We report: there is a little bit of spare time at the end of this day, a few minutes that had nowhere else to go, so our expert and we took them. We cannot be certain, but we think we stayed in those blue hour minutes for days, while the night stayed unmoving in expectation.

Digital painting of a cloudy sky, smooth waves of dark greys tightly woven together.

We report: it does not rain like they said it would, and it does not get any darker today, though it is quite dark, really. Nevertheless, the singing beneath the clouds does not relent, the way the earth prepares itself for tidings of storms - whether any acme is reached or not.

Digital painting of the sun, partly covered by translucent white clouds with fraying edges in a bright blue sky. The sun is surrounded by a rainbow-like circle, a corona.

We report: this is a day when the visibility of the sun greatly affects the temperature, and coincidentally, this is also a day when the visibility of the sun has been very ambiguous. At this point in time, the amount of sunlight we are getting just about overcomes the wind.

Digital painting of a sunrise sky, tall blue-grey clouds with yellow and orange edges from where the sun is coming through. A little bit of blue sky in the back, mostly covered with fuzzy layers of clouds.

We report on a windy July morning: it is some time yet before full light, yet the brightness of the clouds fills our eyes just the same. By our side, our expert is working hard to fully wake up, keeping quiet so as to conserve energy. We hear dew dripping from the gutter.

Digital painting of a dark night sky, full of stars, with the Milky Way visible in the middle of the frame.

We report: we get a glimpse at the sky for a few seconds before we have to go tonight, but we remember it. The shadow of the Milky Way looms over the entirety of the vault, a shape built out of distant unknowns. Our eyes are not made for darkness, but we long to see more of it.

Digital painting of a cloudy sky, shades of rainy grey on puffy clouds stacked in thick layers.

We report as we trod the sodden ground: the steady, brilliant rains of the past week have brought out all the worms, the snails and the slugs, and our expert keeps pointing them out in delight. Tree branches bend under the weight of the rainwater caught in the leaves.

Digital painting of some wispy white clouds in a bright blue sky, curling this and that way, describing odd shapes as they meet one another.

We report: every now and then, we ask our expert to identify clouds for us, and they stare, open and close their mouth a few times, frown, and then say « I don’t know ». They always eventually find out, but we feel a little relieved that they do not know everything.

Digital painting of a sunset sky, a small red sun nested among the tall dark grey clouds that frame the pale yellow sky. The clouds are orange on the edges that the sunshine touches.

We report: on this diluvian day, we obtained a customary twelve minutes break so that we could ensure that the sun still existed. Once these twelve minutes had elapsed, our star dipped into the lowest clouds, and the rain took up once again, a little louder than before.

Digital painting of an early dawn sky, medium blue, filled with clouds of a darker blue. The clouds are, for the most part, thin and wispy, pooling in a thicker configuration in the lower tier of the frame. There are silhouettes of dark houses.

We report in the tentative morning: we are lead home by the light to come. Our legs are tired, but gravity barely exists at this hour. Our expert is giggly from a sleepless night, their blue smile barely visible in pretty pre-dawn. We think we are floating above our own body.

Digital painting of a countryside landscape, fields of yellow and green bordered by trees and a few houses scattered here and there. There are mountains in the distance. The sky is dark, full of rain, with shreds of clouds floating there.

We report: the storm come by way of septentrional winds, and it does indeed feel particularly northern for a reason that escapes us. The rain is coming straight down in dark, heavy drops that colour the landscape like ink - a few of them enough to render us soaking wet.

Digital painting of a bright blue sky, half full with stacks of long, voluminous white and grey clouds, fair weather clouds.

We report while the sky is busy organising its clouds: after some rain here and there in the last few days, the air is brighter and cleaner than it has been in a while. We take our expert up a hill to watch the clouds take on the horizon, and we sit there for a very long time.

Digital painting of a sunset sky, blue dulled out by twilight, filled with wispy pink clouds swept by the wind.

We report: time is steadily leaking out of the sky, drop after drop of sunset falling on our face. There is fresh-fallen rain glistening in shallow puddles on the ground, darker clouds to the west, and just enough colour in the sky to last us a few more minutes of day.

Digital painting of a night scene: a quiet sea under a clear, deep, starry sky, with only a few, thin, long cumulus on the horizon. The sky is a gradient of blue, from light to dark.

We report at the latest of the night, and at the earliest of the morning. Quiet as the ocean seems to be, the wind is big enough to shatter the waves as they come to the shore, scattering clouds of sea foam on the sand. The tide is ebbing, retreating with pieces of the night.

Digital painting of a mostly cloudy sky, a wild jumble of entwined grey, white, and blue. The light catches these shapes dramatically, heightening the contrast.

We report as the air is rapidly cooling after a hot afternoon: really, there are all sorts of angles at which we could look at the sky today. They are all correct, and they all make the same amount of sense. We prefer the one that hurts our neck the least, however.

Digital painting of a blue sky: a large, white, fibrous cloud floats, long strands spread out across the top of it. It is surrounded by fainter, similar clouds. Bright sunshine glints off parts of the clouds.

We report: a beast of many arms is scouring through the heavens, losing bits along the way. All throughout the land, many such critters have spawned, all moving towards the same horizon with slow purpose. As a reporter, we feel the need to find out where they are headed.

Digital painting of a sunset sky, dark grey clouds crowding the left-hand side of the frame, smaller, but voluminous clouds taking on orange and yellow tints on the right-hand side. The sky is still a bright blue in the background.

We report as we are going through the rituals of the late evening: there is a thunderstorm skirting the horizon. Though there is nothing we can see yet, we can definitely hear it, muffled rumbles that have our head on a swivel. We will keep an eye on the path of this storm cell.

Digital painting of a cloudy night sky, a uniform grey-yellow colour, with the faded, orange full moon floating above a dark line of trees.

We report: when we saw the sky darken with clouds in the evening, we were convinced that we would not see the full moon tonight. It was not a safe bet, nothing ever is when it comes to the moon. Not only did we see it, but the whole sky was alit with its presence.

Digital painting of a grey sky, dark clouds with jagged edges framing a lighter, smoother background. Some long clouds are caught on some of the darker ones, akin to a floating flag.

We report in windy conditions: spiders are weaving large webs between torn up clouds. The air is still sparkling with humidity from a shower, but these are no rain clouds - only passersby, which we can appreciate. For such big creatures, we are tiny specks of dust on a long path.

Digital painting of a countryside scene: bright blue sky over a dry grass field, a few bales of hay and some green trees appearing from behind the hill. There is a small, long white cloud above the horizon, on the right-hand side of the frame. There are blades of tall grass swaying in the foreground.

We report: the sky is wide open, and the sun is somewhere above our head, too bright for us to try and look for it. Bales of hay have been appearing on top of the hills, and the remaining grass underneath has been left to yellow in the heat. A bit of wind steals our hat.

Digital painting of a sunset scene: a few houses surrounded by vegetation, a stone wall and a few street lamps. The sky is blue with bright orange light gathered in its lower tier. Some long, blue-grey clouds line the horizon.

We report as light moves from the sky to the street lamps: there is a patch of wasteland between two houses where heather blooms in the summer. Our expert took us there tonight, and the crickets could be heard from down the road, and the smell of the dry brush coloured the air.

Digital painting of a night sky, a dark shade of blue, with darker blue clouds framing a yellow gibbous moon. The clouds are solid, but a little wispy still.

We report: a lot of the weather lately has been exceptions upon oddities on top of anomalies. There is something comforting, then, in knowing that the moon tonight was to be a waxing gibbous in Scorpio, somewhere around 85% full; and that is what the moon was indeed.

Digital painting of a jumble of dark grey clouds, curling in and out around one another. The clouds have jagged edges on their extremities.

We report in between bouts of rain - we can tell we are in between because while the rain has stopped, we can already feel new drops on our face. The clouds are churning, brewing up a few showers in advance. Though it has been raining all day, the air is still a little warm.