Ate my bagel and fruit and drank a cup of coffee pondering in the swing and watching all my bird friends this morning. They seem to have adjusted to all the bushes being cut. No where to hide now. Saw a wood thrush and a fat downy woodpecker. Those two love the suet feeders.

The day was a scorcher today. I honestly think it’s hotter now then when I was a child. Can’t imagine riding a bike all day on cement streets in this heat. Several weeks ago I could sit for hours in the swing but now after lunch the humidity and heat are running me back in the house.

I could not help but notice all the bright white clouds accenting the dark blue sky. So ethereal. I’ve been sky watching all day. The sky kept its color till late afternoon when the cloud cover painted the sky a dirty T-shirt white. I saw lots of beautiful thunderhead clouds early morning, clusters of them boiling up in imposing shapes. Watched a huge cumulous cloud shaped like a sea turtle drift down the street and then slowly fall apart behind my great-grandmother’s house.

Always wondered what a cloud would feel like when you touched it. You’d think it would be fluffy like a cotton ball but a cloud is composed of condensed water vapor floating in the atmosphere so it would probably just feel cool to the touch as your hand passed through. Read that clouds are vital to heating and cooling the Earth. They didn’t do much cooling today!

Cloudy skies have the most beautiful sunsets. The clouds reflect the last rays of the setting sun back toward the ground and create vivid colors. The sunlight passes through a thicker lay of the atmosphere and the blue light we see during the daytime scatters away from our eyes and we see more oranges and red tints. We take for granted all the beautiful skies but Father Sky works hard coloring and punctuating his blue sky canvas with clouds.

Ever thought about what a cloud could weigh? They float through the sky like dainty dandelion seeds but a typical fair weather cumulous cloud can weigh one billion four hundred million pounds. Man! Hope they don’t decided to start falling from the sky. Father Sky and Mother Nature better get some duct tape to keep us safe!

Like in our lives, we have cloudy days where the sunshine is blocked out. But when the sun breaks through we are reminded of all our blessings.

“If clouds are blocking the sun, there will always be a silver lining that reminds me to keep on trying,” — Matthew Quick