Yesterday, late afternoon, the clouds parted over the hills, and more fresh blue skies and light poured down on us. The earth became a lush vivid green, which sat beautifully next to the sky blues above. However my attention was on neither the earth nor the sky, but on the wonderful shapes and textures of the clouds drifting by. These fluffy cumulus clouds, with their curving path leading out across the sky, were calling to me. The urge to float up onto this soft white street and to follow it out, onwards towards the horizon was strong, but alas my wings haven’t grown yet, and so I had to be content to dreaming from the shore. All sorts of shapes began to reveal themselves to me as I lay back and watched from a sun warmed rock, lapped by the gentle waves. To the left you might make out the purple hare chasing two of its young, racing over the top of my cloud bank.
Formed from water, but as light as air, clouds are dreams made real, drifting across our awareness. You can divine futures, not just the weather, from the shapes which reveal themselves to our eyes. Whole dream worlds exist on the tops of flying clouds, and if you lie back and watch you never know what you might see. Cherubs and angels, cloud fairies and sky dragons, cloud wolves and dogs all call this transitional space home. There is plenty of room and energy for change up here in the clear blue air, new patterns and shapes are formed on the whim of a breeze as the weather blows across. If you let your thoughts become like clouds they too will shift and drift, in and out of awareness. Set them free to run over cloud hills and glens, and to form and dissolve freely, and your thoughts might become dreams, and those dreams might become real.
The dogs had had enough of cloud dreams, and they wanted some fresh sweet water to drink, so we followed the little burn which flows down to join the sea here. All they needed was to find a way down the steep banks, which they thought I might be able to follow. But my attention had turned back to the clouds, rolling like mist and cotton wool balls over the mountains beyond. Perhaps some raindrops from those clouds would flow down this deep blue stream, and the dogs who came after us would drink them…..
breathofgreenair 
Profoundly beautiful !!!
I had to smile 🙂 Another of those moments of reverie broken by those less than patient dogs 🙂 I love cloud gazing but I seldom put stories to them like this. Beautiful images, Seonaid.
So expansive! 🙂 The good kind of incredible!
Yes, a very good kind of incredible which held me captive watching the rolling shapes 🙂
Lovely words / awesome cloud formations!
They were pretty breathtaking clouds and kept me entranced for ages. Then the challenge of trying to capture what I was seeing!
I lived in rural Lincolnshire as a young lad. I dreamed of living in the highlands. I find your blog a treasure for my eyes and soul. Thanks for following my blog. I am honored.
Wow!
I’d take a walk with you any day, Seonaid! There is no better way to spend a day or a morning or an afternoon than to spend it cloud-gazing. -Maureen
Oh I couldn’t agree more. Time well spent relaxing and inspiring the mind. I’d love to have you along anytime Maureen 🙂
🙂
Clouds are indeed heavenly! Clouds and your words …
And a heavenly response Anna Christine 🙂
So beautiful…exciting and calming at the same time. Lovely mix of emotions to experience as I “walked” along with you.
Exciting and calming sounds like a great combination of feelings Ese, how exciting for me to hear that my weaving of words and photos produced such an effect……it was lovely having you along 🙂
Simply beautiful my dear!
🙂
Lovely. Your writing (and photos) always make me smile.
How lovely to hear that, thank you 🙂
It’s lovely to have the thought that I might bring smiles to people’s lips in all sorts of. Far flung places!
I’m going to cry. I posted a LONG note to you, hit something wrong, and it all evaporated into cyber space. I think the short of my comments is that I would love to know how you capture your weather. What type of a lens do you use? I feel like I’m standing right there next to you watching the clouds drift overhead. I know the feeling of expecting a fairy tale creature to appear out from behind the clouds as my former home looked down on an inlet. The clouds would lay on the water like a fluffy cotton blanket and I kept expecting a unicorn or Pete’s Dragon to fly up to greet me.
Your descriptions clearly augment your photos. You clearly are an excellent artist. Thank you for sharing your surroundings! I LOVE them!
Gwynn that’s so frustrating when that happens, so thank you for taking the time to compose another response. I love your generous compliments, and it’s lovely to hear the thoughts and reactions provoked by my photos and words 🙂
Cloud watching is such fun,especially with big fluffy cumulus clouds, puffed into wonderful shapes….unicorns and dragons are two of my favourite cloud creatures!
As for how I captured these clouds…..well I break almost every rule in the landscape photography book of received wisdom. I tend to like shooting with a small aperture setting, which gives me a short depth of field, but also lots of light as the aperture is wide open. This means I can use a fast shutter speed, which allows me to work without a tripod, which I really can’t bear lugging around unless I really need it. The combination of wide aperture and fast shutter speed allows me to keep lots of detail in the sky, which is what I’m after, especially when the clouds are my main focus!
The lens I was using here, and the one I tend to leave on for most types of shots is my Canon EFS 18-200, with 72 diameter lens 🙂 hope this helps….
Great cloud shots. How long did it take to move to the new spot? The cloud is still recognisably the same after that time.
It wasn’t very far, and took maybe 5 or 10 minutes, but I wasn’t walking at any great speed. The first one was taken standing out in the shallow water on some newly submerged rocks, and with a little zoom in. After I took the second shot I moved to the left onto a rocky promontory and sat for a while 🙂
Clouds! My absolute favourite Motive 🙂 Thank you for these wonderful fotos 🙂
My pleasure, I’m delighted you enjoyed the cloud drama…..you caught some great clouds behind the statues on you Titans post 🙂 There’s nothing like a great cloud drama!
Clouds should be written about with a lightness of touch. You have this in abundance! Thank you for sharing 🙂
Thank you Rachael, praise indeed from such a great author 🙂
Delighted you enjoyed the weaving.
Cloud watching is one of my most favorite (non)activities. Joanna’s too. D
Oh but it is an activity…..a mind activity, and a restorative, rebalancing practice 🙂
I encourage lots of it for good health you know!
It’s always wonderful to meet a fellow cloud watcher David. You, Joanna and I seem to have ever so much in common 🙂
So lovely, Seonaid. You certainly have some really magical moments in your days. Thanks for sharing your beautiful pics and thoughts here. 🙂
My pleasure Sylvia, it’s always lovely to share…..it makes things magical all over again 🙂
I’m enjoying yet another trip up to our beloved home in Plockton…..the third since March….I think I’ve been rather greedy this year!
Seonaid, great post as always. Pondering clouds for Sunday’s poem and your great pictures popped up. Remember a similar wavelength moment once before (got to go back and check my blog, you sent a comment).
Oh, now I’ll have to make sure and catch Sundays poem 🙂
Isn’t it funny how often creative minds meet along similar thoughts and threads. It makes me think that once our unconscious selves have connected even once, they continue to talk without is even knowing 🙂
Found it! It was almost a year ago. You did “Mountain Masterpiece.”
http://northcutt.wordpress.com/2013/07/27/confidence-3/
Ah….I remember now 🙂
That was lovely John
splendid description and narrative, great photos too.
Why thank you, splendid is such a generous compliment 🙂
Delighted you enjoyed the woven words.
When those amazing clouds call to us – we must answer them.
We must indeed Fi. I caught some pink fluffy ones last night over the hay meadow and the crags, and I thought of you 🙂