Clouds

(I took this in mid-April when the Bradford pear tree blossoms
looked liked clouds attached to tree trunks.)

As I've said before, I get songs stuck in my head. It's just the way I am hard-wired. It's my own form of a streaming audio track. Depending on the song, it can get darn right annoying.

But I'm OK with the latest theme song that darts into my head during walks down the County Line or driving on spring days.

It's Joni Mitchell's "Both Sides Now."



My sisters and I sang that song as a trio for a Pratt County 4-H County Club Day once upon a time. I don't have a Youtube version of the Moore sisters' rendition.

The words are, in part:

Rows and flows of angel hair

And ice cream castles in the air

And feather canyons everywhere
I've looked at clouds that way.

I've looked at clouds from both sides now.
From up and down, and still somehow,

It's clouds illusions I recall.
I really don't know clouds at all.

(This was taken in June 2008 - some of the weirdest clouds I've ever seen)

Moons and Junes and ferris wheels
The dizzy dancing way you feel

(Taken at Lauritzen Gardens in Omaha, 2009)

As every fairytale comes real
I've looked at love that way.

Once upon a time, I had a cloud watcher who lived at my house. Brent would find fire-breathing dragons, frolicking puppies and cotton-tailed bunny rabbits as he gazed out the back seat car windows.


"Do you see it, Mommy?!" he'd exclaim as he kept his eyes on the skies.

It didn't surprise me that Brent was my sky watcher. As a little boy, he was enamored with Peter Pan. Imagining life in the clouds was part and parcel for this little guy who watched Mary Martin's version of "Peter Pan" so many times the VHS tape developed a glitch.

My own Peter Pan is growing up, despite his childhood role model. Brent will be 22 years old next Monday. How can that be?


Even though no one is prompting me from the back seat these days, I am still enamored with clouds. Day or evening, they paint an ever-changing picture on the County Line.

My challenge to you today: What do you see in the clouds? Enjoy!