To me, the sky is a different altitude of gardens. I love to watch the glow of the pinks, purples and blue hues of the sunsets. I enjoy working in my lower altitude garden in the dawn of the pinks and purples admist the awakening chirps of birds. Then there is the cloud show. Sometimes I watch the various cloud patterns on a sunny summer day, watching the cumulus clouds arrange different pictures in the sky. As a kid I loved imagining who or what was up there! When we first moved into this house, in a new neighborhood, there were no trees in most of the backyards. The sky was immense and I’d sit on the back porch while the children played in my beginnings of want-to-be trees and emerging flowers as I watched sky shows. I think the most scaringly fascinating shows were watching the cumulous clouds build into the powerful storm producing anvil shape. We had recently moved from the depths of tornado alley and we knew the power those storms could punch. While living in north Texas I learned to read the clouds and the weather potential in our future. I came to appreciate the power of God’s creation building and towering in the sky. This year I realized it’s been more difficult to see these clouds build because our trees are finally getting taller than our house! To see great sky shows we have to go on a walk, which we tend to do most evenings.

Last night was no exception. We’ve had lots of rain this summer, thankfully they tend to make minor tropical showers as opposed to the fearsome tornado clouds. Nevertheless, as we walk down the hill, we have the huge expanse of sky available for our viewing pleasure. More nights than not this summer, we’ve walked and watched the cumulous clouds build into monstrously large grey thunderheads producing temporary tropical showers. Those showers go in the other direction or float our way an hour later. Hence, we walked down the hill, to the next street, up the long hill, met an extremely friendly bull dog and owner we had to become aquainted with…when hmmmm, the clouds were getting darker and definitely moving into our neighborhood. We were about a 15 minute walk from home. No problem, but time to go.

We cut our walk on top of the hill short and headed down hill when finally the sprinkles fell. Hmmm, that cloud is moving faster than usual. It was a mere t-head in the distance minutes ago. Keep going. 11yods on the bike was loving the wetness; 14yod was walking with me and getting concerned. I was taking it all in stride. We turned the corner and the rain came down harder. I challenged my easy going dd to a jog…that lasted to the corner when she slowed back to a walk. We got wetter. We crossed the street, continued down the hill, turned the corner….and it hit!!!! Major gusts of rain were now striking our faces. I told ds to go home now! I challenged dd into another jog. That soon ended because our sensitive eyes were getting saturated with water. I’d stop to try to dry them with the corner of my soaking blouse…no good. Just open the eyes! Hmmmm, they were just too water logged to open. We trudged home. At the corner, my son was standing, having gotten his bike home and came back for us. We crossed the street and this was our final descent down the hill to our house….and we got more deluged with rain. I could barely keep my eyes open. This was crazy! Such a simple thing and I could barely see! DS took my hand. We finally made it into our driveway and I almost ran into one of my gardens. DS got behind me, put his hands on my waist to steer me onto the correct path and I finally got to the front door.

I warmed up in a cozy bath of coconut lime verbana from Bath and Body Works. Then I settled on the couch with my kitty, now enjoying the pitter patter of rain from the inside…my favored way of enjoying rain! The kids warmed up and got in their pjs. DS laid on the other side of the couch from me and we shared the blanket as the kitty went from him to me to decide which lap to settle on. Eventually I looked out the window and looked up into the sky. The rain had stopped and the clouds were clearing and I could see blue skies emerging from the cirrus clouds. Around here, I never know what the garden of the sky is going to look like from moment to moment!