A Cloud

Yesterday morning I looked out of my kitchen window early morning and saw a strange cloud. I wandered through the small conservatory to the door and took a photo with my phone.  I was busy and gave it no more thought until a bit later when I realised I had just witnessed an unusual phenomena: a Nacreous ("mother of pearl") cloud. The irony is that my SLR with a far more suitable telephoto lens was on the table within easy reach had I realised what I was witnessing. C'est la vie. For all that it was a splendid sight.

Ennui

Over Christmas and New Year and for a while after that I was not at all well. I isolated the whole time despite never testing positive for Covid. Whether I had Covid or not I'll never know. However ever since then I've had days of extreme tiredness where functioning normally has either been a huge effort or downright impossible. Fortunately it hasn't interfered too much with my life because I'm long past the age of having to work to keep food on the table. So if The Ennui hits me I just grumble and accept it. Fortunately one has to be pretty far gone before one can share a morning with friends over coffee in The Woodlands. On the odd occasion I have simply fallen asleep I've managed to avoid falling off my chair in public and when I wake up I'm just expected to catch up with the chat. That's what it's like with true friends. 

When I cam home from hospital last week the airport security was absolutely rammed with people and they were obviously short staffed. So getting through security took the best part of an hour I reckon. My metal work and exterior plumbing is always met with consideration and good humour on both sides but it does hold things up a bit for them. Few people were wearing masks.

The plane was full and  only a few of us were wearing masks.

So a couple of days later I tested positive.

Oddly a friend travelling from a different hospital, through a different airport on a different plane arrived home on Lewis the day before me and tested positive the day before I did. 

Neither of us is particularly unwell. 

However on the too frequent 'Ennui Days' when the feeling of weariness and dissatisfaction is so strong that even thinking about making a meal is an effort, it makes me realise just how many people there are who can't just sit down and say "Bugger it!" are now having to cope with the aftermath of this disease. 

When I was flying home last week I was reminded that, however thick the clouds, the sky above them is always clear:

Spam and Clouds

Today I noticed a comment from a Chinese blogger. It was a perfectly satisfactory and 'real' comment so I actually replied even though the person concerned runs what looks like a perfectly respectable and legitimate on-line shop and is, presumably, simply trying to increase whatever the on-line equivalent of footfall is. A while later when going through blogs I realised that this was a spammer  who was rather more subtle than others. A comment was often 'borrowed' from elsewhere in the comments and used. It was only because I recognised one of the comments that I realised it was a duplicate.

Spammers are certainly going through a prolific phase at the moment and there will be times when I'm not in Blogland for a day or two when they will appear on my blogs for a little longer than I would like.

However I am not going to use comment moderation (unless comments are for a post over a couple of weeks old where I might otherwise miss them) because I think it ruins the whole conversation aspect of blogging. I don't want to comment in isolation and I'm sure that some of my readers don't either.

Nothing to do with the minutiae or mechanics of blogging I saw this cloud formation over the middle of The Minch a day or two ago. I'm not very knowledgeable about clouds except a select few like Lenticular Clouds. These over the Minch are, I think cumulonimbus capillatus anvil.

Lenticular Clouds

Lenticular clouds are a common sight in New Zealand and I've blogged about them before on my NZ blog. However I've never seen them before in Glasgow. Yesterday in the early evening they started to form and I suddenly became very aware of the 'small sky' syndrome that I suffer from when in cities. Being used to the big skies of Lewis it's hard to realise that one's view of the sky is so restricted. Nevertheless I did manage to get a couple of photos taken a good while apart of lenticular clouds over Glasgow.

 

Lenticular Clouds

I'm used to seeing lenticular clouds in New Zealand but they are pretty rare around the Outer Hebrides. To see such splendid ones recently gave me a satisfying photo opportunity.

Lenticular clouds (Altocumulus lenticularis) are stationary lens-shaped clouds that form at high altitudes, normally in perpendicular alignment to the wind direction.  Due to their shape, they have been offered as an explanation for some Unidentified Flying Object sightings.

Skies Over Harris

On the day that Viv and I went to Harris and saw the Eagles we also saw some interesting skies.  The first of these photos was taken at Laxay on Lewis looking down over the Harris hills and shows wonderful mare's tails clouds.  The second was taken over Harris during a particularly dramatic weather moment in what was generally a lovely day.  Both these photos were taken by Viv - mine didn't meet expectations.

Another Storm Brews

Everyone seems to be blogging about clouds and storms and tempests and rain. Given the clouds visible from the flat yesterday I thought that I'd just post them too. And, no, nothing came of them.

Evening on Lewis

After the fabulous morning sky and a lovely day in which I managed quite a lot of time in the garden the evening does not bode well.  I was at Pat and Dave's across the valley for dinner and this is taken from their house (and on Pat's camera - I can't believe I didn't return for mine when I got into the car and realised I'd left it behind - a cardinal sin in Edwards terms).

Clouds

I never cease to be amazed by clouds. I've done a few blogs on clouds in New Zealand but not, I think, here. That all changes today because these clouds from Friday's sky are just too unusual to ignore. I can't tell you anything about them or whether they have some sort of name but I like them anyway.