Cloud Buff's Delight

[rejectomorph]

This night has brought an amazing variety to the sky. First, the big moon rose through clusters of cumulus clouds which hung above the mountains. For a while, its light illuminated the undersides of those patches of high stratus clouds which were scattered above the valley and the foothills. I watched the moon as it rose behind the ornate screen of leafless oaks, and the sky slowly cleared, and the few stars bright enough to accompany a full moon appeared. Later, the clouds regathered, and for an hour or two, there was a mass of strato-cumulus slowly moving eastward, but always thin enough to allow the moonlight to create a small reveal for itself, surrounded by shifting patches of rainbow color. The edges of these clouds were sculpted as in a child's drawing, and their movement reminded me of an effect for the stage. As the moon passed farther to the west, these clouds dissipated, and were replaced by thin swaths of cirrus as sheer as floating banners of silk. Now, with dawn approaching, the high stratus clouds are returning above the ridge, and puffs of strato-cumulus are brightening in the east. Where the westering moon sinks toward the tops of the pines, a few strokes of cirrus remain. All night, the upper wind has painted the sky with vapors, and the moon has revealed their shapes. It has been a most satisfactory collaboration.