If you asked me for one good reason (aside from the family considerations that most of us have) to stay in England, I would probably say “For its skies.” The ever-changing skies of England are especially noticeable around the equinoxes; perhaps due to the greater occurrence of high winds in the upper atmosphere. I took this picture only today – a day of a great mixture of weather. I’ve given you the shot as I took it – it hasn’t been edited, other than to scale the image for publication here.
This post is in response to the ‘100 Word Challenge’ here, where you’ll find links to the many other responses. The challenge is simply to compose a piece of writing of 100 words in length, plus the five ‘prompt’ words, shown here as my title. Now, sometimes these weekly prompts just somehow ‘click’ and then again, some weeks, I struggle. This time, I struggled – ideas wouldn’t come… until today, the last day for submissions, when my very surroundings gave me the answer!
This morning, I awoke early to a surprise: a startlingly clear, blue sky – and frost! the house needed all that the central heating could do. But I turned it off well before noon, despite working from home today. The thermometer outside climbed rapidly, as white gardens turned green again in the morning sun. After several days of mild but cloudy weather, this change was striking. Such, typically, is equinoctial weather. But why do we Britons talk about the weather so much? Probably, I think, because we are subject to such an array of different weather patterns and sequences. And, with this, so many changing skies.
