Hole in the clouds over Shenandoah National Park

“The sky is the consciousness of landscape.” – Rebecca Solnit

The sky was amazing all Sunday afternoon. But I was showing my photography at the Crozet Arts and Crafts Festival this past weekend without my main cameras, so the best I could do was temporarily abandon my booth and run over to the baseball diamond away from the tents to get an iPhone photograph. This hole in the clouds lasted about a half hour.

Even more impressive but not photographed was a long lenticular curving cloud stretching from as far south to as far north as I could see above the Blue Ridge. It lasted for hours before turning to this view. I recall a similar beautiful cloud I photographed way back in October 1989 from the Pinkham Notch Trail Center in the White Mountains of New Hampshire. I still have that 35mm slide somewhere. Clouds are one of my most favorite of all the features of the landscape. I’ll leave it to you to imagine the metaphorical meaning of a hole in the sky.