The sky from our window

Today I taught my son about clouds. In this paused world, it seemed a useful life skill to take notice of the ever-changing backdrop that is the sky.

Clouds are landscapes in motion. They can alter one’s mood, inspire creativity, nurture mindfulness and foretell weather patterns. Yet they escape our notice daily

In the U.K. we now must stay home. While my partner, an EMT, is out in his ambulance, I am now Mum School. So I dug out nature books and duly bored my son with diagrams and facts about cirrus clouds and cumulonimbus till he begged me to let him get to the part where he could paint a thunderstorm. I passed him yellow paint for the lightning.

“Lightning is purple,” he corrected me. Good point. In fact, the sky is full of an extraordinary array of colours. It’s a wonder any of…