Skandia Team GBR

Tuesday, February 20, 2007

CloudSpotting

So my wife bought me this book that I thought might be interesting... it's call the The Cloudspotter’s Guide and is all about an intro to the Cloud Appreciation Society and the history, art, pics, poerty and science behind clouds...

There's 7508 members of the society which is pretty amazing, and membership costs just a few quid per year through PayPal so it may not be long before I add one to their membership total!

So why is this of interest to me? Well it's clouds, clouds are part opf the weather and the weather gives way to wind, waves and all manner of boat affecting things... So I think it's worth reading about them, learning what they are upto and starting to understand what weather changes and more specifically wind changes they bring with them...

The founder, Gavin Pretor-Pinney, who is also cofounderof The Idler magazine says:


At The Cloud Appreciation Society we love clouds, we’re not ashamed to
say it and we’ve had enough of people moaning about them.
Read our
manifesto
and see how we are fighting the banality of ‘blue-sky
thinking’


Also in their manifesto they say (among other things):


We think that they are Nature’s poetry, and the most egalitarian of her
displays, since everyone can have a fantastic view of them.

I would have to agree and taking time out to sit and chill and watch the clouds wend their way across your space and time is very Zen (be that on land or sea!)and very rewarding, especially as they're giving away the secrets to those who understand them of what the weather is gonna be doing, thus giving us the sailors the upper-hand over our stressed out non-cloud-gazing competitors!!

So what do I think of all this then? Well I'm only a hand-ful of pages through the book as yet, but it reads well, is enjoyable and I'm starting to learn stuff.... the website is well created and functional. I would say, and Gavin Pretor-Pinney if your reading this take this as positive advice, the site could do with some "newer community features"... I was going to say for them to forget their picture page and embed a Flickr viewer, well it seems there is a CloudAppreciation Flickr Group so thats a bloody good start.. What I did find suprising was that YouTube had no real content on Cloud Video's which is a real shame.... maybe something to think about?

Anyway, its worth checking out, get some cloudspotting done, relax and maybe learn a little about predicting those damned windshifts!




4 comments:

Tillerman said...

I've looked at clouds from both sides now
From up and down and still somehow
It's cloud's illusions I recall
I really don't know clouds at all

Zen said...

That was deep T-man, maybe you should write song based on that .

Tillerman said...

I had some dreams they were clouds in my coffee
Clouds in my coffee, and


You're so vain
You probably think this song is about you
You're so vain
I'll bet you think this song is about you
Don't you? Don't you?

Anonymous said...

I wandered lonely as a cloud
That floats on high o'er vales and hills,
When all at once I saw a crowd,
A host, of golden daffodils,
Beside the lake, beneath the trees
Fluttering and dancing in the breeze.

Continuous as the stars that shine
And twinkle on the Milky Way,
They stretched in never-ending line
Along the margin of a bay:
Ten thousand saw I at a glance
Tossing their heads in sprightly dance.

The waves beside them danced, but they
Out-did the sparkling waves in glee: -
A poet could not but be gay
In such a jocund company:
I gazed -and gazed -but little thought
What wealth the show to me had brought.

For oft, when on my couch I lie
In vacant or in pensive mood,
They flash upon that inward eye
Which is the bliss of solitude;
And then my heart with pleasure fills
And dances with the daffodils.