Rain, finally!

Lovely, lovely rain-swollen cumulus clouds over all of central Virginia--hooray! We had rain last night and sporadically thoughout the day today with more forecast for tonight and tomorrow. Here is a view of the sky at about 12:15 pm facing south with light winds from the west and scattered showers which landed on me and this little watercolor.

There is no blue sky peeking through these beauties. They are low and heavy clouds moving along and dropping rain as they will. This was painted at Armour House to the tune of "Turkey in the Straw" (great fiddle version) from an ice cream truck in a nearby neighborhood.

Full of awe

Last night's sunset was exquisite--full of looming, animated sunset-tinted monsters like  this watercolor. As I stood in front of Armour House watching these massive cumulus clouds boil above me, I felt my insignificance. These were truly awful clouds.

It seems appropriate to quote Philip Levine, newly appointed US Poet Laureate. From Levine's poem Clouds:


The clouds have seen it all, in the dark
they pass over the graves of the forgotten
and they don't cry or whisper.

They should be punished every morning,
they should be bitten and boiled like spoons.

The full poem is available here. 

Armour House and Gardens at Meadowview Park

Beautiful day for weather and clouds! Huge cumulonimbus towers moving across the deep blue sky at Armour House in Henrico, Virginia with rain and thunderstorms coming in.

These clouds moved fast to the west. Since I faced northwest, they were moving toward the left of the watercolor. This was painted at noon with dark storm clouds at my back. As the afternoon has progressed, we've had no rain but lots of overcast shadows.


Armour House is part of Henrico County Recreation & Parks and is a delightful place to walk, paint and just be. The staff is great and they offer classes and lots of fun activities for all ages. Nice skies, too.