Kaleidoscope Skies

– Posted in: Weather
4 comments

Picture yourself in a boat on a river,
With tangerine trees and marmalade skies

I grew up during the Beatles era and “Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds” has always been a fave in my top five. From the start, there was speculation that psychedelic drugs influenced John Lennon when he wrote the dreamy, trippy imagery into his song. But couldn’t he have been inspired by a morning such as this?

Winter is a time of lower humidity, bringing greater clarity to the sky. Stars are brighter and seem closer, almost touchable, than in other seasons. The angle of the sun’s rays striking the northern latitudes is more acute, passing through thicker layers of atmospheric gases. Evenings and mornings can be beautiful and oftentimes spectacular, as can be seen here. Sunrise and set may not be warming the chilled earth but they are undeniably uplifting.

Somebody calls you, you answer quite slowly,
A girl with kaleidoscope eyes.

About the Author

I started in 1977 growing plants at wholesale nurseries and a wholesale seed company in California. In 1992 I started volunteering (in the nursery, of course!) at Strybing Arboretum in San Francisco where I met my wife. My wife is originally from upstate and we moved here in 2002. It took at least two years of living here for me to fully understand our property and to take advantage and work with our microclimate. Although growing zone maps show us to be in 5, we are realistically a 4b. I am inordinately proud, in a smarmy kind of way, of how many of the plants we brought with us have thrived. Coming from a zone 9 has been quite an adjustment for all of us. But we are thriving and enjoy the beauty and what the land gives us everyday. USDA Hardiness Zone: 4b/5a Location: rural; Central Leatherstocking near Cooperstown, New York Geographic type: riverine valley Soil type: Chenango alluvial – shallow clay and highly stony Experience level: 28 years professionally wholesale and retail, no longer in the business Particular interests: native plants and ecosystems, flowering and berry producing shrubs, home-grown foods, maples, birches, willows, ornamental grasses, filipendulas, iris, ligularias, persicarias, asclepias, artemisia, asters, arisaemas, hardy geraniums, euphorbias, eupatoriums, origanums, lysimachias, eryngiums, lilies, and visiting nurseries

What differentiates a bulb from a perennial plant is that the nourishment for the flower is stored within the bulb itself.…There is something miraculous about the way that a little grenade of dried up tissue can explode into a complete flower.

~Monty Don in The Complete Gardener pp. 142

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kerri February 25, 2007, 6:59 am

I’m glad you were able to capture these shots. That’s a truly remarkable sky…so beautiful!
It seems we’re all skeptics, but…yes, it was probably drugs 🙂

Sandy February 23, 2007, 2:54 pm

It probably wasn’t the sunrise for Lennon, but it does inspire me!
Great shot.

Don February 22, 2007, 10:07 am

He married Yoko Ono… it was drugs.

Kim February 19, 2007, 9:20 pm

I’m sure that he could have been inspired by such a sunrise… but I’d place my money elsewhere. *grin* Gorgeous pictures, Craig.