Big Sky

When one is on an island in the middle of the Pacific, one is surrounded by sea…and sky.  The sky is different here –  filled with cloud forms, always changing.  We’d decided to hang out on the beach one day not long ago, as the weather looked quite favorable.  When one is surrounded by massive cumulus towers, though, the weather can change in minutes.

A cloud form as this can dump an inch of rain in about five minutes on the area it covers.  This one is about a mile offshore and about a half mile in diameter.  Note blue sky is right there with the tropical downpour.  This cloud sprinkled on us a bit,

so we ducked under a palm tree.  It’s amazing how efficient they are at keeping the sand underneath dry.

A little bit of rain, a little bit clouds, a patch of blue and a whole lot of sky.

If you didn’t know any better – you’d swear I’d snuck in a pic of the North Central Plains.

The savannah is covered with swordgrass – pretty, but capable of inflicting hundreds of painful cuts on the unwary.

The sky changes incredibly quickly here – not at all like Midwestern days of gray.  Consider these three photos taken three minutes apart:

The Pheebs took these photos from our balcony.  This is our after-dinner show – and a good one it is.

In the time it took to generate this post, we’ve gone from blue sky to hard rain – and there’s blue sky on the horizon.

From the Big Sky Island,

Chuck and the Pheebs.