Monday, May 09, 2005

Signs in the sky


ridge sunset
Originally uploaded by Xena~.

Red sky at dawn,
Sailers be warned.
Red sky at night,
Sailers delight.

Grandma used to teach me signs of weather in the sky. She could tell the weather better than the forecaster could.

If there is enough blue sky to make a Dutchman's breeches, it will clear.
So I always wondered, just how big was a Dutchman?

If the clouds look like horse tails,
Ran in 24 hrs.

If the maples and poplar leaves turn their backs to the wind,
head for shelter.

Grandma was almost always right. I should have listened better as a child.

2 comments:

  1. You made me think of a wonderful memory. Me, my Daddy, and my Grandpa were at the cemetery visiting my grandmother's gravesite and my Grandpa said, "There's going to be rain by tomorrow." I asked him how he knew and he pointed at the sky and showed me the horsetail clouds. His grandmother was a full-blooded Cherokee Indian (which was a fact I didn't know until earlier that day; knew she was a Cherokee, but didn't know she was full-blooded)... Anyway, it made me sad to know that I hadn't spent more time with him as a child to learn all of his secrets, but also happy that I was getting to spend time with him now. :)

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  2. Supposedly my Grandmother was Chippewa. I'm not sure as no one kept records in her family.

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