The Indescribable Blue of the Northern Skyline

26 February 2012
3:44 PM

Sunrise at	8:12 AM	in direction	109°	East-southeast
Sunset at	5:57 PM	in direction	251°	West-southwest

Duration of day: 9 hours, 44 minutes (6 minutes, 47 seconds longer than yesterday)

If you were to take snow and then add just enough blue so that you knew it wasn't still white, it would be more pale than the sky that peeks between the clouds, just at the northern hills horizon.  If you were to add a few more drops of blue, you might make it too blue.  Somewhere between still almost white and baby blue is the color of the northern sky as it touches the horizon.

When the sky is completely clear, you might not notice the subtle hue of blue at the horizon.  The overall brilliance of the sky predominates.  It's when clouds hold swaths of sky captive, isolating ribbons of pale blue from the rest of the sky, you see it best.

When the clouds shift to reveal the imprisoned sky, I want to travel toward the horizon.  I want to touch that blue, lie down in it, sip it from my tea cup.  It pulls me toward more than the pot of gold at the rainbow ever did.