In Praise of Grey Skies

Grey is the color of the day.

It can put you into a bit of a funk, if you let it. This time of the semester life gets to feel like the gerbil wheel is greased way too well and its hard to keep your little legs pumping without tripping and tumbling.

But there is an upside to grey. Although the morning was the coolest this week, in one way, because I wore my winter gloves on the morning commute--have not had to do that for a while--in another way, the clouds are good news indeed.

Little or no frost that I saw in Cedar Rapids. Delicate buds probably weren't hurt much, at least not in my area. The photo was actually taken last week during another grey morning--it shows a bud on my tulip tree.

Probably a leaf bud, which would be hardier than a flower bud, anyway. There are lots of flower buds on my other trees--buds that probably owe their future flowers to clouds that rolled in overnight.

Clear skies aid frost. Clouds are a blanket. And the birds were still singing. Clouds can be our friends.