Sunday, May 11, 2008

Dream Clouds

On Tuesday night I dreamt about these clouds. I was in an old city with church towers and narrow grey stone streets and there were mountains around. It had just been raining. The sun was setting behind the mountains and there were clouds all around just above the mountains and further down descending along the slopes of the mountains. The setting sun made the couds shimmer in yellows and oranges and pinks and purples and also in blues as there was clear blue sky just behind them peaking through.

Quite predictably I had my camera with me and I was taking a video of all this and as I turned around I found even more amazing softly changing formations of clouds and light. The mountain on that side was covered with a full dark green forest and as I let my camera slowly move upwards along the side of the mountain the clouds were once thin veils, once thick layers on top of each other and once smooth surfaces of white and once all of that at the same time amongst each other and on top of each other and behind it all the setting sun was turning the clouds into pink and orange and blue and the colours were constantly changing and making more and more patterns on the sky. And I got it all on tape.

And so on Tuesday after my dream as I was driving back home from Akranes where I teach my belly dance classes, I saw my dream clouds in real life. I have no pictures to prove it as I was tired and didn't see a good spot to stop and also it was really quite windy and I didn't feel like opening the doors anyway. You'll understand: windy here means windy in a way that you don't want to open the car doors as you're afraid that they might fly away.

I noticed it already in Akranes as I stood outside the studio door. There were dark grey almost black clouds above Akrafjall but in the hollow of the mountain there was a hole with blue sky and a shimmer of white. And as I drove out of the town there was a shimmer of cold in the horizon just north of Akrafjall and underneath the black thick layers of rain clouds that streched over the sky. But looking over the water towards south east as I was driving towards the tunnel there were my dream clouds framing my Esja.

The mountain was different of course. No green trees but just shapes of browns and greys and greens that make up the forms of the slopes here. And no gold either. But the clouds had ascended down on top of the mountain and in the middle where there's a lower part the clouds were such soft mist that it looked grey and silver and blue at the same time. And around and on top of the mountain the clouds were in thick pillows and in transparent sheets and above against the blue sky they took every possible formation and there was a setting sun of course that coloured some of the clouds orange and pink and some of them were still blue against the sky.

About 15 minutes later I drove into the cloud. It looses all the dreamy qualities then of course and becomes just a dark raining wet mist and in the end you can't really see anything anymore. And then it becomes another dream altogether driving in the mist and seeing the turns of the road only just as they come and the mountains only as dark walls rising up and up just beside you when you drive close by.

No comments: