A phoenix was swooping over the ocean at Margaret River, Western Australia when Carol Topping looked up. ‘Carol’s better than me at imagining the shapes formed by the clouds,’ said Sue Allen (Member 43,768), Carol’s friend who shared this with us. ‘She knows I belong to the Cloud Appreciation Society,‘ Sue told us, ‘and spend much of my time cloudspotting, so she thought I’d enjoy this and want to share it with you.’

An ancient symbol of renewal and rebirth, the phoenix is said to eat no food but is sustained by the light of the Sun. Also known as the firebird, it dies in flames and is reborn from the ashes. Carol’s phoenix had plumage made of Cirrus, the cloud formed of long strands of ice crystals. Ice and fire have come together here in a soaring symbol of hope.