We were recently contacted by Jan McIntyre, member 34,229, about a photographic art exhibition by Ralph Kerle which is currently showing at the Sagra Gallery, Melbourne, Australia.

Yvonne Whiteley, member number 17243 told us about this ‘city in the sky’ which was featured on NASA’s Astronomy Picture of the Day

Tania Ritchie is Member Number 23,514 and one of the fantastic team of moderators for our CloudSpotter iPhone app. She is planning an informal get-together of CAS members based in the Sydney and Newcastle area of Australia. If you are nearby, why not come along to meet other members and be nerdy about the sky?

Date: Sunday 13 November, at 12 noon
Location: either in Newcastle (King Edward Park) or Sydney (Botanic Gardens), depending on interest
Food: Bring your own picnic

If you are interested in meeting up, let Tania know on the post that she has put up on our Cloud Forum: Register your interest in a NSW gathering

Scout & Boo repurpose sideboards and vintage furniture and have recently produced a range featuring clouds

Dr Val Perrin, member 3906, recently contacted us with news of the Skylight Garden at Anglesey Abbey, Cambridgeshire.

An art exhibition entitled A. J. Aalders – Op Aarde / on Earth is currently running until 23rd October 2016 at the Appel Arts Centre in Amsterdam.

The RMetS is delighted to be working together with the University of Reading on a Thames Water sponsored FutureLearn course, called “Come Rain or Shine”

Dan Ryan of the Eden Project, Cornwall, contacted us recently as he had been questioned about the amount of water in the Amazon Basin being greater above ground than below.

Society founder, Gavin Pretor-Pinney was recently interviewed for the “No Joe Schmo: Cool and crazy jobs – and how they got there” website. It gives an insight into the man behind the Cloud Appreciation Society.

“It’s the only bird that is known to intentionally enter into a cloud”

We are pleased to announce that the poet Katharine Towers will be the Cloud Appreciation Society poet in residence for 2016. As part of her new role, Katharine will be writing a short poem each month inspired the Cloud of the Month. We can’t wait to read what she produces, which we will share with you here.

Katharine Towers is Member 31567 of the Cloud Appreciation Society. Her first poetry collection ‘The Floating Man’ was published in 2010 and won the Seamus Heaney Centre Poetry Prize. Her second collection ‘The Remedies’ is published by Picador in August. Landscape and nature feature prominently in her work; she lives in the Peak District with her husband and two daughters and spends a lot of time walking or running in the hills, stopping to peer at wildflowers or look up at the clouds. She says she doesn’t yet know as much about clouds as she’d like. Her new role, drifting through the atmosphere of the Cloud Appreciation Society, will certainly solve that.

Here is a poem that Katherine wrote about the asperitas cloud, which is the new classification that has come out of the Cloud Appreciation Society:

undulatus asperitas

Once we saw a great cloud, made of ice
like any other cloud but wind-sheared
and drooping in the heavy air.
It lolled against the hill but no storm fell.

Barometers dropped like stones and it was
purple-dark, even in the early afternoon.
The ruckled sky had us standing pointing
in the fields like scarecrows, and mostly afraid.

Girls fainted under the weight of ions
and some of us made thankful prayers
for the wonder of that rolling sea above.

They say that waves from underneath
are kind and do not mean us harm –
even seem to love us; and it’s bliss to drown.

© Katharine Towers, from The Remedies, published by Picador.