When Dave Wood, friend of Charles McDonald (Member 55,390), visited the Dolomites in northern Italy, the cool blue peaks echoed the tones of the Altocumulus stratiformis undulatus sky.

The Ladin people, who are distributed across several Dolomite valleys collectively known as Ladinia, have a folk tale about how the mountains got their colours. The story goes that a young prince married a woman from the Moon, and the two lived together on the Dolomites. Over time, the pale peaks of the mountains made the princess pine for the Moon, so she returned home. The prince, desolate, went for a walk in the woods, where he met a gnome. The gnome agreed to paint the sides of the mountains in beautiful colours, which enticed the Moon princess to return. She and the prince then lived happily ever after.

Clearly, the forest gnome’s still painting the slopes and, on this day, took inspiration from the clouds above.