A Summer Diary (The Sun, the Clouds, and the Thunderstorm)

There are myriads spots of light where the sun rays pass through the translucent green foliage and dance on the ground. The leaves shimmer and sparkle, reflecting the sun.

Then, after noon, it becomes really hot, and the sun heats up the asphalt roads and pavements until they begin to radiate the heat of their own. They stay hot and keep warming the air long after the sun disappears, and the sky turns purple, and there is only a strip of pale white tentatively color the western part of the sky. A remnant of day.

During the sunset, the clouds turn pink like the pieces of candy floss. The contrast between this pink color and the color of the sky, gradually changing from turquoise to sapphire to purple, creates some sensation of unfolding magic.

The invisible planes dart somewhere high above; their traces like the small white feathers gradually expand into semi-transparent white stripes then slowly dissipate.

At noon the sun is situated somewhat directly above, and there are almost no shadows, so everything is submerged into the bath of bright luminescence. At this moment every detail of every object is visible with absolute clarity, no matter whether it's close or somewhere hundred meters away.

The herds of clouds move above so slow that their movement is almost imperceptible. When some of the clouds obscure the sun, there is a visible boundary where the temporary shade covering immediate surrounding ends and beyond which everything is filled with sunlight.

This dividing line is clearly visible on the ground. It moves, but it moves strangely, it's difficult to track this movement. At one moment the stretch of land, the trees, and the road are still in a dull gray shadow, and at the next, everything around is suddenly blazing and sparkling when the cloud has passed, and its shadow moved somewhere else. But it's difficult to catch this moment.

In one of those days, I saw a short thunderstorm. I walked toward the bridge, and some family walked toward me. Then they looked at the sky with some awe and had a quick conversation that could've been summed up like "holy shit."

Curious I took a look at the sky behind me, and what I saw was really amazing and formidable. An enormous black cloud that approached from behind was so huge that it looked like that it covered half of the sky.

So there were two sides of the world at that point; one side brightly lit and festive with the azure sky covered with white and fluffy tiny clouds where everything flashed reflections of the sun. And the other part, with the sky covered with an impenetrable and scary black blanket of the thundercloud, the reality beneath which was cast into a dark shadow, every object stripped of its colors, gray and obscure.

While the cloud kept rolling on, inexorably getting closer like a bulldozer, seemingly slow for an observer on the ground but in fact probably moving faster than a speed train. The first strong and cold gusts of wind signaled the beginning of the thunderstorm. Huge splotches of the gigantic raindrops started to appear randomly on the dusty ground that was still brightly lit by the sun.

Then everything became submerged in the dark shade. Drops of water were getting more and more numerous. Then a loud explosion marked by a blinding flash of lightning shattered the sky above.

And, as if this explosion ruptured some tremendous container filled with water somewhere above, at the next second all the space around was drowning in the solid torrents of the downpour.

It looked like it was everywhere. All the universe to its farthest boundaries was filled with the downpour, drumming the earth with a tremendous rattling and hissing noise. Then it passed as quickly as it started, and, once again, the universe was split into two parts. One with the formidable thundercloud and the wall of rain, though it didn't look that formidable anymore, neither it looked impenetrable black, rather dirty gray and somewhat irrelevant. And the other part, with the pristine, blue sky and with a quickly approaching line of sunshine.

I took a look at the sky seeing the remnants of the cloud swiftly moving away to reveal the sun hidden behind. Then, when the fabric of clouds became thin and ragged, the first assertive and vigorous rays started to pass through it. And then everything was submerged in the flood of sunshine again. The ghostly boundary dividing the light and shadow was sliding away, tentatively and quickly.