A - Z Blogging Challenge: 04.03.2026

 

Happy Good Friday and good Friday to you, my friends.  Yesterday when we left off on the A - Z Blogging Challenge, I was up to letter B.  Not exactly a milestone.  However blogging for 2 days in a row for me is quite monumental.  Now I need to visit the blogs of others writing for the challenge and make some new friends.  

We know that if this is the third day of the alphabetical blogging challenge then we must be on letter C.  So today I am sharing a few glimmers or little blessings that begin with the letter C.  C - I mean - See how that works?  

In case you missed my explanation about the A - Z Blogging Challenge, you can find it here.  The founder of the series is Arlee Bird who blogs at Tossing it Out.  This year the project is being hosted by J Lenni Dorner at JLenniDorner.com.  Tomorrow is the last day to officially join the challenge as that will leave 26 days in the month for the 26 alphabet-themed posts.  

I am writing about glimmers or little blessings or miracles in my life.  Doing so has encouraged me to look for glimmers and be more aware of the little things that bring a smile to my face every day.  

C is for Clouds

Clouds may seem pretty pedestrian to you but in the Sun City of El Paso, we don't have many cloudy days.  So clouds are kind of exciting around here.  And when there's a chance they might drop a little rain on our Chihuahuan Desert, they are really special.  

In order to have some photos to add to this post, I did a search of the thousands of photos in my Google Photos Gallery.  There were probably 500 hits for clouds but only a smidgen of them were pictures taken of El Paso skies.  And you can bet, if we have a cloudy day, I am snapping a picture of it. I am almost equally fascinated by clouds in places where I have traveled or visited because they are such a curiosity to me.  

This would be a cloudy day in El Paso.  Ha!

When we do have a few clouds, there isn't much substance to them.  Just soft, white wisps.  Which means, it is kind of pointless to try to find pictures or recognizable shapes among the clouds.  Not enough of them to look like anything.  But you would be surprised how even the most insignificant cloud can still bring a brief reprieve from the sun on a summer day.

Sometimes, the clouds come rolling across the mountain tops and seem to almost get caught on the peaks.  Anywhere else that I have lived, these heavy, gray clouds would bear the promise of rain.  But not in EP.  If these clouds do bring rain it will be east of El Paso, miles from the mountains.

We have had almost no precipitation this year, so I am constantly evaluating the sky and the weather reports for a chance of rain.

Recent Cloud Sightings

This photo was taken a couple of weekends ago when Brennyn was in town visiting.  

Here we have clouds over the lake where PC goes fishing.  Our only water.  Ascarate (manmade) Lake.

For what we lack on a regular basis in clouds, we make up for in beautiful sunrises and sunsets.  But today we are talking about clouds.

This cloud formation was very unusual for our skies.  Snapped this photo over the Thanksgiving holidays.  Don't the clouds looks like cotton balls?? Or maybe those mini-marshmallows??

In the photo below we have a momentary chance for some mid-summer rain but you can see the bright blue skies behind the very temporary storm clouds.  El Pasoans rejoice when it rains but can always be assured that the sun will soon be out again.

In these last photos it is hard to tell where the clouds leave off and the sand storm begins.  We have skies like this several times a year.  Historically, our windiest months are March and October.  

Rare is the day that El Paso sees the cauliflower-shaped cumulus clouds that are common in much of the southeastern United States where I grew up.  Or over the rainforests of Panama where I lived for 6 years.

Clouds are hopeful to me.  They bring the hope of rain and very occasionally, a chance of snow.  Clouds provide fleeting relief from our very strong summer sun.  And they are ever so photogenic!! 

Clouds keep me looking UP.

Your Turn

Do you have enviable cloud formations in the skies over your community?  Do you find yourself looking UP at them??  Grabbing your camera to snap pictures of their often portentous formations??

I like this quote about clouds from an anthology of poems entitled Stray Birds by Rabindranath Tagore. 

“Clouds come floating into my life, no longer to carry rain or usher storm, but to add color to my sunset sky.”

How do you feel about clouds?

We have a busy holiday weekend ahead.  Baseball tomorrow and Easter with all the trimmings on Sunday.  Need to find a few minutes to write for this challenge amid all the festivities.  Thank you for stopping by to spend a few minutes with me today.  Happy Easter.

Hugs and kisses,