Nancy Somerville, Hon. ASLA, shares this shot, which has a lovely kind of melancholy about it. The one boat, the empty raft, the still water against an agitated sky. It again accents the land as a constant by showing the sky as motion.

It’s cool how clouds can actually help define the land. This image, from ASLA President Gary Scott, FASLA, suggests the long, flat vistas of his native Iowa, though I have no idea if it is, in fact, Iowa. I love the perspective that the clouds accent.  It reminds me of a painting by Milton Avery that I just saw at the Art Institute of Chicago, though of water. It was enormous, and the dashes of paint in this example (can’t find the painting anywhere) are diminishing rounded rectangles of white suggesting light on the sea.

It’s one thing to look up at clouds, another to be among them. Glen Schmidt, FASLA, a member of my PR & Communications Advisory Committee , took these spectacular images while flying from Taiwan to Los Angeles. They induce a kind of trance, really, a spell. Be sure to click on them to enlarge. Almost enough to cure me of my fear of flying.