HEAD IN THE CLOUDS

I went out to the park last night and lay on a bench, looking at the clouds.

It was nearly sunset and the wispy purple cumulus clouds of summer were spread across the enormous sky.

I saw one that looked like an angel blowing a trumpet. She drifted slowly by, chased by a whale and the head of a unicorn.

It's always amazed me how quickly clouds change, and yet how slowly they move. Before long the angel had become a mermaid, and the whale looked like a fat aeroplane chasing a rabbit.

The sky changed too. Very slowly, the deep silhouetted clouds turned from purple to a soft white as the sky deepened and darkened behind them.

My Dad thinks this is the last of the hot weather. He's adamant that it will thunder overnight and rain tomorrow. I don't mind that, as long as it's cooler to sleep in. When I got back from the park, I tried sleeping with a frozen water bottle resting on my forehead, but of course the inevitable happened and I got first a headache, and second, a wet face.

I hope though, that that wasn't the last sunset. I really enjoyed just lying there carelessly, my trainers sticking out at the end of the bench. I could have stayed there watching the clouds change for ages, wondering what they mean and whether they were there for me. I could definitely do that again before summer fades.

There is a change of season though, just out there in the air. There's something on the breeze, imperceptible and different - just beyond the angel, the trumpet, and the fluffy white rabbit in the sky.

I hope I'm ready.