The Colour Collaborative: February - Storm

Storm: A violent disturbance of the atmosphere with strong winds and usually rain, thunder, lightening or snow.

This is Skipton, on the very edge of the Yorkshire Dales, last week. It was a blustery day and there were strong, icy gusts of wind and fast moving clouds. The light levels changed constantly throughout the day from oppressively dark to glaringly bright, as the winter sun reflected off the rain covered landscape. Not a storm, exactly, but definitely stormy. 

**  **  **  **  **  It was a spectrum of greys.  **  **  **  ** ** 

First, the dark, almost purple shade of the oppressive, glowering sky, ready to unleash another torrent of rain over an already soaked landscape. The slate grey of the wet roof tops and buildings are leaden and heavy, absorbing all light.

Now the metallic platinum, silver and pewter of a brightening sky and wet pavements. The rain has eased slightly, it's time to jump in the puddles.

And then the sun comes out. It's incredibly, startlingly bright. I squint and wish I had my sunglasses. Crystal sparkles hang from every tree, balancing, quivering on branches and twigs, luminous and radiant. 

A patch of blue sky emerges from between the clouds. You can almost feel the relief, the lightening of the atmosphere.

Sunlight reflects off a stream in the distance, mist hangs in the valley and the greens of the hills emerge again.

There is something a little bit dangerous about being out in bad weather in the countryside. City life here in Leeds often gives us the illusion of protection from the worst of the elements; buses and trains generally still run, you can walk to the shops - normality returns very quickly and you are never truly cut off from anything. But out in the Dales, when you can see the rain falling on a distant hillside and slowly moving in your direction, and feel the wind picking up, there is that instinct to seek shelter. Of course this was not a storm, not at all, just your typically changeable wet/dry/windy mix of British weather, but it was dramatic, and it was colourful.

What is The Colour Collaborative? All creative bloggers make stuff, gather stuff, shape stuff, and share stuff. Mostly they work on their own, but what happens when a group of them work together? Is a creative collaboration greater than the sum of its parts? We think so and we hope you will too. We'll each be offering our own monthly take on a colour related theme, and hoping that in combination our ideas will encourage us, and perhaps you, to think about colour in new ways.

If you'd like to read posts by the other Colour Collaborative bloggers, please follow the links below:

Annie at Knitsofacto

Sandra at Cherry Heart

And we have two very talented guest bloggers joining us this month, please do go and say hello!

Jennifer at Thistlebear

Claire at Above The River