Another Blustery Day

Today we finally had sunny weather after several days of dampness with occasional sprinkles. It was, however, quite windy, and the sky was the clearest and bluest I'd seen in some time, with very dense, pristine white clouds. While driving to Mom's for our weekend lunch together I observed a huge, very solid-looking mass of whiteness over the horizon to the northwest and could not resist snapping off several shots.

Checking out the photos later, I came across this striking image.

I took the shot through the front windshield, and the bright spots at the top are actually spots left behind by raindrops, lit by oblique sunlight. They sure look like snowflakes, though -- or, against the dark, intense blue of the sky they could be stars, despite the sunlit road and facades. I love how the conjunction of the night-in-the-day-with-snow illusion with the stark, high-contrast light and nearly flat colors has resulted in a surreal, magical image, like something out of a storybook (you really should expand the image to appreciate it properly).