Cloud Watching

At last it was a beautiful Summer afternoon. The teddy bears were outside in the garden enjoying the warm weather. They had been playing lots of games running around in the fresh air, and had eaten their lunch outside too. So now they were just sitting around or lying on their blankets, chatting and resting.

Suddenly, a little voice piped up. "Look! There are some birds in the sky!" shouted Custard.

Richard laughed. "That's really strange," he replied. "Fancy birds being in the sky!" And the other bears joined in the laughter.

"But it is strange," declared Custard, "because they're not real birds!"

Everyone looked at him. "What do you mean?" asked Richard, confused.

"Look up!" continued Custard, and he pointed his paw directly up into the sky.

"I still can't see any birds," Richard responded, "Where exactly are they?"

Suddenly, Scary intervened. "Oh, I see what you mean," he said, "right up there in the sky - they're not real birds, but they certainly look like them."

Now all the other bears were beginning to think that perhaps Custard and Scary might have been out in the sun a little too long, and were seeing things.

Scary noticed that the others hadn't quite cottoned on to what Custard had seen so he decided he ought to enlighten his friends. "Look," he explained, "up in the sky - there! Custard is looking at those white clouds in the sky that look exactly the shape of birds flying!"

The other bears looked high up into the blue sky and, sure enough, there were some clouds up there that looked exactly like several birds flying in formation. Some of the bears were standing up and craning their necks to look up to where Scary was pointing.

"Hey!" he told them, "if you lie down on the blankets you get a much better view, and it won't hurt your necks so much. But don't look directly at the sun when it is shining as it will hurt your eyes." The other bears found spots on the ground where they could place their blankets and then lie down, looking directly up at the sky.

"Gosh!" said James, "that's much better!" And all the other bears agreed.

They had only just settled in their places, studying the sky with renewed interest, when the silence was broken by Edward. "Look!" he cried, "Up there! Surely that's a duck!"

Again, the other bears looked to where Edward was pointing. Sure enough there did seem to be the outline of a duck in the sky, though one or two of the bears took longer to decipher the image.

Then Scary called out. "The clouds aren't all in the shapes of birds," he declared, "Look - there is a rabbit!"

The bears were having a great time. Who would have thought that there could possibly be pictures of birds and animals high up in the sky?

They spent nearly all afternoon watching the clouds go by and noticed several other likenesses, such as a parrot, a shark and a mountain, though some of the imagined impressions were a bit tenuous. In fact, the pictures changed as the wind blew the clouds along. What had initially looked exactly like a tree seemed to then morph into a bunch of flowers as it crossed the sky above them. They were all very intrigued.

But Vicky was a bit sad because, although she could eventually work out the shapes that her friends pointed out, she hadn't been able to see anything specific herself.

"Don't worry," consoled Scary, "you can just look for the prettiest patterns, and point those out to us. There are some lovely designs up there. Maybe you could run and get your camera and take some pictures. We could use them when we are next making birthday cards, or wrapping paper," he continued, "and they will be really unique."

Vicky went for her camera and not only took photos of all the lovely patterns she observed, she also photographed some of the shapes that the other bears saw, so that they could put them in their scrapbook to look back on in the middle of Winter.

Maybe you could look for pictures in the sky too. It's best when the sky is blue and the clouds are fluffy and white and you can lie down safely outside. But if you can see the sky from a window inside your house, you could try doing your cloud watching from there instead. Enjoy!