Altocumulus lenticularis

Taking photos seems to open up your eyes to so many other things around you that normally you'd take for granted or just not look for. One of these things for me, is clouds. So, as people who know me would only expect, I recently got myself a book called "The Cloud Book - How to understand the skies".

This shot is taken across the beach at Blackpool in the early evening. The big cloud looming over the pier, I think, is called Altocumulus lenticularis. They are low lying clouds formed when a flowing layer of moist air is uplifted by the slope of an intervening hill (in this case most likely to be the Lake District - the hill doesn't need to be very close).

We were in Blackpool with Sian's friend, Maggie, who'd got us all free tickets to see a performance at the World Streetdance Championships. I nearly didn't make it as I'd spent all morning on the loo and was feeling really crap (still am feeling crap as I'm posting this on the Tuesday).