As 2020 drew to a close, Maggie and I said goodbye to the house that had been our home for more than 15 years. We’d been very happy there but, in the second half of 2017, we realised that we were nearing the point when the responsibility for maintaining the house and its garden would feel like a burden.

After an extended period of thinking about what would suit us and exploring options, we were pleased to discover that a good-quality, medium-sized apartment complex was proposed for a site in our region of Melbourne. In May 2021, following some construction delays caused by the pandemic, we moved into our new home.

One of the factors in our decision as to which one of the 103 apartments we would prefer was the fact that it had a 6m x 2m balcony, facing west and overlooking the street from Floor 2 of the complex. We soon discovered that, in addition to the passing parade of people, dogs, bicycles and motor vehicles, our balcony gave us an endless variety of vistas of the sky, from south to north via west.

Here is a sample of our favourite ‘skyscapes’, shot and edited with our iPhone.

Patterns

Retirement and floor-to-ceiling windows gave us the chance to appreciate better how the sky looked during the hours between sunrise and sunset. Here are two examples of the interesting daytime patterns we discovered.

Storm clouds

Facing west, we can see approaching changes in the weather well before they reach our neighbourhood. Here are three examples, each striking in its own way.

Gilded sunsets

Not all sunsets are red! A golden sunset can also be spectacular. I particularly like the banded effect in the third image.

Sunsets from the red palette

Still, it is difficult to match the glory of a sunset dominated by shades of red, albeit with gold and purple hues playing a supporting role!

Night sky

In the hour or two after sunset, as twilight wanes and night begins to fall, the moon sometimes appears to dance in and out of clouds.

Or, as the last of the glow from the sun sinks to the horizon, a moonless sky produces a wides spectrum of blue, all the way to navy blue and squid ink!

Good night Joni. Good night readers.