fantasy sky

The view out our front window is very pleasant, but nothing particularly special.  Or so I thought.

our apple tree (left) combines with the neighbour’s tree (right), leaving a small gap of sky

Yesterday evening, however, I was sitting reading Neil Gaiman’s The View From the Cheap Seats, about how he grew up reading science fiction, and how important these imaginary worlds are.  Well, I too grew up reading science fiction, and many of his imaginary worlds intersect with mine, so my head was full of resonances.

I looked out the window into the evening gloaming.  The trees formed a dark border as the pale sky beyond shone through the gap.  In my primed state of mind, it was a fantasy scene, combined from many tales of forests, and with a hint of one of Anne Sudworth’s magical light painting overlaid.

As the evening drew on, the scene grew darker, the trees blacker, the sky dimmer, but the feeling persisted.  Eventually, some strips of cloud moved across the sky, and the scene flipped.  It was no longer a fantastical scene in my mind, but now science fictional: the gap in the trees now looked to me like a striped gas giant planet, viewed from a nearby tree-covered moon.

a gas giant glimpsed through the trees

This is what it’s often like in my head.