Spring storm over the Caja del Rio

As a child Gavin Pretor-Pinney loved watching clouds.

He enjoyed looking at the shapes they made, imagining what they felt like, thinking about what they were made of, and wondering if you could sit on them.

His fascination for clouds continued into his adulthood, much to the amusement of his circle of friends.

“I like the way there are many contradictions with clouds – they are physical phenomena that can be explained in a scientific way but they are also quite evocative and emotional. They have such an effect on our moods,” London-based Pretor-Pinney told Reuters.

“Cloud watching is like a form of meteorological mediation. It slows down your pace because clouds move at a slower pace than things down on the ground. It is a beneficial thing for our souls.”

Until two years ago Pretor-Pinney had indulged in cloud spotting largely as a solo pursuit — but this all changed when a friend asked him to give a lighthearted talk about clouds at a literary festival in Cornwall, England.

“I didn’t think anyone would come along to hear someone talking about clouds because everyone in Britain complains about them so much, so I decided to come up with an intriguing name for the lecture and called it the Inauguration of the Cloud Appreciation Society,” he said.

“Everyone came up to me at the end and wanted to join so then I really did have to set up a society.”

Pretor-Pinney, 38, a journalist and graphic designer, set up a Web site for the society which now has about 5,000 members from 39 countries.” Members send in photos of clouds that look like animals, faces and angel wings, or show magnificent optical effects, or just extraordinary formations.

Clouds don’t happen every day in New Mexico. Folks tend to take special notice. Rare as they are, the best are worth recording.