Rainbow clouds and kite

Sometimes we go several days without seeing kites, then other days we see them wherever we go.  This morning when I stepped out of the porch onto the lawn to shake the dust out of the mat, there were two kites circling over the house.  There was a scramble to try and get to the big lens that was hidden under boxes in a cupboard.  By the time I found it, one kite had gone, and the other was becoming a distant speck.

Later we went for a walk to the top of Worsendale, and on the way back a kite lifted out of the highland field.  Another scramble to find a bigger lens in the bag, and by the time that was on the camera the kite had spiralled high into the sky.  So take my word for it, this speck is a kite and if viewed large, it will be seen to have a forked tail.

A less frequent sight though are the rainbow clouds in this photograph.  Before Christmas there were nacreous clouds reported over large parts of England, and one day I saw some above the village close to sunset.  Nacreous clouds are said to occur very high in the sky, are thin and disc like and are seen when the sun is very low or below the horizon.  Today's rainbow clouds didn't match that description, this is cloud iridescence which is much commoner to see, but still lovely nevertheless.