It’s a morning routine:

Coffee in one hand, a small hand clasping the other… A garish pink stroller pushed by the strong hands of my husband, two baby hands below holding the chosen toy… Two more little hands jauntily holding onto the straps of a super hero backpack. We putter through our neighborhood in the fresh morning air, a family of 5 strolling our way to school.

We notice the cicada shells, the pine cones, the mosquitos trying to attack us; we follow the sidewalks and talk to the dogs. Then we notice the clouds.

We pause. We stare.

There’s a glowing feather in the cloud covered sky.

Thanks to the glories of technology, I can snap quite a nice picture using my phone. Encouraged by my hubby, I tweet my photo, adding a mention to our fabulous local weatherman James Spann. I must’ve acted fast, before everyone else in Birmingham starting snapping photos of the cloud feather, because he posted my photo on Facebook, and I feel ridiculously proud to have over 600 likes on my little ol’ picture. Hee hee!

Come to find out, our “feather” is a cool and rare cloud formation known as a Fallstreak Hole or Hole Punch Cloud. Pretty neat, and very beautiful!