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Coffee Clouds. It's a beautiful day in the Dutch city of Utrecht. The bridge crosses one

of the city's canals, which encircle the center of town. To your left is a small row of

white stone shops. To your right, break row houses, line the edge of the canal.

The sky here is large and full of movement. A breeze catches the clouds and pushes them across

the blue backdrop. Every few minutes, one of the larger clouds is whisked in front of the sun.

As you look up, you see the edge of one such cloud turned from grey to gold.

As the sun illuminates it from behind. The cloud casts a shadow on the ground and you feel

your cheeks, turned from warm to cool. You close your eyes. Light plays upon your eyelids

as the clouds move away from the sun. The temperature rises just enough to warm the tip of

your nose. Just as you're getting used to how this feels, the clouds shift again.

Even with your eyes closed, you can follow the dynamic movements of the sky. From light,

shadow, warm to cool. As a cloud above passes over one corner of the sun, the light on the back

of your eyelids darkens just a bit on the right. The breeze gently puzzles your hair

and you open your eyes. From your vantage point on the bridge, a sprawling Dutch city lays out

before you. Now, you understand where the painters of the Dutch golden age got their inspiration.

The quality of the light here is singular. You can imagine the same sky stretching out over a

wheat field with a single tree. Perhaps it's playing a game of light and shadow over a small

...