splashes of lovely clear sky

BOOK The Wayward Bus by John Steinbeck, 1947

"The sky was beginning to clear. The clouds were tattering and there were splashes of lovely clear sky with silks of cloud skittering across them. Up high a fierce wind blew, spreading and mixing and matting the clouds, but on the ground the air was perfectly still, and there was a smell of worms and wet grass and exposed roots."