the clouds keep changing the scenery and they can lead to amazing or awful light and there is no way to tell in advance
good observations here. I came across the same feelings (quite extreme feelings, I should say!) when I shoot mushrooms at a sunny but cloudy and windy day. the trees shade - given the sun, clouds and wind do their job - provide constantly changing lighting environment. and since I love to take macros in fully manual mode... the results are always a very black box - surprising!
PS.
I am amused at the editing you provided to the session. nice post, I should say, and good results... I loved the final image you chose to work on, but - funny thing -- I'd rather go with original capture. when I improve pictures I try to get more light and crystal contrast of colours, then dark and misty/dirty/drafa effect. if there was no clear indication, I'd assume the edited version was original capture, hehe
Yes, I know what you mean, the weather can be very frustrating sometimes!
As for the editing I tend to let my mood interfere :)