BASICS


BASICS: "Hummingbirds.....where is the person, I ask, who, on observing this glittering fragment of the rainbow, would not pause, admire, and turn his mind with reverence..." (J. J. Audubon).
This is a blog about my summer life at the Baiting Hollow Hummingbird Sanctuary, at my winter garden, Calypso, in the Bahamas, and aspects of life in general.
This private sanctuary is now permanently closed to the general public, as a result of a lawsuit brought by a neighbor. Only my friends and personal guests may visit (paul.adams%stonybrook.edu).

Saturday, June 4, 2016

The Wind in the Willows; The Breeze in the Trees (and on the Seas)


One of my favorite childhood books - a century later still one of the best - was "The Wind in the Willows", by A.A. Milne, with marvelous illustrations by the great Arthur Rackham. The above example shows Ratty and Mole "messing around in boats".
I think of this because sometimes at the Sanctuary, mostly midweek when the air traffic to the Hamptons diminishes, one can experience a generalization of this, the "Breeze in the Trees" - my term for that most precious and delicious of commodities, not just priceless but antithetical to cost: the absence of human-generated sound, when only the subtlest of natural sounds, such as the whisper of the breeze in the trees, or on the seas, or the faint buzz of a nearby browsing hummingbird, can be heard. Here are 5 videos I took of this wonderful phenomenon; to show that the camera's microphone was indeed functioning I usually utter the "Wind in the Trees" phrase.
For me life is most intense during these rare periods of silence, which can last here for minutes at a time. It's sad that the simplest and oldest of treasures is now the rarest.











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