...it came in slowly this afternoon and has been building steadily. It's often like that on our little island. A still day begins, a joy for working in the garden, then comes that first gust. And soon another. The frequency increases until I'll find myself looking up at the tall conifers that surround our property, watching their tops swing to and fro, and I'll be certain - windy hours ahead!
Time to batten down the hatches. No more gardening for today...
I grew up in an area of California known for its hot, dry winds. Called Santanas or Santa Anas, devil winds (translated from the Spanish) were known for their heat because they originated out of the desert. We always dreaded them - they meant fire season. They'd arrive at the end of summer, at the driest time of the year when all the vegetation was like kindling. A lot of myth surrounded these winds. Some said they could make you crazy - something to do with all the negative ions being removed from the atmosphere which makes humans (and animals) unstable. Myth making, indeed. But they were parching. They howled. And they could continue for several days. Unsettling to me, without a doubt.
Much like the winds here. Not hot and certainly not dry, but oh, the sound...
It's odd what sticks from childhood.
So I was thinking about how to turn this wind thing around. I'm inspired by this artist who plays with wind and this artist who stitches wind magic. And this masterful photographer who often captures the wind through extremely long time exposures. Ah, if I could only wait in the wind like that...
So tell me, what do you feel about the wind...?
'Windflowers', 1903
painting by John William Waterhouse
we get those devil winds too
ReplyDeletethey seem to grow in number and strength each year
but
you need them from time to time
otherwise the place would be full of cobwebs
I love a small wind...just a bit more than a breeze. Open the windows and let it flow through the house whisking the stale out to be refreshed.
ReplyDeleteHigh wind is a little scarey and worrisome. Worry of the damages it certainly will cause. Worry that it will swirl and spin itself into a destructive tornado. Wind is definitely NOT my element.
Carol
sometimes the wind sings when it blows through some tiny hole in a metal post somewhere or through a wire up high on the roof, but at other times it can howl like a lost soul at sea - that is very scary...k.
ReplyDeleteI love wind... moderate to a bit heavy, but more than that and I start to feel the swaying of the towering hemlocks here as a potentially dangerous.
ReplyDeleteI grew up spending summers on Cape Cod, Mass, on point next the the lighthouse called "windy pasture". The sea wind there was always refreshing, sometime intense, but I always welcomed it - even hurricanes. Maybe the lack of tall trees made it seem less daunting.
Lived for a time on Samos, Greece. They, too, have a summer wind that comes from the sands of Africa, so it is said, and stirs everything up intensely. A hot wind that blew tiles off the roofs. I sometimes got a little frightened there as well.
Now that I live in the forest, I do have a new appreciation of the power of wind to topple!
Living here in NW Oregon, I don't get a lot of wind and I'm glad, wind scares me. My old boyfriend used to always yell at the TV when the newscasters would call that wind the Santa Ana, he'd say "It's Santana!" I prefer our "Chinook" wind, bringing the warm thawing air of spring. I have made a couple of fiber art quilts with a wind theme, "Wind In Her Hair" was the first. "Wind Tangled" was my second. I should blog about them. Wish I could beam up and attend that class with Chad Alice Hagen! I'd love to see Lopez Island again. I lived on Orcas for awhile and visited the other islands. It is lovely up there.
ReplyDeleteBeing on a neighboring island to yours, I too felt the wind whisper, then grow, and GROW yesterday. Recently we were gifted with a beautiful, unglazed, ceramic bell, with a little bird on the top and a large ceramic paddle. We hung it on our front deck not knowing what to expect when the wind came rolling up the hill and slammed into our house. Oh my, I wish you could have heard it... Not a tinkle, not this one... A low, deep-troated gong that resonated, reverberated and stuck in our throats. Whoeeeee, what a thrill... wind and gong, wind and gong!!!
ReplyDeleteI'm a wind person although some times I do get tired of how hard it can blow for long periods time here in Oklahoma. After living here for so long and becoming accustomed to it, it can be disturbing on the few occasions that it dies down to nothing. There is usually a period of time mid to late summer that it is strong and constant, full of grit and hot... feels like standing in a blast furnance during the mid day.
ReplyDeleteI love the winds...all of them, although living at the oregon coast, most of our winds aren't warm and they make the beach a fairly cool place most of the summer...but my heart just lifts when I hear the wind in the big old trees that surround our house. And the willows and alders in the back. And the bamboo next to our bedroom window...
ReplyDeleteI grew up in Southern California and always dreaded the Santa Ana winds -- they spelled F-I-R-E to me. We are often in Nevada with family and the desert winds can be really bad -- I'm not a fan of wind, but do love a gently breeze.
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ReplyDeletewind is movement. i love its voice. here by the sea, it blows many feathers my way. it screams " take shelter" in a storm. but most evenings it whispers shhhhh through the leaves and puts me to sleep.
ReplyDeleteI love the wind...it makes you feel so small compares to nature.
ReplyDeleteIt's not hot but we live in the Netherlands below sealevel so it went wrong sometimes.
stil I love the strength of natures wind.
love
yvette
Wind for me means movement, and change. I love the sounds of the trees rustling, and the faint whistling noises through the house. Movement is life.
ReplyDeletext