Relaxing Soundscape: Thirty Minutes of Early Morning Rain and Birds (Patreon)

The latest UJ episode just went up. It's all things rainy season. Such a strange time. It's more a mood, really. Dreary, oppressing, but when you stop and look around a lot is happening.Recently (since the last health scare), I've been focusing on, well, focusing on "focusing", but also on slowing down. I can't even remember when I started getting so coiled up, anxious, and convinced there's just not enough time and I'm not working hard enough. It's a miserable place to be and I didn't even realize it. I thought, hey, I'm getting things done, it's all good. But there was never a let down. Tick. Tick. Tick.

So I've been breathing more, reading more, looking around more. I'm really enjoying the quiet space in my head. Like a wee shock absorber.

It's amazing what you see when you (I) pay attention.

The other day I went out early and watered the plants slower than usual. I'm glad I did, because I happened to look closer at my (mostly dead) olive tree and found this little guy. He was enormous, beautiful, and hanging on for dear life. Don't worry. He did have another right front leg, it just wasn't strong enough yet to reach up and latch on.

It's an ōsukashiba -- at least I think it is -- a hummingbird hawk moth. They literally fly like hummingbirds. And are giant!

The Japanese name means: "big transparent wings". And I see that when you google oosukashiba in Japanese you get a whole bunch of these images.

Ah! Indeed transparent wings. But it also looks different.

But when I look up "hummingbird hawk moth in English" I get this:

Which looks very similar. (Note: it's proboscis is longer than its body!) And then google "what is hummingbird hawk moth in Japanese", the word oosukashiba comes up.

So me in my infinite wisdom solved the mystery by googling オオスカシバ 茶色 / oosukashiba BROWN.

There it is!

I spent the entire day watching it get stronger. That was nice. Something the warm drizzly weather gives us, I guess.

Speaking of which, I think the recording of Early Morning Rain and Birds turned out really well. If you're looking to create a bit of serene space so you can move a little easier through your day, it might be nice to listen to for a few minutes or thirty, fall asleep to even. Just don't envision giant hummingbird hawk moths coming at you.

Stay well and take care, XO,

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