iguanamountain blog

WIND SONG HOUSE

You left your window open this evening, what sounds might you hear lying in your bed? Are these the same sounds you heard in your childhood or different?

In the three-story house in Corozal where I’m house sitting there are no glass windows.  There are many windows on all sides that are screened with wooden shutters that close almost tight. This is the old style.

The house sits in 10 acre site that is 80% jungle and outside the site is, guess what? Jungle. The Ocean is about a quarter mile to the east. Now in this season the Trade Winds are blowing almost constantly at ten to twenty knots force.

At night:
With wooden shutters, that almost close tight, the wind makes the house sing.
The wind finds every open crack at the ends and edges of the shutters to:
whistle - sometimes high pitches.
sigh - soft shushing like whispers.
moan - deep sounds that wrap around the corners.
scream - the sharp attack of sudden gusts, maybe 30 knots.
howl - Long, slow, persistent, sometimes low and distant.
harmonize - never one tone, always multiple pitches.
rustle - the sound of hundreds of dry palm leaves rubbing against  each other.
wheeze - when it changes direction and blows sideways on the shutters.
rattle - Usually tree branches against the tiles.
creak - A wall of shutters suddenly taking a wind push.
A million leaves moving at once just outside the windows.

This creates an orchestra of ever changing sound that moves around the house on different sides. Sometimes soft and gentle, other times forcefully blasting.
I call it the Wind Song House.

The first couple nights I lay awake, but now I sleep with the song. If the wind stops, it gets kind of lonely.
It happens in the day as well, only you add hundreds of wild birds from large black ravens and crows to tiny florescent orange and yellow guys that sing and chirp all the time. Flocks of parrots stop to chatter and add their energy to the symphony. And sometimes the three dogs add a barking chorus.

I’m at the most amazing Wind Song House!...>>>iggy