35 Comments

I learned hand whistling in a basic way when I was a kid to imitate owl sounds. Listening to Jonna making such a wide variety of music, I am going to see if I can expand my repertoirce. You can also modulate the sound by "compressing" your hands closer together. You can also whistle with stiff grass blades clasped between your thumbs...

Ice sounds are fascinating and can be quite loud and scary. Ice is active and constatly changing with temperature changes. Being out on the ice at night in the North is a very special experience.

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Cool.I want to know more.

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Trees talk too...

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Oh yes. Wait until you read the next chapters of the Uncle D quest. Have you been following?

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@Jena have you met @antonia ? On the Commons? Oh, you must meet each other.!

https://antonia.substack.com/

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Thank you so much, Kate. I just read the opening essay and feel like I’ve found a member of my family. I have always felt that we each have a place on the planet that we belong to - that we are meant to know and love and protect as it will in turn know and love and protect us. This isn’t about ownership but relationship. The Native Americans understood this and it is one of the messages I’m hoping to convey in my current project. Thank you so much for introducing me to Antonia’s work. It’s too bad comments are closed on her Substack or I’d tell her how much her work already means to me :-)

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I am so glad her work resonates, although I just knew it would! I agree about a place where you belong. Still looking for mine but happy to have found you!

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Awww thank you, Kate. I have a theory about people too. When you find your tribe it’s easier to find your place. Thank you for becoming part of mine.

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Namaste 🐾🐾😻

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Oh, my heart! Tiny little relatives of ours, bat mammals, are so amazing! They purr?! I am not surprised lil Mr. Chugs immediately felt your kindness and energy of awe and communicated that in a way he intuitively knew you would understand. Thank you for sharing this! Also, I left a comment on Jonna's FB page: "So lovely to listen to your recordings! I love standing on ice far from populated areas and listening to it speak! I am in the far north and love the cold, the snow, the quiet poof of new snow insulating other sounds and then a drop in temperature and ice speaking. Or skiing on a lake while it cracks and pops, almost happily."

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You have heard the ice talk too?! I am entranced by this. What does is say to you? And yes the amazing spirits of bats. I adore them :-) I’ so glad you enjoyed meeting Chugs too. I can’t tell you how soft and silky his fur felt. Being able to hold him was such a gift.

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It has always been something that pulls me out of my small human existence, like looking at the Milky Way or seeing the northern lights and trying to hear their sound, too because there must be pulsating music to them. Like vast planes of magic overhead or underfoot. At 40 below F, ice can be a startling sharp crack or almost a moan, but it just depends. I prefer night, trying to disappear into the blackness and absorb what the lake or the trees, or owls have to say, wondering about the texture of what they are doing right then. In the day time, as I said skiing or walking, it can be like a happy popping, or creaking like a complaining door hinge that needs oil, which makes me laugh. Such drama!

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I love the dark too! It is restful and makes it easier to set the illusion of separation aside and allow your being to remember its place in the larger scheme of things. I love that ice talks - that it fractures along lines that allow it to speak - that those cracks and fissures are like vocal cords. Have you ever recorded the sounds? Are the sounds you hear similar to those recorded by Jonna?

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Beautiful and moving. Brought tears to my eyes.

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Thank you so much.

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First of all, I love bats. All animals really, but bats and wolves are often so misunderstood. I guess at heart I love the underdog so to speak.

Hearing wolf song makes me feel calm and knowing now that bats vibrate or purr when happy makes we want to hear that, too.

Nature's voices. Thank you for sharing this. What a wonderfully full life you have led so far.

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I love them too! Bats are remarkably like humans - mammals who give birth to live young, intelligent, caring, and live in communities. If you stretch their wings you can even see their five fingers. It drives me nuts that people are taught to fear and hate them. They do much good in the world (as do wolves) in maintaining healthy ecosystems. Our failure to see this and protect them is another sign of our disconnection and self-absorption that threatens the planet. Ok done ranting :-) I’m so glad I got to share Chugs with you. Have you heard of Bat World Sanctuary?

https://batworld.org/

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Our failure as humans to recognize that we are all part of the ecosystem and should be working together, not destroying everything in our way, including other humans, to enrich ourselves...and by ourselves, I mean our wealthy Oligarchs of all nationalities around the world.

I had not heard of the bat sanctuary. Thank you for sharing.

I did get to visit a wolf sanctuary near Yellowstone. Heaven. 😊

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The wolves of Yellowstone are another of my favorite topics. I got to write about the reintroduction program under Clinton and then a follow up for Backpacker magazine Wolves are incredible beings. But I’ve never been to Yellowstone :-(

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Ooh you had a close encounter with a bat, that's awesome! I wasn't able to hear the sound of the ice... Is it on her YT channel somewhere? I couldn't find it.

We're so fortunate to have at least a dozen small bats spend the summer in our large ground-level cellar. We feel so lucky that they have chosen our house as their summer breeding ground. 🙂🦇

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What kind of bats? I love them!

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I wish I knew what kind of bats they are... They're quite small, like the size of a big plum...I must look up the species that are the most frequently observed in my area and figure out which ones they are

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I don’t know which ones are in your neck of the woods but would love to find out. Undoubtedly insectivores and my guess would be hoary or big brown bats (big is misleading as they are quite small). The really big ones are fruit bats which I encountered in Nepal. Orange (rust red) fur, black heads and faces that look like foxes. They are beautiful.

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Not sure why you can’t hear it, but here it is: https://www.facebook.com/jonnajinton/videos/1343420715782211

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Thanks so much!

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Of course. Let me know what you think. I love her work. I’m not sure why the FB link wasn’t working in the image. I deleted it and added it again. Maybe I didn’t the the whole link when I copied it?

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Could be... The sound is otherworldly, amazing. Nature is so cool

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I am a bit mesmerized by the sound to be honest. Can you imagine being out in the ice when it cracked like that?! Gives me goosebumps just thinking about it.

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Agree!

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Wow we seem to be on a similar wavelength today!

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What a surprise (not). LOL

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Spirit animal sisters!

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LOL, I think you just invented a new species ;-)

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👯‍♀️😻😻

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Feb 21
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Grins. Thank you for reading along. I knew you'd "get" it.

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