Murmuration

WordPress isn’t allowing me to post images right now, so my “cheeses-and-bizarre-liquors-of-the-mediterranean-roundup-welcome-back-to-my-new-york-nest” post will have to wait until WP support comes out of their post-turkey comas. In the meantime: When we were in Rome every night around sunset clouds of starlings would swell up out of nowhere and swarm, silhouetted against the soft slant light of the winter sky, moving like ink through water, like schools of fish, a whisper of wings looking to gather together and roost on some warm marble. Perhaps it was the wine or the wonder, but I couldn’t get over how stunningly beautiful they were. Upon our return, my Mama sent me this amazing video. Apparently, a choreographed swarm of starlings is called a “murmuration”. The word itself sounds and feels like heart, which is how you feel when you see it. Marvelous.

Murmuration from Sophie Windsor Clive on Vimeo.

Author: loiseaufait

Little by little the bird feathers its nest, and object by heart burnished object we surround ourselves with lovely necessities of memory and function. It is these things that make a silly Apartment a Home or a silly Wednesday an Occasion. Whether my nest is an old farmhouse, a sixth floor tenement walk up, or a brownstone basement... whether I share it with family, vagabonds, women of heart and mind, or a little brown cat and a sweet ginger banjo, my principal joy is filling it with light and laughter (and corralling). View all posts by loiseaufait