Maybe once a month or so, a hummingbird gets inside the greenhouse, or kitchen, and flutters cluelessly against a window. It’s easy to gently trap them in your hands, whenceupon they lie motionless. You feel this warm, soft creature against your palms. V. peaceful. Here (about 5 minutes ago), it lay still for maybe 5 seconds after I opened my hands, then took off buzzing like a mini-helicopter, iridescent green flashing in sun. (Smudges on hand from finger-caulking tin roof holes yesterday.)
About Lloyd Kahn
Lloyd Kahn started building his own home in the early '60s and went on to publish books showing homeowners how they could build their own homes with their own hands. He got his start in publishing by working as the shelter editor of the
Whole Earth Catalog with Stewart Brand in the late '60s. He has since authored six highly-graphic books on homemade building, all of which are interrelated. The books, "The Shelter Library Of Building Books," include
Shelter,
Shelter II (1978),
Home Work (2004),
Builders of the Pacific Coast (2008),
Tiny Homes (2012), and
Tiny Homes on the Move (2014). Lloyd operates from Northern California studio built of recycled lumber, set in the midst of a vegetable garden, and hooked into the world via five Mac computers. You can check out videos (one with over 450,000 views) on Lloyd by doing a search on YouTube:
Maybe once a month or so, a hummingbird gets inside the greenhouse, or kitchen, and flutters cluelessly against a window. It’s easy to gently trap them in your hands, whenceupon they lie motionless. You feel this warm, soft creature against your palms. V. peaceful. Here (about 5 minutes ago), it lay still for maybe 5 seconds after I opened my hands, then took off buzzing like a mini-helicopter, iridescent green flashing in sun. (Smudges on hand from finger-caulking tin roof holes yesterday.)
oh my gosh…WOW
I am so envious…that you get to hold one in your hand.
That is really so darn cool! (and the next post, too, about the NYC subway…) keep up the good work.
stefan
Amazing delicate creatures!
I think I'm more impressed by the hand holding the hummingbird!
Beautiful pic, Lloyd. Thanks for sharing.
Brad
gotta tell you, have come back to this pic a number of times…each time it makes my entire being smile…
nice.
I think this is one of your pics worth considering selling as art
This is a special picture. The hummingbird yes! Your hand YES! ♥
you know, that is a nice picture.
you could do a series (have to get that hand dirty again…more caulking in the works?)
just the hand, in that position, then a further bunch with hand holding other things…
was looking for a garden post to put this in, but in seeing (again) the beauty in this pic, it sort of reminds me of the beauty of the renewal which is happening in Detroit, so…
Seems like so much common sense, given the troubled state of the economy in Detroit..
—yet, will it hold? Way these things go, expecting some official to come in and pass a law
Banning it………..
Urban farming invigorates Detroit
http://www.freep.com/article/20130520/NEWS01/305200021/urban-gardening-detroit
http://www.oprah.com/world/Gardening-in-the-City-Changing-Detroits-Landscape
http://www.urbangardensweb.com/2013/01/19/will-detroit-get-worlds-largest-urban-farm/
http://www.christianitytoday.com/ct/2013/january-february/organic-city.html
http://detroitagriculture.net/
http://www.theguardian.com/environment/2010/jul/11/detroit-urban-renewal-city-farms-paul-harris
http://www.msnbc.com/morning-joe/urban-farming-takes-hold-blighted-motor
http://www.avalonbreads.net/eat-well-do-good/do-good-detroit-a-city-of-greener-pastures/
http://greeningofdetroit.com/
this one looks almost as good as yours, Lloyd..check it out.
http://www.boredpanda.com/hand-made-paper-wood-birds-zack-mclaughlin/
(yes, I know yours is real, this isn't)