🍁「 楓蔦黄 」🍂  

Lying down on a clear, windy day in October to enjoy the vibrant leaves' final dance of the year. The oaks are already looking winter-ready.

こんいちは！

In addition to being Bandcamp Friday (you can peruse our Hummingtunes 五 list here), today marks the end of the traditional Japanese 'microseason' (kō) of 楓蔦黄 (when frost descends, and maple & ivy leaves turn yellow). Soon we'll have an update about our trip, but first we thought we'd squeeze in a few irregular updates from October (十月) about various goings on both around the Hill and beyond.

  Snowtoro & Co.  

After what has been a very mild winter, this weekend's snow storm brought a trio of unexpected visitors from 日本 to Humm Hill.  They were gone the next day, but left a scattering of ドングリ behind...

  Returning & Reorienting (戻りと変更計画)  

Viewing the Zen garden at HCP. See more photos from this trip on ノート.

ただいま！

After over six weeks of exploring 日本, we're officially back in Metchosin to reorient ourselves toward the holidays and a rapidly approaching new year (正月). That being said, as we hinted in our last post, our virtual 旅 has been so rewarding and inspiring that we've decided to continue making periodic trips back across the submarine cable bridge which connects islands & digital lives through the 'thick' 太平洋.

  Field Notes from Japan (日本からのフィールドノート)  

こんばんは！

This week marks the 36th anniversary of Hummingbird Hill, and soon we'll officially be back in Metchosin to reflect, reorient, and prepare for the future. We have exciting plans for the new year, and will be busily laying the groundwork for the next chapter of Hummingcrow & Co. through the winter. We'll have a bit more to share on that front in our next post, but before we take a break^? from our exploration of 日本, we thought we'd share a field report from our digital studies of two species which have delighted us over the past several weeks.

~ Kate (ケイト): Hummingbird hawk-moth

「ハチドリ VS ホウジャク」illustration by Kate (ケイト)

While researching different 鳥 (birds) in Japan, we wondered if there was anything similar to a ハチドリ (hummingbird) there. Well, we discovered that they don’t have hummingbirds, but they do have amazing hummingmoths, known as 蜂雀 (literally “bee sparrow”) or hummingbird hawk-moth in English. The two of them are a case of convergent evolution— unrelated species in different places evolving similar traits to adapt to similar conditions—sharing the same hovering method and sipping nectar from flowers, pollinating along the way.

  いってきます!  

Over the past few weeks, we've been busily preparing for the next phase of our collaborative endeavours as Hummingcrow & Co. We'll have an announcement to make in November with more details. But first...

We're headed to Japan, and we're taking Humm Hill with us!

~ Wait... wha?

That's right, Quinton – hold on to your head plume, because today we'll be traveling 7,000 km across the Pacific Ocean at near-lightspeed for a virtual stay in Japan.

~ ..!

  Before overseas travel was put on pause this year, our grand plan for October was to visit Japan together for the first time. We had been practicing Japanese (日本語), trying out washoku (和食) recipes, discussing friends (友達) living there who we'd like to visit, planning our budget, and mapping possible routes & destinations. As things stand, there's no telling when this trip will actually be possible in the future – at least, physically... So that got us thinking: why not adapt to these circumstances and make the journey (旅) a different way?