The Wrack

The staff serenaded volunteers gathered for the summer 2022 recognition event. Here's what they sang.

Even in 2020, one only needs to look, or listen, to still find beauty in the world.

The following was published in the Biddeford-Saco Journal Tribune Sunday edition, 10/18/2015.

Welcome to Southern Maine and “peak foliage.” Those blazing reds and oranges along the Turnpike and our back roads are a sight to behold. Of course, I’m talking about brake lights.

Tonight's full moon is the first of two full moons this month. Modern convention will label it a blue moon.

Last Thursday evening, I happened to be working late in the shop when I received a special dispatch from John, the facilities manager. A research group had taken a golf cart down to the marsh and had not yet returned, though it was nearing closing time. He had to head out, and I really had nowhere to be, so I took off down the trail in my own golf cart to investigate. Down at the marsh (three sides of which I visited trying to get as close to the researchers as possible), it turned out that they were just having a long day in the field and would be finished soon.

Good enough. Here's where the story begins.

If we look around, we can watch the natural world disappearing right before our eyes. The good news is that those rates of loss have been worse in the past. The bad news is that what we see disappearing isn’t the only thing we’re losing. It turns out, the sounds of the natural world are fading too.

Enthusiastic volunteer and proud mom Eileen Willard had her boy help us understand why music in the Laudholm barn sounds So Darn Good…

The following was originally published in the Biddeford-Saco Journal Tribune Sunday edition, 8/4/13:

Music is in the ear of the beholder. Whether finch or frog, cricket or quartet, it’s all part of nature’s symphony.

Working at the Wells Reserve at Laudholm, I listen to recorded music in my farmhouse office most hours of the day. Because it’s such a natural fit here, I’m bringing more live music to our barn this summer too. String quartets sound particularly fine in a hundred-year-old wooden barn. An acoustical engineer recently told me: “Wood slats like your barn’s walls have ideal absorptive, reflective, and diffusive characteristics for live instrumentation.” Sounds good to me.

Barns aside, I’m constantly discovering new artists in our fields and marshes too.

On Sunday, August 26^th, I attended an afternoon concert at The Colony Hotel. One hundred fellow music lovers and I enjoyed a dozen classical piano duets by maestro Warren King and his college roommate, recording artist David Pihl. Ticket proceeds came to the Laudholm Trust – it was music played for the benefit of science. What better accompaniment to our special nature at the Reserve than the seashell symmetries of Bach’s cantatas or the sunflower melodies of Mozart?

We had the pleasure of hosting a wonderful series of performances at Punkinfiddle and once again thank all the artists who have appeared on the stage. We list them here.