despite this paralysis he was able to hear , and to see all around him : the waving tall grass and clumps of yellow wildflowers at the level of his recumbent body , the willows crowding down to the glistening stream , the impassive red-brown mountain slopes and peaks , and behind all that the blue sheet of sky , crossed here and there by hurrying birds and orderly flotillas of clouds , and thick with ingenuous sunshine .