Tag: creek

Surprises in the Neighborhood

I responded to the call of the creek, as I usually do, and almost couldn’t get there. The parking lot of the fire station was a mess as it was being prepared for paving. It seems odd that they would work one day before the Labor Day weekend and just walk away from the job. They must be confident that nothing will move in their absence.

090315 Fire station repaving

The creek was low but flowing freely and sounding bass notes. Not so the tiny streams near our house! I couldn’t even see, much less hear, anything from the first one. Coming back when there was more light, I saw a trickle that made no sound. The larger of the two was only marginally better. Where would one protest this lackluster performance?

We came back from running errands and were surprised to see a new structure near the corner of our entrance road. Whipping my head around, I saw those neighbors sitting on the new porch only a few feet from the front porch of their house. John O told me they hired a crew from Tennessee to erect it. We saw none of the action, so it was like magic to find a new building appear while we were shopping at the supermarket. It is a two story shed! We had seen something like it at Lowe’s and thought it could be made into a tiny house. Do you suppose they might use it as a guest cottage? We’ll have to wait and see.

090415 Neighbor's new shed

Neighbor Ron is not doing well. We were surprised when the doorbell rang and hoped it wasn’t anything to do with him. It wasn’t. A delivery man handed over a gorgeous vase of picture perfect roses. Stunning! We’ve had many surprises, and the day is only half gone.

090415 Roses!

Creek Changed Its Tune

Most people hear only running water, but I try to listen carefully for various tones. This began when I walked near the water on Long Island. There were stones where the spring-fed stream emptied into the inlet, but you could hear the water only at low tide. Most of the time that stream had a range of an octave.

050415 Singing stones and selfie shadow
Singing stones in Stony Brook

I’ve been listening to the creek in the mountains for a year. Every once in a while I’d match the main tone just to keep in practice. Much to my surprise, I found the tone was becoming deeper. It made sense, because the water level was quite different than in the spring. There is a steady tone from the creek as a whole, but there are also individual notes where water hits a large stone and falls into the pit below. Those were the tones that were going out of my lower register.

081015 Creek is low
Jonathan Creek in August

Today I pulled out my phone and clicked on the pitch pipe app, not realizing only the icon was there. The app had been downloaded to the tablet, which I always had at church to get the starting note for the choir. Not giving up, I found a recording app and recorded the creek for a few seconds. Back at home, I sang with it and matched the tone with the piano. I’ll try to remember to check the creek again when the water level changes.