It seems perverse to write about the sound of summer when winter winds still howl and more snow is forecast. But how better to keep warm
than to anticipate? And to remember.
than to anticipate? And to remember.
For years my husband and I spent our summer vacation with our children at a cottage next door to Glen Villa. My brother-in-law owns the cottage now, so we visit it regularly. And when we do, I hear the thing I remember best from summer nights – the sound of the stream gurgling over rocks.
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| The stream by the cottage |
When we bought Glen Villa, I never considered how much I would miss that sleep-inducing sound.
I tried to reproduce it when we built the cascade near the front door. No good. The cascade looks fine. The water falls nicely onto a flat stone we dug up when lowering the driveway, but the sound it makes is quite different.
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| The cascade with spirea in bloom |
I tried to reproduce the sound in the meadow above the house, where the stream that feeds the cascade gurgles its way down the hill. But the slope was too gentle, the bottom not rocky enough, no matter how many stones I added.
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| The meadow stream and one of the tiny waterfalls I built |
I tried on the far side of the house, beyond the lower garden. Water there drains off the hill into a gully that promised the right conditions. But there’s never enough water for a good gurgle – barely enough for an annoying nose drip of a sound.
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| The stream in winter. If you listen carefully, you can hear water gurgling under the ice. |
So I’ve given up trying to recreate the sound of the past. But I haven’t given up on the movement of water. Or rather, the non-movement. I’m doing what seems to be the big thing these days, building a reflecting pond.
More on that to come… when spring arrives and the work we started last fall continues.
In the meantime, are there any sounds in the great on-line universe out there? Any readers? Or am I writing in a void?
Are there sounds you love? Sounds you miss?
Please comment, no matter how briefly — I need to hear your voices as well as my own!
What a lovely memory you describe. The sound I miss since living in the city is the spring peepers. Every now and then I am fortunate enough to be in the country during their brief annual symphony. Keep writing…we are listening (but I’m subscribed by e-mail, and there’s no easy way to make a comment; maybe others also have that problem).
I knew you missed the sound of the brook, but I didn’t know how hard you had worked to replicate it.
What I love about Glen Villa is the quiet. Oh, I know there are sounds, but I don’t hear them. It’s the absense of traffic, of trucks reversing, of city buses idling right below my bedroom window. I sleep so well and so… well, soundly!
My favourite soothing sound anywhere is rain, though.