First Week of August- PRIVATE

Here are the private, more low key events. Most of these entries include audio recordings.

8/1 PM The Evening After the Eclipse
After staying up most of the night, we were pretty exhausted. When the sunset arrived, we did the easiest thing. The car is usually parked in front of the house and the big bell is in there. I love that bell and we can only ring it at night without disturbing the neighbors. So Norman went out front and rang the bell as I watched from upstairs. It was a clear evening for a change. Color!

8/2 AM A Fog Horn Choir
There were so many foghorns this morning. I don’t know the last time I heard four different tones all going at such a rapid rate. I thought it would be a treat to listen them so I rang the tiniest of bells to accompany those huge and lovely bass horns and recorded everything (audio).

8/3 AM Naked Ladies in Full Bloom!

Listen to the music they grow to (audio).

8/4 AM Everyone Was There
I love these little tiny bells and am equally enamored of those 2 naked ladies in the back. My little bird soloist friend was out there this morning. Despite the cold foggy gray, this morning’s sunrise was a delight. (I couldn’t find my jacket this morning).

8/6 and 8/7 AM Gray Day Look Alikes.
Another gray day (8/6). Again. Again. Again. Even the birds don’t bother coming out. Malcolm and I looked around for a moment and then we went back inside. While this morning (8/7) looks remarkably much the same as yesterday, it does sound a bit different (audio). For one thing that loud little bird was back. I caught the tail end of his song. It seems as if his song begins and ends about the same time each day. With the sun rising later each day, we are passing through his singing time. Sadly. Although he doesn’t keep a very strict schedule, otherwise we would no longer hear him at all since he’s been silent these past few sunrises. Maybe he doesn’t stop singing. Perhaps he just moves to a different venue at a certain time. More like a moving train schedule than a punch-the-clock type. Whichever it is, I hope there are still a few days left to hear him around here. There aren’t many other birds. Except for the crows.
(FYI: The photo on the right is 8/6, the left is 8/7)

8/7 PM Sunset From the Hallway
The documentation of the eclipse on August 1st has thrown me as far as editing and documenting the media for the blog. As I fall further behind, I am reluctant to either generate anything too time consuming to edit or to take much time out of the day for the actual event. I realize this compromises the intention of the project but I take some refuge in the fact that it’s a temporary condition. So this evening, I set up the camera in the house, and we rang the bells from our places in front of our computers. Sad, but true.

8/8 AM The Voluntary Peach Tree
Of all the things growing (or not growing) in the backyard, this tree has been thriving and pressing itself into the side of the house ever since we arrived here. We have cut and sawn branches and gathered up the hard rotted fruit year after year. The peaches always look so beautiful and inviting but their beauty is truly only skin deep. Because it’s so foggy and cold out here all summer, the peaches never get ripe. They grow and change color and eventually fall off the tree onto the blackberry brambles below. Last year I gathered about 30 of the unripe peaches from the ground and boiled them with lots of sugar, hoping to make something edible from them. The concoction was definitely peachy but disappointing. Even though it’s been so foggy and cold for the last 6 weeks, there were a few very hot days earlier in the summer and I am hoping that will make a difference in the peaches this year. Perhaps they will be delicious and juicy. I actually don’t even like peaches, but having a tree in the yard changes the way I feel about them. They are my peaches and I would love to be able to eat them. We’ll see. As far as the birds go, there were more songs then usual this morning. This is a good time of day.

8/8 PM Prairie Bells Will Travel
Sometimes, I look forward to ringing the bells. Just walking around the neighborhood, ringing as we go. Some combinations of bells sound really pretty and it’s a pleasure to ring them together. This evening, I had the small brass cymbal chimes. They are heavy and attached to each other by a piece of leather string. One way to play them is to swing them towards each other and knock their edges into one another. It’s hard to aim and get them to hit just right. But when they do, they ring for a long time and you can swing them past each other as they decay. Because they are slightly out of tune from each other, when they swing near each other, they produce a slight flutter. It’s shimmery and quiet.
Norman was playing 3 of the bells that Bill and Mary Buchen gave us. Sometimes, I look forward to ringing the bells. Just walking around the neighborhood, ringing as we go. Some combinations of bells sound really pretty and it’s a pleasure to ring them together. This evening, I had the small brass cymbal chimes. They are heavy and attached to each other by a piece of leather string. One way to play them is to swing them towards each other and knock their edges into one another. It’s hard to aim and get them to hit just right. But when they do, they ring for a long time and you can swing them past each other as they decay. Because they are slightly out of tune from each other, when they swing near each other, they produce a slight flutter. It’s shimmery and quiet. Norman was playing 3 of the bells that Bill and Mary Buchen gave us. The Buchens (aka Sonic Architecture) imported these bells from Thailand for their public art project called “Prairie Bells” they have recently installed in Frisco, Texas.