Bacon is tasty, but it is not photogenic. Least of all bacon sputtering in a pan of fat. But it sounds good! This recording was inspired by a link Andy sent me earlier this week to Sleep Phones—soft head-band-phones you can plug into your mp3 player and wear as you drift off to sleep. On their site they have some specially engineered sound samples to download, one of which, Breakfast Sizzle, caught my eye. In that vein, here’s a little taste of the BLT+Avocado I cooked up for dinner tonight.
Over our 4th of July Seattle escapade, we had the privilege to approach the majestic Mt Rainier. We entered the park’s north-eastern corner and parked at the White River campground. Our plan was to hike up the trail for a mile and take the left fork to see Emmons Glacier, the largest glacier in the lower 48 states. It turned out the trail was “obliterated by floods last fall” which made it adventurous and diverse, but impossible to cross the river. Instead of taking the fork (which we never found), we continued the glacier basin trail to it’s official end (in the snow). All along our trek, we were accompanied by the rushing and sometime intimidating sounds of White River. Memorable.
I enjoy living in the city. I enjoy having two big bay windows that look out over Pine Street and let in copious amounts of light. But there is a downside: street noise. We’re lucky. We live on the downhill slope of a one-way street in a fairly residential neighborhood. There’s not much people noise, but when the light turns green at the crest of the hill before our block, a peloton of cars whooshes by, intermingled with the occasional squeal of a cab’s brakes. There’s also the twice weekly garbage collection that sounds like a wrecking crew and the hospital deliveries next door that block off a lane of traffic, creating a chain reaction of sudden lane changes and honking cars. It’s a symphony really. It’s also why I wear earplugs to sleep.
During the summer months, the North Bay turns golden which accentuates the contrast between the dry grass, the sky and the dispersed trees. Mount Tamalpais is a recurring example of this beauty, in addition to the spectacular elevated ocean views.
Today, hiking the coastal trail, we enjoyed summery temperatures, beautiful sunshine and a mild breeze which ran through the dry grass creating a special hiss.
The title of this post is in French because these are French frogs croaking—and because grenouille is such a fun word to say: gren-OO-ee. Unfortunately it’s a really hard sound to photograph without stumbling upon an actual frog in the dark. So I’ve taken the liberty of pairing it with a lathyrus latifolius flower, also known as a perennial pea (or a gesse à larges feuilles in French).
The frogs were recorded at night in Le Cannet. The photo was taken in the hills above Èze-sur-Mer. I think they complement each other nicely.
