September 17, 2009

Hmmmm

Cricket and other insect sounds, unceasing and constant, make sitting on the porch in the cool fall air a drowsy struggle to keeps the lids open. We chilled all evening. We made a spinach salad with french bread and had a night off from having to do anything.

Our enclosed porch in the back of the house is my favorite room. Wife's baskets hang from beams that run the length of the room under the stained tongue-in-groove vaulted ceiling which gives it a rustic feel. Wife wants to paint it white...hmmm, I don't like that idea. It would ruin the rusticity. (Is that a word?)

Anyway, the unceasing and unwavering sound of the crickets outside reminded me of something I read a long time ago. Vietnam veterans who went out on night patrol in the jungle, their senses ramped up by adrenalin, said the Earth made a noise. All who experienced the sound said it was an almost indescribable unceasing and unwavering hum.

Scientists say that the Earth does indeed produce a hum which is caused by waves colliding in the ocean. When waves of same size collide it sends a special kind of pressure to the ocean floor and when hit with this pressure produces a low sound frequency.

I went outside to listen and all I could hear were the crickets which was just fine with me.

2 comments:

  1. I adore the sound of crickets on a late summer night. I just heard a piece on NPR about the sounds of seven different kinds of crickets and katydids. So comforting.

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  2. i'm with willow.. i think the katydids are incredibly comforting. reminds me of being a kid and lying out on the grass on summer evenings..listening to them and trying to figure out where they were.

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