water falls

cosmo's obsession with flowing water goes way back. it has been a consistent theme since he was one year old, or so (along with spheres, tracks, mazes, maps). he loves puddles, down-spouts, gutters, waterfalls, creeks, fountains, washes, bathtubs drains, hoses, storm drains, pipes, sinks, toilets etc. perhaps it is a natural fascination for all small children.



since the warm weather hit, his favorite activity is "playing with the hose." i feel like a real schmuck for allowing him to "waste" so much water, but on the other hand, he learns so much from his extended, solitary, exploration with moving water, that i really hate to cut him off. he will occupy himself for hours, if allowed, moving the hose all over the yard, finding different materials to flow over, and holes to fill up. he digs out little streams in the gravel and the dirt, builds dams, waterfalls, and tiny ponds. he becomes so engaged, and so focused in this free water play, it seems unfair of me to worry about things like global water shortages, or, of lesser importance, our water bill. it is also difficult to feel the scarcity when we are experiencing such excesses in terms of rain fall. a few days ago, we got almost 4 inches of rain in 24 hours. and then, another inch or so a day later (carl reminds me that where he grew up, in denver, they get about 6 inches a YEAR. if they're lucky).



in the midst of the day-of-downpour, cosmo and i were out traipsing around the neighborhood, in our goulashes, rain jackets and umbrellas, checking out all the gutters, large puddles, and storm drains. there was a lot to observe. and this time, it was guilt-free for me. we got to divert water that was missing the storm drain, back into the drain, clear debris, and float little "helicopter" maple seeds down rivers of rushing water. we do this often during spring and summer showers, but this year, it seems a bit more serious for cosmo. the rain let up for a while, and we went back indoors. after our outing, an hour or so later, when another storm rolled over, he was back out, on his own this time, investigating all there was to see in our yard. he moved from down spout to down spout with our dryer-vent-turned-all-purpose-toy, trying to hook it up to the spout, watching it flow out the end of the tube. entranced. he noted that our neighbors needed to clean out their gutters, since the water was over-flowing at the top, rather than heading down the water spout (cosmo is very vigilant about the care and upkeep of our own gutters, but that's a story for another blog post). he was out there for a good hour or so, i joined him for some of it, then carl went out, and they went for another walk in the pouring rain.

there was very loud thunder, there was lightening, and last year, this stuff scared him. this year, water obsession trumps thunder fear. he just can't be bothered. he did ask me, once, if lightening ever touched the ground. our dear friend hannah planted that seed when she visited a couple of months ago. i had to admit that it sometimes does, but that he really didn't need to worry about being outside in the rain. that seemed good enough for him.when carl and cosmo came in from their walk, i had towels waiting at the door, and homemade hot chocolate on the stove. he and carl had a little tea party while they got warmed up.




yesterday, we went out to the sculpture trails for the annual aluminum pour. i went last year with lara, and thought cosmo and carl would really enjoy seeing molten metal being poured into carved-out tiles of pressed sand. cosmo, not so much. see, it had just rained, and there were gravel roads and dirt trails with rivlets of water running down them, and a big rushing creek, with a bridge. anything that did not involve water flowing was simply uninteresting to cosmo. i got him to help me carve out my dragonfly tile, for a few minutes, and we did hike a good portion of the sculpture trails, searching for "hidden" sculptures, but when it was time to leave, the sculptures and the foundry were not the areas that we could barely tear cosmo away from. it was the creek. luckily, there were little trickles of water running here and there, on the road leading back to the car. but when we finally got him buckled into the car, he was in tears, crying, "i wanna go back to the creek! i wanna go back to the creeeeeeek! i don't want to leeeeeave...."




he was so devastated, he fell asleep on the way home, something that almost never happens these days. especially after a good night's sleep (12 hours).


oh, and we saw some geese and goslings on the road, this tree,


and i made this tile for the garden (photo of finished, cast tile, coming soon).

one of our neighbors, whom we don't really know, but refer to as "halloween," (due to her awesome october house decor the first year we lived here), has recently installed a pond in her back yard. a pond with a small waterfall, and a trickling stream. it has become the new destination for walks or bike rides, when it is NOT pouring down rain. one time, halloween herself was out there, and showed cosmo the pump that lives under a lightweight, fake, stone next to the pond. cosmo was talking about that pump for days. i have always thought those sorts of landscaping features were kind of hokey. but i tell ya, if we were homeowners, i'd be looking into low-cost ways of setting one of those up at our place. but cosmo and i have already decided, our pump wouldn't be hidden. why would anyone want to hide something so spectacular?