Knott Park

[OT from cottage renovations]

the past couple of days featured close up views of hydrangeas in the Bittersweet Cottage garden.  here's some contrast, masses of white as opposed to polychromatic detail. 

(clck through these thumbnails for higher resolution images)

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Knott Park

these two views are of the same row of hydrangeas, as seen looking down and up Grove Avenue. 

these hydrangeas have always done well; the secret to their cultivation seems to be that they thrive on neglect.  not that Town Maintenance isn't mindful of what our grounds need -- far from that -- but these ones just don't seem to need an awful lot done for them.  nor do mine, which I guess is why they keep on doing so I well. 

human factors

[OT from cottage renovations]

once upon a time, a long time ago, back before folks could download annoying ringtones to their telephones, it is said that equipment designers at Western Electric were trying to determine what a ringing telephone should sound like.  what they did was the obvious thing: they set up a research project.  don't laugh, kids, but the world really used to work that way. 

so they set up a test apparatus and observed many subjects to see what to audible frequencies people had the strongest reaction.  the pitch they chose turned out to be close to that of the cry of an infant or young child. 

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what an interesting story.  it might even be true. 

what I do know is that this afternoon while  working  messing around with the computer I heard a young child crying in the Circle.  before I even knew what I was doing I was already out the door, looking to see what was going and whether there was anything I could do to help. 

though I often refer to some of our young ones as the Grove's feral children, in truth they are far from on their own.  Grove mothers are protective, attentive, and have astonishingly fast reflexes.  by the time I located the source of the sound it had shifted; the child in question had been taken swiftly indoors and upstairs and the sobbing had become muted, mixed with the sounds of running water and a soothing maternal voice. 

so I headed back home with a fresh realisation of how absurd it would be to try to outpace one of our parents on first response to a child in distress.  even so, no matter how many years it's been, one never loses the edge.