Monday, August 12, 1996
Yesterday morning, before leaving The Mountain, I visited the pool again.In the rain the pool was overflowing. A tiny stream, a rivulet, was flowed from the ply-wood sized pool across a few feet of granite to the edge, and then on down the escarpment. I will use the road.
Looking closely for the images of the morning, the surface was a cacophony of ripples, each drop of rain sending out waves like stones in a pond, each signal interrupting and interfering with all the others. If you tried hard, you could see larger, extended circles. Mostly it was a matter of hundreds of drops of rain with little circles that disappeared (or did they?) in an inch or two.
In one area there were big splashes. This was below the oaks and over the developing mudflat. Big drops of water bounced up to heights of 2-4 inches making fountains that sent out secondary waves from the same spot. Being interested in making a splash :-) I studied the area. Water collecting on leaves makes drops much larger than rain. I don't know if the shallowness contributes to the bounce--perhaps. Question-- Does the shallow area result from a building up of the mud and/or from the contour of the granite below. Nature or nurture? Question2-- does the mudflat develop under the trees because of the trees, or is that a coincidence?
Goodbye pool, RYL