Water, Water Everywhere

So our plan to move north to Canada was scuppered by the elements.  We left Gettysburg PA after a week of cold rain and moved on to western New York State with little hope of getting any warmer weather.  I decided to contact my friend Karen whom we had intended to visit at their cottage retreat two hundred miles north of Toronto.  Snow was still a possibility up there, with night time temperatures around freezing, so I proposed that instead of towing our trusty trailer The Jet with us, we would leave it out to pasture in the green field it was currently sinking its tyres into, and just drive our truck Benny 200 miles to Toronto where Karen and her partner Dave have a house.  As we couldn’t leave the Jet for too long, we decided that a long weekend instead of the two weeks we had planned would have to suffice for this year’s visit.  The cold was seeping into my husband Richard’s and my bones and we intended not to out-wait the weather but head south and west to hopefully warmer climes as soon as we got back.

The weather did dry up during the week, and when we arrived in Toronto on Friday the 6^th May, there was even a mini heatwave on.  70 degrees Farenheit (21 Centigrade) no less, and Karen and Dave were busy preparing their pool for us to use whilst we were there.  However, it took until Sunday to heat up the water, by which time the air temperature had dropped.  At 85F (29C) degrees, it was very comfortable in the pool, but getting out into an ambient temperature of 55F (13C) degrees was another matter! I vowed my next swim would not happen until summer was well underway.

In fact, for some reason, water has featured very much in our lives over the last few weeks.  Mostly, thank goodness, we were just looking at it!

Unsurprising really, as we were located in the Finger Lakes area of New York, which has an abundance of rivers, waterfalls, 29 state parks and 11  Finger Lakes (called this because they are... yes – you’ve guessed – finger shaped). By the way, entrance to state parks is generally free in New York and Pennsylvania. At weekends there is often a parking fee applied. 

The Appalachians were formed as a result of plate collision and tend to be elongated belts of folded and thrust faulted marine sedimentary rocks, volcanic rocks and slivers of ancient ocean floor.  My knowledge, you may say, is pretty impressive – but that is mainly due to the Geology Course DVD Richard bought me for my birthday in January.  (I should have foreseen this, because he gave me a rock hammer for Christmas!)

All that water erosion down glacially steepened hillsides has created some fabulous gorges, with dripping shale walls, splendid roaring waterfalls, and amazing ecosystems with mixes of rain-forest and desert loving plants growing on light and dark slopes. I’ll let the photos do the talking:

Niagara Falls

Bubba!  The sheer force thunders at you

Letchworth State Park NY

Our first experience before Niagara, and the rest, and we were very impressed with these three waterfalls…

Watkins Glen State Park NY

Sculptured chasms and 19 waterfalls within a mile long gorge.  Breathtakingly beautiful as each new vista opens up along the 880 steps of the gorge trail!

We have spent the last few days just south of Pittsburgh, PA, and water is not that far away here either, though the hills are a little steeper and more rolling, and the rivers smaller and less surging, and the small man-made lakes are still and full of algae. 

Yet we did come across something special – a house built to sit over water.  American designer/architect Frank Lloyd Wright believed in designing structures that were in harmony with humanity and its environment, a philosophy he called organic architecture. Fallingwater, one of Wright's most famous private residences, built from 1934 to 1937, was designed according to his desire to place the occupants close to the natural surroundings, with a stream and waterfall running under part of the building. Wright wanted the residents to live with the waterfalls, to make them part of their everyday lives. Typically Wrightian is the joining of the structure to its site by a series of terraces that reach out into and reorder the landscape. To unify the house to its site, Wright often used large expanses of glass to blur the boundary between the indoors and outdoors.

Isn’t it fabulous?

However, that spring fed pool is not heated.  At 55 degrees, that is water I would not be swimming in – no matter how hot the weather!  Even the frogs are playing chicken!