Tuesday, January 26, 2010

Journey of water seeking

Rain season is here in LA, after a week of heavy rain, the sky above is brighter, clearer, and calls for reaching above. Hiked and high above the basin of San Gabriel valley, I reached for the sky, hiked and low below the mountain valley, I reached for the pure water. It's a day to seek high and low, so much as in life itself.

Water is the mother of tea, utensils are father of tea. I have collected a few tea wares to improve water and tea flavor, improving water quality on the other hand is an endless goal. To start, I have a 5 steps reverse osmosis purifying system, bamboo charcoal to further purify, Chao Zhou red clay Sha Diao to improve flavor. From there, I inserted an extra step, using Yixing clay jar to store water, adding bamboo charcoal and crystals. Last week, I caught a couple pitchers of rainwater, the water itself is sweeter than all that I could do to improve water artificially.

This results in my trip up the mountain then hiked down to find that natural water. Well, the water is found, but I couldn't bring them back up the mountain by hand. So I filled up from the water fountain which is treated local water.
San Gabriel Mountain
Small trail heading down to the stream, sound of water is music to my ears as I hopped down the hill.
Tree: I can handle the pressure...
In my way...
I can get pass you...I can see you now!
I am right beside you now..
Standing in the middling of the stream now... Strange rock with a rock within, without seams.
Flowing down the stream, casual as usual, soft yet powerful! Water, is life, is part of me, is part of you. It brings joy to many, it brings destruction to others. Cheers to all, the living and the not!

月刚上梢头
愁才下眉头
上心头
泪已下阶头Sunset at mountain topSan Gabriel basin from above...

2 comments:

Alex Zorach said...

These are beautiful pictures! I lived for four months in southern California, during the dry season. Most of the time I spent the time in low-lying areas that were covered only with Chaparral.

A few of these photos look a lot more like the lush forests of Pennsylvania that I grew up in...at least more so than anything else I've ever seen in socal. I would really like to see socal during the raining season, but these photos give me a nice taste of it.

Thanks for posting!

Imen said...

Alex,

Only part of the mountain near the water are lush, the rest are bald. :)

Thanks for reading!