Dulcimers, Dreams & Delights

I'm just back from Yellowstone and the Grand Tetons. I'd have to say musical instruments and National Parks have been two of the greatest inventions/ideas of man. The beauty is inspiring and fascinating to see the thermal areas, the peaks, the wildlife. With millions of visitors (more people than know what a dulcimer is) visit the parks the park needs to play a major protective role for the natural resource. We watched a fire visitor on the 1988 fire. Fire is a natural part of the ecosystem and the lodgepole pine depends on the heat to open its cones so it can release the seeds. The last time I visited Yellowstone was the winter after that fire. Here is was over 20 years later and the trees were looking good - but there was assorted down wood that decays very slowly. Yellowstone and Grand Tetons are right next to each other but each is unique. The vegetation was different because of the different elevations. It was all inspiring - even at the early hours in the morning that my Dad wanted to be out in locations to catch the sunrise. How the light shines on things (sunrise or sunset) is pretty special. I can bring this short blog entry back to dulcimers because on the plane trip home there was an in-flight movie. I didn't pay to get the wires to be hooked up to hear but I happened to look up and lo and behold there was a mountain dulcimer in the music. A young woman was playing it by a campfire for her boyfriend (yes, they did some smooching shortly after she played). I didn't catch the name of this soundless (because I had no cord hookup) movie but in the end the couple left on some sort of time machine invention. Not many movies have dulcimers in them so it was a surprise to see it on the screen - or even that I happened to look up at the time the dulcimer was on. Oh, and also on this trip as we were walking around Pioneer Park in Salt Lake City at their Farmers Market - there was a hammered dulcimer player. He was actually playing Persian music on his santoor. He showed me how he can individually move o bridge of a particular string. That helps to give it the sound of the different scale compared to our Western scale. His music was almost ancient to listen to. I bought his two CDs which also have other instruments and mix of Turkish tunes. Ancient - timeless - that's Yellowstone, Grand Tetons, dulcimer music, and things we hold special to connect us to a place, person, or thing. I could just say historical but I do like precious and timeless for the extra special things. Getting colder - it felt good to take a dip in the boiling river in Yellowstone - where the HOT water flows into the Yellowstone River (air temp was about 40F as was the water temp. When mixed and sitting in the 'right' spot it felt good. There is assorted noise in our life but I think its good to add a blend of the good, simple notes of a dulcimer. It just feels right.