Cobbs Hill Reservoir

on a clear day, you can see downtown...

Our dog loves it when we drive him to the reservoir for a walk – he sits up when we make the turn up the hill and he whines impatiently until we let him out of the car. We love walking him there for many reasons: the paved walkway, which is plowed in winter; the low risk of deer ticks, relative to the parks; the waste bins, for proper disposal of...things that need to be disposed of; and of course, the view. On a clear day, you get not just the best view of the city of Rochester to the north, but also stunning vistas to the south, and the rolling hills hiding the Finger Lakes.

...and south to the Finger Lakes

I occasionally walk there with my friend Gwen, as well. Most people seem to walk the route counter-clockwise, but Gwen likes to shake things up and walk clockwise, so that we frequently meet people face to face, rather than passing or being passed. We encounter all sorts of people – young and old, walkers (with and without dogs) and joggers, friendly and unfriendly. But while Todd likes to be driven right up to the reservoir, Gwen likes to start out in the neighborhood below, and climb up the hill. One time she took me through a lovely neighborhood, where we met a resident who explained the cleanup effort that resulted in the now hike-able Washington Grove Park, a remnant forest. According to the information panels, “Washington Grove potentially holds the tallest and oldest individuals of white and black oak, sassafras, and butternut in New York State.”

yes, there are tiny people down there!

Cobbs Hill Reservoir was completed in 1908, and the plaque on-site explains that, “of unsurpassed quality, the water in this reservoir flows by gravity from lakes Hemlock and Canadice located 30 miles south.” The walking distance around the reservoir, measured specifically from the center of the walkway, is .69 miles. The reservoir recently underwent major maintenance, to clean the muck from the bottom and repair some of the pipes, so has been empty for months. I learned, from chatting with a couple of the engineers, that the reservoir holds 144 million gallons of water and covers 19 acres. While the water apparently is filtered at some point before it enters the reservoir, it goes straight out from there to our taps. There has been some discussion regarding additional filtering to improve water quality, although the reports we occasionally get from the Monroe Water Authority usually look pretty good. One engineer suggested that if the quality deteriorated, they would need to consider a giant pool cover!

the engineers discovered the water flowed better
if they didn't replace a section of corroded pipe

The water is flowing into the reservoir again, and it will take about a month to fill. When just over half full, they’ll start letting water back into our pipes. Here in Rochester, we seem to take our tap water for granted, because it is safe, abundant, and virtually free. I, for one, would be happy to compromise on the third to ensure the first two are never compromised…

beautiful sunset...

...and lampposts!

Rochappella

When I moved home from London in 2003, I desperately missed my a cappella singing group, the Treblemakers. We sang a mix of doo-wop, show tunes, and barbershop, with a holiday repertoire for December gigs. I explored two groups in New Jersey, neither of which was satisfactory (one sang to CD accompaniment, and involved choreography; the other was directed by an octogenarian and barely sang 2-part arrangements). When I moved to Rochester, I thought the Sweet Adelines might be the ticket, so I went to one of their rehearsals. For so many reasons (they must stand for their entire 2.5 hour rehearsal, and tape themselves and be judged by other members; they use arrangements that are written in SATB format; and they have very specific instructions for applying eye shadow for performances), they were not. I finally discovered Concentus, which I love being a part of, but it’s not my favorite genre of music, as beautiful as it is.

Some of my London friends urged me to start my own group, and I finally got the nerve, casually mentioning my dream to random women, and asking them if they sing. The usual response was a variation of “only in the shower,” but occasionally someone would say “yes”! We started small, and added friends, and friends of friends, until we reached critical mass, with 10 women. Rochappella was born. My goal for the group was to sing well enough to perform at nursing homes and the like, for free, and to have fun as well as bring some joy to our listeners. Although our target audience might not worry about the quality of our sound, we wanted to be decent, since there might also be staff and caregivers in the audience, who could hear…

Since we always have wine at our rehearsals, Lucy, who serendipitously lives across the street, dubbed us “a drinking group with a singing problem.” Ali, who I picked up at a holiday party last year, liked to say that we were “booking a year out.” And so now we are a year out. We just had our first performance, at the Brightonian nursing home, and we sang a mix of the familiar (including “Angels We Have Heard on High” and “White Christmas”) and the not so familiar (songs like “African Noel” and “S’Vivon”). It was heartwarming to entertain the residents and staff on a cold winter’s night, and to engage them in a sing-along before we departed.

We have one more holiday gig, and then we move on to the fun stuff – songs like “Summertime,” “Royals,” “Mister Sandman,” and a couple of Beatles arrangements (including one from the Treblemakers). Ali's already talking dates with the Brightonian for the Spring, and I suspect we can convince a couple of other nursing homes in Rochester to let us come entertain them next holiday season. In the meanwhile, there are songs to be learned and there's wine to be drunk, and “a girl has to celebrate what passes by.” I celebrate Rochappella, and the women who incredibly came together to create such a fun group, with such potential for the future.