Category: Flute Club

More flute at Double Trouble State Park. Site of an old sawmill and cranberry bog operation. Years ago, my family had their post and beams cut here for our living room by kids who were in a juvenile detention program, teaching them a trade for when they are released. The area got its name because when they had set up the mill, a beaver blocked damned up the river not once, but twice. Been coming here since I was a teenager, but within the last two years, I come here twice a week to play the flute to those people hiking through. Mark and his wife are some regulars.

I have been running through these woods since I was 5. This moraine leads back to a rivulet running between two ponds, separated by a bridge and the ruins of a pump house. On this raised area are some Bull Pines surrounded by a circle of forked top Pitch Pines; some local Lenni Lenape landscape. By the age of the pines, this might be one of the oldest Native lots in the area. After the Natives, or during their time here, General Lacy’s workers would ply these waters for a bacteria that grows under the peat in the pond, which would make iron. If you see an oil slick on the water, there is iron below. Along the river leaving the second pond, there are wooden railings in the dirt the bog workers could stand on, harvesting the bog iron. The river leads to the third pond where you can still see the impression in the hill where their forge was, and the beach is littered with iron. Well, anyway, enjoy the flute! A mixture of Japanese Zen flute with Native American stylings that put emphasis on the quality of silence, its length, and contrasting approaches on how the silence is broken connote the style. Very relaxing and tranquil.

Some of Chris Dowgin’s Zen-Native American flute playing to bring on mindfulness to turn of the Century NYC and Manchester, England street scenes. Plus, at the end is the original Wizard of OZ from 1910. Something useful to relax and put you to sleep.