Wednesday, March 17, 2010

Willow Adventure

I played adventurer today. I trampled through knee deep snow. I climbed over fallen tree trunks. I followed an animal path through the forest. Walked across a rickety wood plank bridge. I leaped froged over a creak... actually, I clumsily hopped across the water and belly flopped onto the opposite embankment, but that was one creak. I successfully scaled other creaks with no problem. To be fair, they were more like puddles of water then creaks, but who's counting?

There were two of us and a dog and we noticed a paper mill in the distance that seemed to be abandoned and thought it would be a good idea to go explore. We happily tramped through the forest to the boundary line of the mill and saw an old, run down cabin. I looked around at the random shoes hanging up on the porch, dirty bottles hanging upside down in the yard, the sinister look of disrepair, obvious abandonment and wondered did I just walk into a horror film? It seemed like the perfect set. Apparent old empty mill in the background, rundown cabin in the foreground. I can almost hear a chainsaw buzzing to life as a fanatical laugh comes around the corner. As this was going through my imagination we walked past the cabin and over to the mill. We figured it was empty for winter until we noticed footprints in the snow and as the menacing music started playing in my head, I changed my stagger to a fast paced walk, until I heard a man's voice booming behind me. I stopped. Oh god, this is it! We turned around and replied to the voice who turned out to be a sweet old man. He was yammering our ears off but I didn't understand because he was speaking Czech. I nodded my head and smiled as my companion communicated with him (she speaks Czech). As they talked I ended my ominous daydream and took in the beauty of the area. Pine trees, snow, creaks. It was quite the scene. I wish I had my camera.

We said goodbye to the old man and the mill and walked on. Our goal was to find coppiced willow to cut for fencing. We found some willow, cut off enough branches to carry and made our way back to the house. Carrying an armful of branches longer than me, through knee deep snow was somewhat burdensome, but achievable and I didn't mind, it was so beautiful in the forest. I hoisted the willow up unto my shoulder and thought it was a perfect time for a whistled tune. But I didn't because A.) I was breathing heavily and B.) I can't whistle.

2 comments:

  1. Oh, too bad about the camera. A picture of the mill or even the old man would have been awesome. So, did he live in the cabin or what?

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  2. I don't think so. Who does..da dum da dum

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