a snowy night
It has been snowing day and night. Big soft snowflakes, the kind that fall quietly and make everything look like it's been covered in sparkly powdered sugar.
Behind my house is forest. It's funny; I live in the little neighborhood of Potsdam that's like a miniature suburbia, complete with 60s houses, identical driveways, and basketball hoops in front of each house...but as soon as you walk around my house, you've entered a completely different world. Miles of trees and plants and birds and no sign of civilization. Now if you walk far enough through those woods, you come to a crossroad. You have the option of continuing straight, taking a left, or taking a small, unassuming diagonal path. One will take you to a street near the high school, one will take you to my neighbor's yard, and the third will take you further into the woods. When you take the third, eventually, you get into an area where the trees are all short and wiry. They bend over your head on each side, leaving you just enough room to walk underneath them, like a canopy. If you keep going through the canopy, suddenly the woods stop. There really is no transition, it just stops. You're now in the middle of a field. A gigantic circular empty field, that was once upon a time used for farming, but has been abandoned years ago, surrounded by nothing but forest on all sides.
Today, I felt like going to the woods. at night. So I waited till my mom and sister went to bed. At around midnight, I put on my boots, my coat, some gloves, and a scarf. I got my camera, som film, and my tripod, and I head out. The snow went up to my knees. I followed the path by the light of the moon, and eventually came to the crossing. I took the path that took me to the canopy, and walked through all the heavy branches. Then there I was. My destination. I had planned on taking pictures, but for some reason I couldn't. The silence was too increadible. I felt like even the sound of the shutter click would be rude, so I dropped my camera stuff in the snow, and lay down next to it. The snow in the field was so deep that when I fell backward, there was a tower of snow all around me. I just lay there, listening to nothing, seeing nothing but the moon; thinking. It was really nice...until my mind started to wander. Now maybe it was just that I've seen the Blair Witch Project too many times, or maybe it was the fact that that field reflects noises from all over town, and echoes them through , but I started to feel like I wasn't alone. Suddenly every tree branch snapping was someone coming toward me. Every wind whistle was someone breathing behind me. I got up to leave.
I started out walking slowly back to my house. But when I came back through the canopy, and re entered the forest, it was dark. too dark. I heard all these tiny noises that normally wouldn't have meant anything, but in this case, they were all murderers coming after me. so I ran. It was so dark though that I couldn't find the path I had used earlier. I began taking a different path, but this one led me in a different direction, and took me in circles. I was freaking out. Finally I found a different (possibly the original) path and took it.
My quiet midnight walk through the woods was now a wild and frantic chase to get back to civilization. Finally I saw my backyard and I bolted through my yard (as quickly as _ feet of snow would allow me to bolt) toward the garage. I had made it home. alive.
moral of the story: Woods in the winter are amazing. gorgeous. silent. spiritual. filled with death. sometimes creepy....much like a cemetary. So, if you do not like walking through cemetaries at night, I do not recommend my midnight nature walk to you.
The end.
Behind my house is forest. It's funny; I live in the little neighborhood of Potsdam that's like a miniature suburbia, complete with 60s houses, identical driveways, and basketball hoops in front of each house...but as soon as you walk around my house, you've entered a completely different world. Miles of trees and plants and birds and no sign of civilization. Now if you walk far enough through those woods, you come to a crossroad. You have the option of continuing straight, taking a left, or taking a small, unassuming diagonal path. One will take you to a street near the high school, one will take you to my neighbor's yard, and the third will take you further into the woods. When you take the third, eventually, you get into an area where the trees are all short and wiry. They bend over your head on each side, leaving you just enough room to walk underneath them, like a canopy. If you keep going through the canopy, suddenly the woods stop. There really is no transition, it just stops. You're now in the middle of a field. A gigantic circular empty field, that was once upon a time used for farming, but has been abandoned years ago, surrounded by nothing but forest on all sides.
Today, I felt like going to the woods. at night. So I waited till my mom and sister went to bed. At around midnight, I put on my boots, my coat, some gloves, and a scarf. I got my camera, som film, and my tripod, and I head out. The snow went up to my knees. I followed the path by the light of the moon, and eventually came to the crossing. I took the path that took me to the canopy, and walked through all the heavy branches. Then there I was. My destination. I had planned on taking pictures, but for some reason I couldn't. The silence was too increadible. I felt like even the sound of the shutter click would be rude, so I dropped my camera stuff in the snow, and lay down next to it. The snow in the field was so deep that when I fell backward, there was a tower of snow all around me. I just lay there, listening to nothing, seeing nothing but the moon; thinking. It was really nice...until my mind started to wander. Now maybe it was just that I've seen the Blair Witch Project too many times, or maybe it was the fact that that field reflects noises from all over town, and echoes them through , but I started to feel like I wasn't alone. Suddenly every tree branch snapping was someone coming toward me. Every wind whistle was someone breathing behind me. I got up to leave.
I started out walking slowly back to my house. But when I came back through the canopy, and re entered the forest, it was dark. too dark. I heard all these tiny noises that normally wouldn't have meant anything, but in this case, they were all murderers coming after me. so I ran. It was so dark though that I couldn't find the path I had used earlier. I began taking a different path, but this one led me in a different direction, and took me in circles. I was freaking out. Finally I found a different (possibly the original) path and took it.
My quiet midnight walk through the woods was now a wild and frantic chase to get back to civilization. Finally I saw my backyard and I bolted through my yard (as quickly as _ feet of snow would allow me to bolt) toward the garage. I had made it home. alive.
moral of the story: Woods in the winter are amazing. gorgeous. silent. spiritual. filled with death. sometimes creepy....much like a cemetary. So, if you do not like walking through cemetaries at night, I do not recommend my midnight nature walk to you.
The end.