Nasty Rhodys

We all know and love the beautiful rhododendron. The soft, gentle welcoming sign of a long-awaited spring. So many gorgeous colors adorning the large-leafed evergreen bush. I love them!! But I've learned that that benign beauty hides a dark, sinister, and very dangerous side. They are vicious, mean, stealing, strangling monsters. They have no mercy for man or beast.

What started today as a lovely walk along a new trail, albeit, a bit overgrown, turned into a fight for our lives... Flan and I decided (yes, she has a word in our decisions when we stand at a marker that offers two trails) to take the trail obviously less-traveled. If it hadn't been marked, I might have thought it was merely an animal throughway. It was beautiful in the frozen fog, each twig fuzzy with ice. I stopped to take many photos of strange objects coated and sparkling. We scared a few pheasants from their safe, warm hiding places (much to Flan's delight and surprise), watched some swan take off (always entertaining by the noise they make), and took great pleasure in their antics. My assignment for the next camera club meeting is "abstract photos, probably best in architecture". Since I don't get into the city or places where things are a bit more "modern", I decided that some photos of the abstract arrangement of reeds blown against the bank of the lake was pretty good. Amazing how nature can rearrange things in such a beautiful way. So, a few more photos taken. It was getting more and more difficult to follow the edge of the lake so we cut inland a bit through some trees and sparsely placed rhodys....always following what I decided had turned into an animal path for sure. I knew the general direction so wasn't really worried about getting lost. We kept going deeper and deeper into the ever increasing rhodys....deeper and deeper.... I was finally just breaking the dead twigs and climbing over the live branches. They tower over everything. At least 20 feet tall and shading everything below. We took what looked like a good route, but dead ended at an impenetrable wall of branches. So, backtracked a bit and tried another trail...and another, and another always working our way toward what looked like the grounds of the old castle...at least I could see large trees off in the distance and large trees are usually around old estates... (there were only small trees where we were....AND rhodys) I kept thinking I could never do this if the ground weren't frozen cause I'd be up to my ankles in water and mud in places. After a trip and fall, losing my glasses for a minute, I resorted to just crawling through the grasping, clutching, strangling branches. I decided if Flan could get under them, so could I!! The ground was fairly soft so no harm to the old knees, but it sure must have painted a picture. I often called out to her just in case there were hunters in the area (we'd heard shots the last time we were here) After a few more false starts we came to a stream or ditch about 8 feet across with sloping sides down to the 5 foot wide swath of standing water. It was about a 4 foot drop down to the water. I could see no place to cross up or down "stream" and there was no way we could walk along it to find a better place to cross without those damn rhodys getting us. Flan was exploring along it and finding a way to get down, but I had to just sit on my butt and slide down to it.... I could see the bottom in the water but didn't know if it was firm. But there was nothing I could do...I had to go forward. There was no way I wanted to fight my way back through all the rhodys to where we'd started our day. And across this mess was a big opening and I was sure the castle beyond. So, I stepped into the water, and squished across, lugging each wet, bootclad foot out as I inched across... I was really afraid it might suck me in with each step. I was up to my knees in muck. At this point I was thinking about the pact I'd made with the kids when I moved to Missoula... "always leave a note when I set out for the day so if I didn't return, they'd know where to begin looking"...but even if I'd left a note, no one was looking for me so it didn't really matter. I was across, but how to get Flan? She was crying on the far side and I could NOT go back to get her. The muck in the water would suck me in. Bless her heart, she slid down to the water and finally fell in....she swims!!! But in her terror returned to the same side....now wet and very cold. With great glee I tore some rhody's from the bank and layed them across the canal encouraging her with each one to try again. She finally reached for the rootbutt end of one and I dragged her as fast as I could to my side. We were both soaked, cold, and tired. We climbed up the bank and as I'd expected, there was the castle off in the distance. We shook off (yes, both of us), and headed out. I must have looked a fright with twigs, dirt, frost, all over me. And Flan must have been freezing. As we headed to the trail that I knew would take us back through the woods, along the bog and to the car, I checked for my camera and it was GONE!! All I could do was thank God that both Flan and I were safe, I had my glasses, car keys and phone and that I'd downloaded most of the photos already. I'll go back tomorrow and look just at the bog canal, but I have no idea where it may have gone missing. Those rhodys stole it I'm sure....they are certainly mean enough....so no photos today although there were some great shots of deep woods, tumbled reeds, flying swan and baby ferns covered in ice. You'll have to just take my word for it!!

Now my clothes are in the wash, boots are washed off and drying by the fire, the dog is bathed and we are both cuddled in front of a warm turf fire. Tomorrow's a new day and just maybe I'll find the camera.