The Real Deal!
Really, I’m sometimes kidded about going into Coffee-Coffee with my decrepit work clothes on. [Better on than off …!] Well, they’re the proverbial “real deal”! So’s ‘She’ who proclaimed that it would be much easier to peel pulp with a “spud” if’n the tree was limbed and topped while still standing. True e’nuf … it would be! Then, there was ‘He’ who wondered how come it seems that more people from this area move away to Fort McMurray than they do even from Woodstock. I told him, “Well, you know, Fort Mac. is a lot further away from Woodstock that it is from here!” Taberduker! Shades of the lazy local guide who told his hunter from Metropolita that pigeons were “urban partridge” as opposed to feral birds (Wild!), and that snipe were woodcock. Pegasus vs Pigasus! [Pigdin pigeon and/or the flying pink pigs one sees after imbibing one too many].
Reminds me of “pseudo-campers” who think that if’n it ain’t got a shower its camping in the wilds. Anyways, while I was “getting my ears lowered” over on the Westside I heard a “client in the chair” exclaiming on the virtues of adapting a ‘reverberatory furnace’ for home use. Could have something there. Like, it could be the real deal! Now, I have been known to exaggerate (An exaggeration – no pun intended!), but I can’t exaggerate the enjoyment I get from snowshoeing my 2.2 km of Kilburn trails – some of which I’ve done for parts of 5 decades now {5}! True!
Snowshoe Trails
Ah, the lovely fresh air
I fill my chest and exhale
Outdoor today – snowshoeing
On my wintertime trail,
Its such a good feeling
Like “Yabadaba!” and “Wow!”
I’ve tramped along some
Parts of 5 decades now,
King, Sheena, and Molly
Along “in spirit” with me
Sometimes – just one
And sometimes – all three,
I start out on ‘Taberduker’
To the woods thru the pines
I see the droppings from cones
Where the fat squirrel dines,
Like the back of my hand
I know all of this beat
Then I come to the corner
Turn left on ‘Quality Street’,
Ambiance, and aura
The eternal youth fountain
I’ll need all I can muster
Climbing ‘Molly’s Mountain’,
Sure, its slog and a crawl
But, its too soon – aftermath
And I’m out of the trees
And on the ‘Powerline Path’,
Next I come to a cross-road
To me, the symbol of FREE
Personal and poignant
Thus inferred, ‘Molly’s Tree’,
One moment – life’s with us
The next – and its gone
I pause in solemn reflection
And then – I up and go on,
Once more in the woods again
All in favor and fun
I hit ‘Ataway Avenue’
One more loop and I’m done,
[Emilie-Anne Lane
And Josh’s Jog
If I push myself
For an epilogue],
Rabbit, deer, and coyote
Sometimes – they’re tracks
Out there is their portion
So sometimes – they’re facts,
Around here in the country
Organized sporting pales
So, I “strap up and get started”
On my snowshoeing trails!
D.C. Butterfield
***
Ralph Waldo Emerson – “Do not go where the path may lead, go instead where there is no path and leave a trail”. On them cruelly cold clear cloudless mornings after a waxing full moon when the black-capped chickadees, snow ducks, and even my three crows (Sable, Ebony, and Blackie) don’t come out from under shelter ’til ’bout ten past ten – I, like them, am “… expecting nothing more than to be remembered”! The real deal! Taberduker!
Enjoy NB – whether by foot, skate, ski, sled, snowshoe, or whatever. Be … the change! Because … the merit of an attempt is always in proportion to the improbability of success – how great that must be when there is no chance at all. Like – Jan 17, and I found two earthworms, in different places along my trails, crawling hopefully ‘cross the crust. I picked each up, found a spot not frozen, put them in a depression, and covered them with debris!!!
***
Have Pen – Will Write
