Monday, November 16, 2009

two roads diverged in a.....

two roads diverged in a connecticut state land trust. that is where i found myself today...with our two golden retrievers. surprisingly, i found the entrance to the trail posted with connecticut state signs noting the temporary closing of our woods so that trees could be cut down in order to "save the whales" oops!....i mean "free tibet"...."go green" or perhaps the opposite.

a funny thing about posted signs...they always pique my curiosity....they make the college girl in me sing out....they make life seem just a bit more adventurous. o.k., my life as a mom, out walking dogs in connecticut....it's not like my outward bound trip, but it's cause for a little variety. back in my 20 something life in new york city, a young executive, a bunch of other 20 somethings from our company would walk up madison avenue to our respective little (and i mean minuscule, but that's another story!) apartments. we began to try to live life in the fast lane by always crossing with the green lights, forcing a different route each day. in the city, that is a road less traveled, seeing different people, places and things everyday. it led us to many serendipitous worlds and i've pretty much stuck with the roads less travelled ever since! i have ended up in some little marymixups, but mostly i've had a lot of fun.

so, today was no different....or shall i say different, as usual?? daisy and posie and i began walking on our very familiar trail where we found giant trees cut down and already piled up in a huge log pile. we were all interested in the chaos of "our" trail....it was very muddy with tracks of the enemy...the trucks! deep, ruddy, muddy, soupy and random...that's the way it was. we continued on the path to see only one man in a pickup truck poking around in his toolbox. no one official. i act like it's "our" woods and he barely questioned us. now that i think of it, he could have been an axe murderer...he was in the right place to carry one without looking out of place but wait!....there goes my"headline head" or my "scary world" bif teases me about.

o.k.! i got a little off the path of my story.....i do that sometimes! we trudged over the river and through the woods.... i mean over some streams that were overflowing from the weekend rain and through the woods that could barely be called that due to all of the trees that were strewn all about, covering what trails we could follow. oh...follow the path...that's the point!....soon into our walk, there was no sign of a path....just me, daisy and posey to follow our noses for direction...only, their noses were more attuned to the deer poo and scurrying chipmunks along the way.

we had to find our way without the trails...quite the adventure in rural connecticut! our 30 minute walk grew to almost an hour and a half! we scrambled through brambles and pricker bushes and moss covered rocks in swampy areas....we wound up going north instead of south and west instead of north. it was beautiful and challenging and peaceful until....i slipped and slid off the mossy rocks and splashed in the swampy, mushy, muddy water squishing in my sneakers and soaking my clean jeans...up to my calves....it felt like my elbows. did i mention i'm more of a beach babe than a woodsy granola cruncher?

and then the fun began, once we whirled our way towards home. i spotted our neighbor's house...they back on the state land...they have chickens....we all have a mutual golden retriever admiration society....theirs and ours....they may still have a bunny...but, that was not my concern! so i wouldn't scare them showing up unannounced rising up like the swamp sister from the south, i called to let them know of our approach.

i glanced up through the branches caught in my hair and noticed the chickens, not behind the fence, but roaming the yard. that was when i first saw daisy, like a gazelle, fly through the air in quest of a chicken....i ran, i screamed at daisy to stop, our friends chased the chickens and daisy, all while posey sat politely by my side, on her leash!

the hen, apparently non-flustered jumped and took flight as daisy raced from behind...the hen made it over the stone wall that did not deter daisy....thank goodness henny penny made it back to the hen house safe and sound. for a few brief moments, i felt as though the sky was falling! we walked up the long driveway, escorted by our friend...out of breath....laughing nervously at the happenstance of taking the road less traveled. and that has made all the difference.

by the way, for our afternoon walk, we went to the beach!
thus ending another random day of little marymixup

liz.........................eggs for breakfast tomorrow?


"TWO roads diverged in a yellow wood,
And sorry I could not travel both
And be one traveler, long I stood
And looked down one as far as I could
To where it bent in the undergrowth;


Then took the other, as just as fair,
And having perhaps the better claim
Because it was grassy and wanted wear;
Though as for that, the passing there
Had worn them really about the same,

And both that morning equally lay
In leaves no step had trodden black.
Oh, I marked the first for another day!
Yet knowing how way leads on to way
I doubted if I should ever come back.

I shall be telling this with a sigh
Somewhere ages and ages hence:
Two roads diverged in a wood, and I,
I took the one less traveled by,
And that has made all the difference. "
— Robert Frost