This moment was the highlight of a wonderous day at Winterthur. After a week of grumbly adulthood, I needed to let the little boy inside me run about some.
And there he was. Toad sitting outside his house. I was back in a rocking chair, reading Adventures of Frog and Toad to my baby sons. Then further back, to my mother reading The Wind in the Willows to me. That was the first glimpse of my motherland, England. The hovels and houses and riverside adventures of those stories filled me with a love for that country.
Winterthur brings me back there, a wild, natural, cared for land full of color and life.
This was the first time we had seen Enchanted Woods in months. The Lockdown kept us from so many important places. The disappointment of seeing the Faerie Cottage blocked off was dissipated by the wonderful attention that went into decorating it to once again fill our imaginations.
The magic of the place carried with us as we explored further. We were startled and amazed when we interrupted a snake that had brought its riparian lunch onto the rocks. A catbird demanded that I appreciate it for a moment. We spotted a green frog that was much more camoflaged than the photo reveals. We found turtles sunbathing and snappers lurking in muddy water like sea monsters.
And we smiled.
Three or four hours were lost to the quiet and constant parade of deer, chipmunks, fish, song birds, geese, and groundhogs.
I had asked God for a reset. I didn’t know how to come down from the flight-or-fight fever of the previous week, so I got humble and just asked.
He provided.
God bless and thank you for reading, I appreciate you,
Jason