the shire

Walked to the park today after dinner and passed by a forested area that I used to play in when I was younger. The brush was overgrown, and I'm not quite as small and nimble as I used to be, but I managed to find the trail into my former stomping grounds and weave my way in, past the bramble and brush.

Upon entering the clearing, memories flooded back - the curve of tree limbs, the smoothness of the earth below, the nooks carved out along the trail, the lush greenery of the ferns growing around gnarled trunks. I thought back to summers with friends, dragging stumps and fallen branches to furnish our wooded retreat and carpeting logs with the softest moss, in an attempt to create cushioned seating.

Why yes, in a former life, I must have been a hobbit house-builder.