Day 7: Magical Thinking

I took another walk in the Reservation today, this time with my friends M and K. It was a sunny, crisp morning and the woods were glorious, even if most of the leaves had already fallen. It made for a loud, leaf-crunching walk, but as long as we stayed really close together and shouted, our conversation flowed mostly uninterrupted.

Towards the end we came upon a patch of milkweed: a grand finale to a lovely stroll. Having a memory rescued from the crevasse where it's been spirited away, forgotten and gathering dust for years and years, is truly a gift -- the milkweed pods brought me right back to the garden at my childhood home. One side of the garden ended in a hillside that was covered with milkweed, and in the fall I delighted in stripping the pods of their silky white filaments and scattering them in the breeze. I believed the pods had been left especially for me by fairies and trolls. Whoa, another memory floating by! Remember those ugly trolls with the hair like dandelion fluff that we used to play with? I've always thought the Olsen Twins were separated from them at birth...

Anyway, I didn't have my camera with me this morning or I would have taken a picture of the milkweed in its natural setting. Instead, I picked a few pods and brought them home, where they're now sitting on a shelf in the dining room. It makes me happy just to look at them. And it's reassuring to know that I have them on hand in the event that I should suddenly grow a wart, which milkweed supposedly cures. I wonder if it does anything for stray whiskers?

Thinking about my garden also reminds me of my Tumble Tum, another childhood favorite. It was a steel bowl big enough for me to sit in and rock. A simple toy, but I had more fun in that thing (maybe it had something to do with the name). I could just imagine the milkweed fairies and trolls tumbling in it at night! Imagine my distress when I discovered that my brother J used my Tumble Tum for target practice, setting empty tin cans on it and shooting at them with his airgun. I was unhappy until I was given a turn with the gun, peace thus restored.

Out of curiousity, I've just googled Tumble Tum and the only listing that comes up is a definition in Urbandictionary.com which says: a Bot that is really a chicken. Say what? Maybe I've got the name wrong? Could it have been a Tumblety Tum? A Tumblety Drum? Would someone please help me out here?

I'd like to go for one final spin in a Tumble Tum. Mine eventually rusted out and got tossed. Someone somewhere out there must have one. What an excellent way to usher in 50 that would be...

For today's parting shot, here's a photo of the milkweed I picked as well as one of something I saw earlier this fall that I consider equally as magical.