Pathway Into a Dream

We're in the midst of a January thaw, and conditions are very strange out. It is warmer and drizzly, and all of the ice is finally trying to melt, but it's taking some time. The world is gray and white and misty. It's almost spooky, but I don't mind at all - I find such conditions very interesting and fun for photography.

I had a lunch date in town on this day, so I decided to work in the office, which meant at least two things: one, I had the opportunity to make a few stops on my drive in to work for pictures. And two, I enjoyed a beautiful lunch with a dear girlfriend at Olive Garden. (Foodies, try not to drool over the shot of my lovely lobster ravioli with shrimp and scallops in the extras.)

I made two stops along Spring Creek on my drive in. Above is a picture of the new hiking/jogging path that my husband and I discovered a few months ago. It's near the rusty bridge and the spillway that I have photographed often for these pages.

I only made it as far as the second bend in the pathway before I gave up, and here's why. The entire path was an absolute SHEET of ice from that point on, made even slicker by a bit of drizzle and melt on top of it. I only made it this far by creeping carefully and slowly along the edge, in what was left of the snow.

I took quite a few pictures of this winding pathway, using monochrome, auto, and vivid camera settings. Somehow this one turned out to be my favorite because it looked spooky and scary. I could imagine Little Red Riding Hood running down this pathway, trying to escape her Wolf.

There is a slightly soft-focus aspect to this shot that made it seem dreamlike to me. And the textures of the trees seem straight out of a Dürer woodcut. In my dream, I would be Little Red, running and running, the pathway and the trees around it a blur. Will Red Riding Hood escape the Wolf? Even in my dreams, I do not know how the story ends.

This is the song that was running through my head as I snapped this photo - Little Red Riding Hood - and I'm including two versions: the original by Sam the Sham and the Pharaohs, and a more gentle version by Amanda Seyfried, in which the tale of Little Red and her Wolf comes across as more of a love story.