Wednesday, November 30, 2016

Down The Rabbit Hole

What you are about to read is my second adventure with my old friend Alice. She was a real life little girl back then who had an odd habit of duplicating a good old story. Now she is all grown up and these adventures are just a memory. I never completely showed her in my pictures to protect her anonymity.

Alice was considering in her own mind (as well as she could, for the day made her feel very sleepy and stupid), whether the pleasure of making a daisy-chain would be worth the trouble of getting up and picking the daisies, when suddenly a White Rabbit with pink eyes ran close by her.

There was nothing so very remarkable in that, nor did Alice think it so very much out of the way to hear the Rabbit say to itself, "Oh dear! Oh dear! I shall be too late!" But when the Rabbit actually took a watch out of its waistcoat-pocket and looked at it and then hurried on, Alice started to her feet, for it flashed across her mind that she had never before seen a rabbit with either a waistcoat-pocket, or a watch to take out of it, and, burning with curiosity, she ran across the field after it and was just in time to see it pop down a large rabbit-hole, under the hedge. In another moment, down went Alice after it!

- Alice's Adventures in Wonderland


I liked having Alice with me at Orchard Lake Nature Sanctuary, so I invited her to come along with me to Heritage Park. After a while we came to a particularly nice area, and Alice said, "Look, a rabbit!" I told her we should be very quiet so we could get some pictures of it. I said the pictures might not be very good though, because we might not be close enough.

She said, "I can get really close to it. I've done this before with rabbits." I asked her where she saw a rabbit before. She said, "In my back yard. I know how to get right up next to them." Then she proceeded to try to sneak up on it. There it went, with Alice right behind.

I told her it wasn't working with this one, but she insisted that she could get closer. The rabbit continued to move away as she pursued hot on it's heels.

I was taking as many pictures as I could as the rabbit moved away. Alice kept after it, and I told her maybe she should stop. She said, "No, really, I can do it." But the rabbit was quickly moving away now. Maybe I could get one last picture.

Well, I got half of a picture. The rabbit then ran into the forest. Alice went to plunge right in after it when I told her more firmly now to stop. She finally stopped and said, "I can still see it. If I go in there I can chase it back out so we can get more pictures." I told her not to do it because we don't want to scare it anymore. She eventually reluctantly agreed, and I said, "Let's sit down and rest. This is a nice place."

As we sat down on one of these benches, I thought to myself that if she would have gone into the forest after that rabbit I probably wouldn't have been able to keep up with her. I was glad I was able to get her to stop. Wow, I'm tired. What is it with Alice and rabbits?

You know, when I started this Everyday Adventurer thing, I never thought I'd find myself in Wonderland.

I'll talk to you later.

9 comments:

  1. finding a camera in your hand gives you a different outlook

    :)

    ReplyDelete
  2. we find ourselves and our voices in the oddest of places!!

    ReplyDelete
  3. I hope you see Alice again. She has wonderful adventures with rabbits!

    ReplyDelete
  4. It sounds to me like Alice isn't the rabbit magnet she thinks she is! MOL, fun story.

    ReplyDelete
  5. That's quite the adventure. Loved the story

    ReplyDelete
  6. Very fun, Ratty! I love the photos to go along with the story.

    ReplyDelete
  7. I just watched the newer version this last week and have read the book a few times, always enjoying the tale. Rabbits have speed,but for only a short distance, about 1/4 mile. I have tried a few times to outrun them.

    ReplyDelete
  8. That's a cute story! Love the photos!

    ReplyDelete
  9. Personally, I think Wonderland is a very good place to be anytime. And especially these days. maybe I will try to find Alice and follow her down a rabbit hole for the next four years. (Maybe I'll find that caterpillar with that hookah too if I look hard enough ;>).

    Truly, Alice was my favorite childhood book as it must have been one of yours as well. My very proper Victorian grandmother read it to us and when I read it in turn to my kids years later and realized what that caterpillar was smoking, I laughed and laughed. Granny would have been horrified had she realized.

    ReplyDelete