Nature

(A Blog Every Day in May 2013 Challenge Entry)

Last night was a great time at a friend’s Bday party/BBQ gathering. Played a game called Dixit. I love that game! I will have to purchase my own copy, and maybe an expansion, soon. Though, Cards Against Humanity is the game I want most. That card game is all sorts of wrong. Make sure if you play it that it’s with people that aren’t easily offended. That’s all I have to say on that.

Today’s prompt:

Day 12, Sunday: What do you miss? (a person, a thing, a place, a time of your life...).

Well, technically I feel like this is something I just blogged about during the A to Z challenge. My “N” post on Nostalgia went into some aspects I missed from my childhood.

There are always more things from the past to be reminisced, though...

Moving to the Country

On the way out to to our friend’s soiree, Stonewall Dahl (nickname in progress, but I think she likes it) and I commented a lot about the scenery. This would be in Mound MN, and we passed a lot of lakefront houses — many of which were for sale — as the city itself (or the area) seems to be surrounded by multiple lakes.

I’d only been out there two other times, once at night and the other I think I fell asleep; both times in Winter. Now that the snow has melted and greenery springing to life, I was able to enjoy the beauty of nature on the drive. I remember an exchange between us on the way, where Stonewall commented on the houses and land. Some of the houses looked amazing, and we figured that even the smaller estates would be expensive as hell.

She stated how beautiful the scenery was, at the same moment we were passing what seemed to be a more swampy area and I was thinking how someone could — or already had — hide a body out there. The location, while populated, seems strangely secluded. Maybe this is just because of the abundance of wilderness. Anyway, not to distract from the importance of the terrain and all the beauty it offered, but I couldn’t help but laugh at our different trains of thought.

Hmm... wonder how creepy that comes out? I just have this odd thing of wondering what would happen if discovering a body. Thinking along those lines almost always brings Stephen King’s Stand By Me to mind. Then I wonder why the hell my new writer friends (okay, maybe a select few) seem so against seeing it. I don’t believe I’ve read the novella, but I love the movie! Anyhow, I just think about what would come about from finding one. How would I react? Would I become obsessed with figuring out who they were and what happened to them? Just odd thoughts.

The conversation lead me to memories of my childhood and all the time I spent exploring the woods; both with friends and alone. I love nature. Living closer to the cities now makes it a lot harder to enjoy. There are patches of wildlife here and there, but nothing like the country. While it doesn’t quite compare to the journeys traversing uncharted territory, I also miss just walking around lakes.

Back in high school, woods and fields were our home away from home. They were our battlefields, our forts, our land containing countless unheard of treasures — it was just buried somewhere — our sanctuary from the mundane where our imaginations could roam free.

So all of this made me very nostalgic about those adventures. Once upon a time I was called Nature Boy (okay... this was maybe a self-appointed moniker... I can’t recall), and I would have all sorts of experiences. The more my imagination got out of control, the more exciting.

Perhaps I will share some of those random adventures sometime.

For now, I just thought I would share another piece of the past that I miss. Luckily, this is one aspect that I can bring back into my life at any given moment. Just get up, make a short jaunt out to the country, and have an adventure.

Maybe eat me a lot of peaches along the way.

Have you ever played Dixit or Cards Against Humanity? If so, what are your thoughts on them? Ever have random thoughts of coming across a body somewhere? Have you ever seen Stand By Me? Are you a nature lover, and/or enjoy exploring unfamiliar wilderness?