a bowl of red-gold darkness

[asakiyume]

I had an hour to spend in the next-door town yesterday while our car was getting an alignment. I got myself a cup of coffee and read a little, then wandered back toward the alignment place, and for my route, I decided on a street called Seelye Street. It should be a kind of magical street, right? Seelye, like seelie? I walked past gracious houses and probable college buildings, and then, beside me on my left, I saw a big patch of darkness.

It was a steep ravine, with trees up top that overhung it so that it was completely in shadow. At the bottom was a very shallow stream, with dry-topped stones sticking out of it.

I decided to go down into that bowl of shadow, and it turned out that actually some thin siftings of sunlight had found their way down, too, because patches of the water were glowing the red-gold color of clear iced tea.

I walked the length of the stream, stepping from stone to stone, until it disappeared into a tunnel under the next street. Chipmunks were chirping sharply at me the whole time--I don't think they get many visitors disturbing them. When I got to the tunnel, I climbed up the ravine and out from the tree cover and onto the street. Out from red-gold darkness and water and into bright sun and tarmac. The one place was so different from the other.

So, Seelye Street was a kind of magical street.

Comments

[asakiyume.livejournal.com]

Are we thinking of the same stream? There was no overgrowth, just pachysandra ground cover streaming down the ravine on the house side and low wild growth on the college building side. There was one fallen-down tree that lay across the stream and you could bounce on its trunk. But the tall trees up above shutting out most of the light made it very open down below.

Ignore the "A"; the spot where I went into the ravine was between Spring Street and College Street, and the stream ran parallel to College Street (route 9) and then into a tunnel at Dickinson Street.

(http://www.flickr.com/photos/86761435@N00/3929253509/)

[mcblm921.livejournal.com]

It's been a number of years since I last saw it, so I might be forgetting what it looks like. I'm glad to hear that it is navigable - as it should be for any good adventure. ;)