Free Write -- The Pen

A rainy Geneva day but J., R. and I sipped our tea, hot chocolate and espresso in a cozy café as we came up with our 10 minute Free Writes. We used two different timers to see if they were co-ordinated. They weren't, but close. Just a few seconds off.

Rick's Free Write Wooden Pen

Wandering through a dense forest in eastern Switzerland, early morning, with the dog, I spied a man-made structure that seemed to make no sense for being there. A four-sided box of wooden slats. About 10 feet each side. A pen. For keeping something in. An animal? Maybe one horse. Or perhaps some goats or sheep. But here? Surrounded by tall trees, some of which had fallen across the trail. This was public property. Why would a private individual build an enclosure, clearly for temporary purposes?

The dog and I walked closer to see if there was further evidence, maybe a sign, maybe a pile of crap that would suggest the size of the animal(s) corralled there. But nothing. From the undergrowth in and around, it was clear the pen had not been used for some time. One of the older slats had rotted and fallen partially to the ground. Easy for smaller animals to exit.

Could not have been a child’s ‘fort.’ Too sophisticated of a construction. But perhaps some young children had made use of it.

Then I noticed there was no gate. How to get the animals in or out? Lift them? Maybe there had never been any animals. Maybe the park ranger had scared the pen-builders away.

Rick is an aviation journalist and publisher of www.aviationvoices. com 

Julia's Free Write

Fall, my favorite season. I love everything about it, the cooler weather, the shortening of the days, and, above all the colors.

But that’s not the subject today.

What to do? He wouldn’t stay still. Hyperactive or what?

He had his grandsons for the day and as they both liked the outdoors; he decided that a walk was in order.  It worked great for the first 15 minutes, both boys walking along by his side, then things started falling apart with the elder wanting to dash here and there and the younger starting to lag.

They were in a wooded area with a few small cliffs and holes, so he was starting to panic.

Light bulb idea: picking up old limbs of trees, sticks and the like, he put them to building a small enclosure.

Lopsided and obviously not professional, it did capture their interest. That is until it was more or less finished and he put them both in it!

Julia has written and taken photos all her life and loves syncing up with friends. Her blog can be found: https://viewsfromeverywhere.blogspot.com/  

 D-L's Free Write

Jason and Anna believed not just in autumn walks, but in serious leaf kicking. They wanted to see who could kick higher, who could spot the reddest tree, and who could find a new path in the woods.

"If this were a mystery on television, we'd find a body," Anna said.

Jason stopped. "Look."

"Not a body, I hope," Anna said.

Jason walked off the path to a wooden pen, not a very big one, too small to hold an unhappy donkey. "What would a pen be doing eight miles from nowhere?"  

"Maybe it was for hunting dogs," Anna said.

"No, they could just walk out." 

They circled the pen. Jason picked up a tuft of brown fur. As a scientist he had lots of scientist buddies and he asked one of them to identify the fur.

A week later, Anna answered Jason's call.

"We've solved our mystery pen. It was bear fur."

She decided not to walk anywhere near there again.

Visit D-L's website at https://dlnelsonwriter.com 

Note: We later learned that pens like this one is put around saplings to protect them.