in my old backyard...

there were so many places to hide and play and imagine! i had an apple tree surrounded by thorny berry bushes which made a nice little fort (and it gave me a great vantage point from which to spy on the neighbors!), and there were little secluded places all over. you just had to be careful not to get poison ivy!! the jungle in the way back was a little path completely covered by trees and bushes and tall grass. there was also a little 'forest' of white pine trees, a mommie, daddy, and baby tree, that had a little dip that would fill with water to become a lake when it rained. many nights were spent pretending to be a gymnast on the swingset, or lying in the hammock, or building snowmen or running around with the dog. before we got Alex, who is the best dog in the world (part Great Dane, part golden retriever), i used to walk around with a leash pretending that i had a dog. maybe i was a crazy child. we also had a little stone patio next to the garage, which was unattached to the house. there was a trellis over this patio, and a dog house next to it - again, before we had a dog, i would pretend that my dog lived there. i think the dog in question was a dog that my parents had before i was born, and he manifested himself in my imagination. there were two moss gardens (my dad's) and a vegetable/flower garden also. the moss gardens represented some kind of ancient, Asian-like world to me - i would lay on the ground, shut my eyes, and imagine that the moss garden was my estate, and i was the moon-goddess empress. because i was a crazy child.

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