Monthly Archives: October 2013

(continued from Sharieland Once More 10)

Red car’s about halfway to the end. Notice the blue speck of glass glinting in the foreground. Not placed there by me.

Woody looks on. He’s also keeping one eye on the thick and dark rhododendron behind him for possible wild things approaching. Turns out he had good reasons for fear!

Red car passing a knotweed plant.

Bigger Philo rocks off the high side of its highway. Ellie the Elephant may have handled some of these.

Still chugg’n along.

The 2 present Philo cow patties again.

Reddie’s reached the end! The fantastic news is passed down the line from the Cat equipment on. Pink Piggie gives out a series of loud victory snorts.

Two more cars of similar size follow the red one all the way down the highway to the end. Then the larger gray vehicle below tests it out. No problem for him (or her) atall, with its much bigger and higher wheels.

Satisfied that the highway can serve its function, Woody explores a bit of the central park-like region of Philo, finding a giant hole (to him) just beyond. What is it?

Epilogue:

On this same day, I returned to Philo for one last visit after taking the above photos and exploring more in the surrounding hills. I found a cow peacefully grazing about 20 yards from the beachy area. Hucka D. later indicated that this is the one and only Hater the Cow, who hates laziness, even though it itself a particularly lazy variety of its species. Psychological projection we’re talking about here. In Philo I began to gather up my toys for departure. All were exactly in the same condition I left them except for one: Lazy Sideburn Man, who was completely demolished, limbs and pieces of torso found in a tight circle beside his still intact folding chair. I was so shocked by the spectacle that I forgot to get my camera out for a picture to record for this blog. It was obvious to me that the cow must have singled this one toy out from all the rest to wreck havoc on. But it didn’t make sense (and still doesn’t): Wouldn’t a hulking cow knock over at least one or two of the many other toys standing on this beach? I must reinforce that Lazy Sideburn Man was *destroyed*, while none of the other toys were even touched. This event must be included, in my opinion, with the other woods mysteries I’ve encountered down through the years now. I’ll try to remember to take at least a photo of the pieces I found of the toy on the beach.

So ends our “Sharieland Once More” series of posts. I hope you enjoyed them. I certainly had fun taking all the pictures and playing with the toys.

(continued from Sharieland Once More 09)

Two more shot from Won Valley, the first of an interesting sheet of water pouring below a rock that caught my eye…

… and then a quick shot inside a bramble of bushes surrounding the stream just below Heart Line…

… before Woody and I moved back to Philo beach to get an update on the progress there.

Toy avatars don’t seem to do much when I’m not around to oversee them, so I wasn’t surprised that not a lot of work was accomplished back in Philo on the road. So I gently admonished the bunch of ’em, and told foreman Red Skeleton to crack the whip and get the highway done so that I could test out some trucks and cars on it. Soon the Cat equipment was revving up their engines and back to the task of shoveling, hauling, and rolling. By the time I took the below picture, a main road through Philo had been basically created all the way up to Pink Piggie, about half the job.

The foam cow who was supposed to be on the lookout for the much larger, meat versions of itself had fallen asleep, and needed rousing as well. The beginning of the road can be seen just behind him, or the part of Philo closest to Heart Lake (background).

Just in front of this, we have Foreman Red Skeleton (left) with some kind of blue herbivorous dinosaur, perhaps a brontosaurus, Lazy Sideburn Man (center) and Foam Cow and several cars (right).

Move it, move it!

Red, Bronto, and Lazy (as we’ll call them) with a piece of porcelain dug up by the workers in their midst.

Avatar view of the work being accomplished, with Tyrannosaurus Rex.

Moving away from Philo again, I ran across this very interesting double wall — a channel, really — a bit up Earth Stream, before it enters basically impenetrable rhrododendron fields.

Earth Stream just upstream from Philo, at the upper edge of its soggy delta area.

Ellie, once more, and the rocks she’s moved, seemingly.

An annoucement by Red Skeleton: The Road is Done! A car is nominated for a usability test. I believe Red selected this car because it was the same color as himself. A privilege!

The car’s made it to the T-Rex, and so far so good. But there’s at least 2/3rds of the road to go.

A tricky spot between two larger stones. They mark the entrance to a mini-gorge of sorts as well. Careful!

(continued in Sharieland Once More 11)

(continued from Sharieland Once More 08)

What an honor! Super famous toy avatars Woody and Buzz Lightyear from the Toy Story franchise flew in on their Pink Piggy mid-morning to see what all the fuss was about over here at Herman Park. Woody, at least, would stay for the duration of the toy happening, and even accompanied me to Null Vale, although he decided not to remove himself from my coat pocket. Later on, he stated he had an irrational fear of wild animals hiding within all those rocks he could see while peeking out from the pocket. Shame.

Back in Philo: dump truck, bulldozer and roller hard at work in the morning sun.

In contrast, Lazy Sideburn Man just sits in his folding chair taking all the action around him in, and with an occasional arm stretching being his only type of exercise.

Ellie the Elephant, a refuge from the Psychic Zoo Stew, helps with moving some of the larger rocks.

Woody and Buzz’s transport of choice these days, The Pink Piggie, made a dramatic entrance from the east about 9:40am to deftly land on one of the highest and sandiest (read: safest) spots at Philo Beach. Is this see-through pig sentient like Buzz and Woody themselves? Turns out, according to both, that this is so; it is another toy avatar on equal footing with anyone or anything else appearing on the beach today. I wonder if he’s kin to Hamm from Toy Story?

Philo Beach, looking toward the stepping stone ford across Earth Stream.

The below pictures are from the visit to upper Sharieland this day that Woody accompanied me on, albeit only “in pocket”. The first picture is of an interestingly patterned Null Vale rock with fronting knotweed. Null Vale and other valleys connecting Heart and Head Lines are full of such interesting rocks. And ultra paranoid Woody, constantly shouting from my coat, seemed to think there was a lion, tiger or bear hiding behind each and every one of ’em.

Picture taken from the same spot, looking back toward the meadow from whence we came.

Rock with interesting patch of sunlight shining within. Details of this interior actually show up better on the photo than in person, which is the reverse of norm. Woody thought it was a cave demon.

The Walls of Null Vale.

Revisiting Mysten Rock, which Woody was curious to see as well from the safe confines of my coat pocket. When I took the rock and placed it on Platform Rock again, as I’d done several days before, some kind of insect (6 legged creature) appeared on one side, and a spider (8 legged) on the opposite side. Woody was terrified of each, not suprisingly. More surprising is that he couldn’t tell the difference between the two, nor that I’d flipped the rock around, even after demonstrating this to him. For Woody, the rock seeemed to be without dimension, as it were, like a Flatland.

Woody actually fainted for a spell when spying this trapped face in a rock. I was glad to have the small space of peace, actually. Again, this “face” showed up better on the photo than in person.

Add this, for sure, to the oddity rocks I’ve encountered this fall hiking season, and I need to create a post dealing exclusively with that batch. Very soon I promise!

A neighboring rock to the one above with the trapped man. Egads.

One valley over to the north exists this deeper swatch of erosion. This would be Won Valley (not One Valley). I’ll have to wait until another time to go into detail about its rocks. That might be another whole series in and of itself. Moving on, then…

(continued in Sharieland Once More 10)

(continued from Sharieland Once More 07)

Bush with blue-black berries near the conjunction of Earth Stream and a primary feeder stream. Okay, *must* nail down names for these streams and pools. 1st, Heart Lake *is* nailed down, and then the main feeder stream of this lake is *Earth* Stream (as I’ve been calling it in the description of the last several photos anyhoot). Then the prominent rock lying near the mouth of Earth Stream, where it empties into Heart Lake, is called *Erath* Rock. *Now*, Philo itself may have been called Mysten at one point in its mythical, mystical past. Maybe Erath as well (after the rock?). It is said that Hater the Cow rearranged or reversed the “r” and “a” of Earth to make the word instead Erath, in his hate and spite of Earth and life in general. Hater may even represent *all* cows, or at least those possessed with this consuming hate. Hater (single cow now) seems to despise lazy animals or lazy humans, which is really only a projection of his own laziness that he loathes. A toy avatar sitting and watching others do the hard labor around him would represent a target to this mad cow, then. More on that soon (!)

Beautiful spot inside the pine grove on the edge of the Earth Stream delta, a grove which appears pyramid-shaped from Philo itself as discussed previously. Does the shape of the grove somehow purposely mirror the general shape of deltas in general? Had to be asked, it seems.

Interesting rock decorated with bright moss and lichen just outside the grove, on the “path” to Erath (Rock).

Looking across the Earth Stream Delta from Erath Rock toward Philo, lying just before the front of rhododendron plants and hidden by intervening weeds from this angle, once more.

Back in the Delta Grove — obvious appellation to be given.

Earth Delta: Erath Rock to left, and Philo just off shot to right.

Back in Philo, and the little, light green truck that couldn’t…

… until the big boys moved in with their earth moving and shaping talents. We’re talking Cat power here, toy style. Specifically we’re looking at a dump truck, a bulldozer, and a roller or soil compactor.

Mossman, leader of my collection of toy avatars, decided to send his right hand man Red Skeleton in to supervise the construction labor and ensuing toy happening.

Also present were several dinosaurs…

… a muscular toy-man with heavy sideburns who merely sat in his folding chair while others around him did the work…

… a foam cow who was assigned to look out for real cows and give a loud warning moo if any were spotted…

… and cars, quite a lot of cars.

(continued in Sharieland Once More 09)

(continued from Sharieland Once More 05)

Looking up the Null Valley of Sharieland toward The Walls, a series of low rock walls situated between Heart and Head Lines. Hard to get a good picture of them — perhaps I’ll try again in the winter when all the plants are dead. The Walls/ Null Vale is a very important region of Sharieland and also Herman Park as a whole. This is where the Sharies declared true independence from Herman, Lilly and their mansion, alongside the Truemann town at the top of the next vale to the south (One or Won Vale).

A Null Vale beetle enjoying a nice stroll through the rocks.

Looking up toward The Walls from just below Heart Line.

The Walls from further down the hill; the Sharie rock temple can just be made out in the mid-foreground, first discussed here in the F&HE! blog before its more recent, partial collapse.

Prominent holly tree in the meadow to the south of Null Valley, below Heart Line again.

Looking down the same meadow toward Heart Lake in the distance. We’ll be spending a lot of time there for the duration of this little Sharieland series of posts.

Wider grassy path — not far from Heart Lake now, still heading downhill. I’ll have to make a map of this area asap. I promise, dear reader or readers.

And now we’ve arrived back at the edge of Philo, where the culminating toy event will appear within a matter of days. Can you sense the electricity already?

The beach area that defines the meat of Philo can be brightly seen through the twisting rhododendron branches; an interesting angle into it. A person (like me) might be playing with his (or her — but it’s really me) toys in the sun at Philo, and not even be aware of someone sitting on this perch here, cloaked behind the dark fence of rhodo plants.

Peaking through the same tangle of rhododendron into Philo proper. The dark hump of dirt in the foreground reminded me of the Mysten Rock earlier found in Null Vale up the hill from here, just to note an association I made at the time.

Earth (or Erath or maybe Hater) Creek, the feeder stream of Heart Lake. This is just on the edge of Philo proper, beach to left and rhododendrons to right. There’s also a spring that merges with this creek immediately to the right of the below photo’s field of vision.

Philo proper. And the appearance of the first toy there: a light green or sea green truck. And the first problem: the beachy area was just rocky enough to impede the truck’s progress across it. A road making crew would soon come to the rescue, thanks to a stop at the local General Dollar Store. Hang on truckie!

Yes, cows have definitely frequented this place, witnessed by these two large patties (foreground center and background center). And a particular cow Hucka D. has come to call Hater would make a decisive visit soon as well.

Philo Ford, just beyond the patties. Again, not sure who could have placed these aligned rocks in Earth (or Erath or Hater) Creek. I think we can rule out cows. I think.

Earth (or Erath or Hater) Rock as seen through the tops of plants lining the Philo beach, and across a marshy area seeming to define a kind of pseudo-delta for Earth (or Erath or Hater) Creek as it empties into Heart Lake. This is one of the larger rocks of the area, and is first discussed in this post.

(continued in Sharieland Once More 07)