Walk in the woods; real or imagined?

David and I took our Columbus week-end hike yesterday.  The woods were eerily still and quiet; just the rustle of breeze-blown leaves and our casual foot steps deadened against the newly layered forest floor…. and the light was so surreal filtered through the slight haze and tepid temperature.  We were sure we could feel the presence of fairies and gnomes all around us, so when we stepped out of our gait to slowly look around we were sure we noticed their evidence! 

Just for fun, here are some magical images from our walk.  Which do you think are real and which did we imagine?  The answers are at the end of the post.

TOP TO BOTTOM:

1. Imprinted leaf – REAL.  How did it get that burned grid imprinted on it?  Tire tracks?  Unlikely up there…a foot print maybe?
2. Hollows in the tree; Left with acorn – REAL,  Right with a pumpkin – imagined.  That acorn was just sitting there lodged in the hollow.  Did someone before us put it there or did it just fall there?  I super-imposed the pumpkin into the photo of the hollow on the right.  Don’t you think gnomes would store them there for the winter?
3. Leaves intertwined with tree trunks – REAL.  It must have taken some tricky wind to have them land just so.
4. Apples in the tree roots – imagined.  I super-imposed the apples in that funky falling over tree because we thought it would be a great picnic spot for fairies.
5. Wooden tool – REAL.  The “handle” is wrapped tree bark and the burnt end is sharpened making this look like a primitive tool.  Was it a tool?  Or did the two separate items find a way to wrap themselves around each other?  Wish the photo was better for all you – it was astounding…IPhone failure.

Cover photo is a mirrored image collage I did with a singular photo enhancing its color. All rights reserved.