Steve`s Country
For a smile as wide as a country sunrise
Morning Coffee At Steve’s Country #17.
Good morning to all of you on this cloudy, mild winter day! I hope that you are all doing well today. The coffee is ready so just help yourself, sit back and relax this morning. Wow, a week from now it’s Christmas Eve, in two weeks it’s New Year’s Eve. Then we begin a whole new year! Well, it was just 21F (-6C) this morning, felt quite nice as I went out early with food for the birds. As usual it was just getting light, I put out the feeders and immediately I heard the familiar chirp of the chickadees. Not the song where they sing their name, but a particular little chirp which only they do. It’s so nice when walking through the forest in winter, it can be so quiet, then suddenly I hear that little chirp, then a lot of them as the flock comes near. They always flock together in the winter as they travel around looking for food, which is mostly bugs that have hidden behind the bark of trees for the winter.
Just as I began writing this morning something big and dark caught my eye outside. I went to look. It was Theodore! He’s still alive and nice and fat looking. He remembered me but was a bit more cautious than he was before. I hope he stays around, though it might be better for him to hide out until after New Year’s. For those of my new readers, Theodore is a wild turkey that showed up along my pathway to the river back in July. Then he started coming to my feeder in the fall. Then about a month ago he disappeared. Now he’s back, which is great! This year is the first time I have had a wild turkey come to my feeder. It is quite odd to see such a big bird on a feeder meant for smaller birds. He used to like coming over to me when I sat outside with Jasper and and he would join in the conversation.
Poor Jasper. He finally found himself a mate, named Jenny. He seemed to be so happy even with all the chasing at the beginning of their courtship. But Jenny lived across the street and one time she didn’t make it, she was run over by a car. So many of my squirrels have died that way. I’m glad that Jasper lives on this side of the street, much safer. Today we have a nice chickadee pic to share and a white-breasted nuthatch which is bigger than the red-breasted nuthatch that I have shown before. And there will be an extra chapter of my mystery story today, I want to have it finished before Christmas, then there will be a new story begin on New Year’s Day. Muffin and I hope you have a wonderful day and God bless!
Steve and Muffin.
©2020 Steve McLeod.
20/20 Investigations, Inc. The Wilderness Staircase. Chapter 7.
We began walking down what looked like a long tunnel. There was a gentle downward slope as we walked, kind of strange that we would be going downward. Whoever made this tunnel did a very good job, considering how old it must be. I figure that middle part of the hotel is older than 300 years, so that would be the age of this tunnel too. Maybe it was just a place to hide, or maybe it was for hiding some valuable treasure. As we walked along we kept looking for any possible doors that might be there in these walls but we could find nothing. Finally I could see the end of this tunnel. “Well, this is it,” I said, “we should be under the hotel now.” There was a large wood door on the side wall of the tunnel, but no way to open it. I tried pushing on rocks, but nothing. “There must be a way to open this door,” said Lena, “unless it only opens from the other side.”
“That would be a terrible thought,” I said, “and possible, especially if this was an escape tunnel.” Meow.=Maybe push two stones at same time, like we had to push on attic door. “Hmm, not a bad idea Mr. Cat,” I said as I started to look for 2 possible matching stones. There was only 2, but when we pushed, nothing. “Looks like we might have to go back,” I said to everyone. “But what if we can’t open that door?,” asked Lena. “Then we might be stuck here for awhile,” I said. But I did notice the air in here was fairly fresh so there must be a venting system to the outside, so at least we have air to breathe. Meow,meow!=Oh, look here, odd stone! Muffin was right, the stone was smaller than the rest and about 6 feet away from the door. I told everyone else to stand by the door while I pushed the stone. It pushed in quite easily and then I quickly ran over to the others.
However, the wood door was still shut. “Well, that didn’t help much,” I said, “kind of curious really.” “Kind of scary, is a better way to say it,” said Lena. “Here,” I said to Lena, “push the stone on that side of the door, while I push this one.” “But we did that already,” she reminded me. “Let’s try again,” I said and we did. This time the stones pushed inward and the door slid upward. We all walk inside to find two stairways, one going up and one going down. “Now which way do we go?,” asked Lena. “Well, going up should take us back to the hotel,” I said. “Good, let’s go,” said Lena anxiously. The cats were whispering together. “Okay you two, what are you talking about?,” I asked them. Meow,meow.=We think go down stairs, we just not feel right going up, could be trap. “Hmm, that’s a good thought and I agree, we go down,” I said. I could tell that Lena was not too happy about that decision but she didn’t argue at least.
It was a nice spiral staircase going down and down. “We must be close to the bottom of the outside staircase now,” I told everyone. That’s a big hill on top of us. “Thanks for reminding me,” said Lena, “I’m starting to get a bit panicky being in here, I don’t like it at all!” We were suddenly at the bottom of the staircase and entered a large room with some furniture in it, including some beds. None of the furniture looked old enough to be in here, though it was all old. And everything was very neat and clean. The air was also very fresh in here and I could see a large vent which obviously led to the outside. “It almost seems like someone is living here,” I said rather puzzled. “Maybe it’s that John you mentioned,” said Lena rather scared now. Meow, meow!!=Look!! The cats ears were straight up and eyes big as they stared behind Lena and I. We turned to see…
To Be Continued.
Picture of Mr. Cat kindly supplied by his human, Nina.
Previous chapters of this story, and other stories, can be found on my home page under 20/20 Investigations, Inc.
©2020 Steve McLeod.
