The Stag at the Fence

The Keeper's Journal Entry (text in bold represents a truth or factual event):

Tonight I once again took the northern path Under the Oaks. I passed the standing stones, pausing only briefly to assure myself that all six remained where I had last seen them, before continuing to the place I had my encounter with the Jackdaw. This time, I went farther still.

After  some time, I came upon a fence stretching across the path before me. It disappeared amongst the trees in both directions, running east and west as far as I could see. The fence itself was quite ordinary, wooden posts set at regular intervals with horizontal rails between them, ostensibly intended to keep something in, or something out. I assumed I fell into the category of things to be kept out.

 

Directly ahead, where the path met the fence, there was a gap wide enough to pass through. There was no gate, no latch, no hinges, simply an opening through which the path continued into the trees beyond.

Standing squarely in that opening was an enormous stag.

 

We considered one another for some time. He was the largest stag I had ever seen, and entirely untroubled by my presence. He did not startle or retreat as a wild creature might. Indeed, I began to have the peculiar sense that I had been expected.

I wondered whether I should speak. It seemed rather foolish to ask an animal for permission to pass, yet equally discourteous to simply squeeze around him.

As the silence stretched between us, a question had begun to trouble me. Finally, I opened my mouth to ask it.

"Are you waiting for me?"

Before I could lend voice to the words, the stag stepped deliberately back into the trees. For a moment I remained where I was. Then, with the strange certainty that sometimes accompanies things for which there can be no reasonable explanation, I understood.

The stag had been standing in place of a gate and now I was being permitted to pass.

The Truth In The Text

In August of 2023 I went on an epic roadtrip from Adelaide through Mount Gambier, along the Great Ocean Road where I stopped for a helicopter joyride along the 12 Apostles. From there we headed towards Ballarat stopping to visit the Sovereign Hill historical goldrush site, then onto Kryal Castle. Next stop was Albury/Wodonga which is a gateway to various snowfields, we headed east towards Jindabyne hoping to see snow along the way at Thredbo.

On the way to Scammell's Lookout  (map below) the roads were narrow and winding forcing us to take a very slow pace. Google Maps suggests the drive should take about 3.5 hours, it took us almost double that. It was fine, oddly enough I don't think we passed another car on the road for most of the journey, this unexpected stillness may account for the curious encounter we had. 

We turned yet another blind corner and right there, at the corner next to the safety barrier was an enormous stag just standing there, staring at us. It didn't show any fear, it didn't move, it just kept watching us as we slowly drove past. Because the roads were narrow and there was no safe edge to pull over we didn't stop so that particular image is something I can't share with you, but it is something I will remember always.

We stopped at Thredbo which is a ski resort town. Very kitsch, built for tourists but for an Aussie that was raised on sun and surf, a snowy little hamlet feels like something from a fairy tale and I loved it. Unfortunately there hadn't been any fresh snow for a few weeks so they were relying on the snow machines to keep the ski slopes open, but there was enough old snow that I still got to stomp and play. 

I was looking back at the photos to choose the ones I wanted to share in this post and came across this one, of a fence with a gap. I couldn't have known then and in hindsight it is a pretty bland photo, but it fits perfectly with this tale. 

The make

This was another relatively simple one to bring together. The image of the stag was downloaded from Creative Fabrica, the fencepost was a vector image that I converted to a cut file using my Silhouette. I cut it in half to create the opening. The typing was done on my Royal 120, I like this one the most because it has 1.5 spacing whereas my other two typewriters only have single and double.

I made a mistake with the holepunch which meant I had to remove the typed pages and one of them tore a little at the bottom - in my desire to let go of perfection I covered it up with washi tape and sari ribbon.