I’m in the Pacific Northwest! It’s wet! Mossy! The owls are not what they seem!

Surrounding a reed-filled reservoir behind my in-laws’ house, this little isolated chunk of temperate rain forest is an exceptionally odd place. It’s only a few city blocks wide, but somehow seems much larger from inside. It’s also full of strange noises: croaks, creaks, rustles, and splashes. Around any turn of the footpath you could meet the Sasquatch, a lost tourist from Seattle, or maybe my neighbor Totoro — but hopefully not Killer Bob or any of the rural inhabitants of the Black Lodge.