Scarlet Runner by crooxi

(Translation: 'St. Nicholas in the woods' - more details presently.)

Another slightly meagre week on the running front - I don't know where my time goes at the moment, but between work and other things, go it does. (Well actually, I do know where some of it has gone in the last couple of days - on family history, another of my time-consuming interests, with the appearance of a new website of old newspapers, and discovery of my relatives' dubious past.............! My great-grandfather's brother was done for being on a train without a ticket; his wife accused of petty theft from a pub where she worked as a cleaner; my great-great-grandfather was charged with 'scandalous neglect' of his children...........! Other items included pub brawls (great-grandfather's brother again), a month's imprisonment for I know not what, and the petty thief's father in his youth 'apprehended in a tavern on a charge of being concerned in the diabolical act' - aagh, what was it?! (Can't actually see the full articles without buying a subscription, just these tantalizing snippets.) Plenty of more innocuous items too: simple 'Hatches, Matches, and Dispatches'; trade adverts; club meetings; livestock sales............ But it has had me fascinated.

I haven't been completely lazy, though - I did manage to get out 3 times, although the first of these was just a walk (Tuesday 29 Nov.) We drove up to Schwarzenberg, had late lunch at the 'Rössli', then went for a walk for about an hour and a half, round the 'Grosse Welt' ('Big World') route. (There is also a shorter version, 'Kleine Welt' - 'Small World.') I noticed how dry and dusty the footpaths were, at least on the southern side of the ridge - very odd for late November - while the northern side had patches of frost. It was not particularly cold, however. Passed a big field with literally hundreds of sheep in it - you don't often see so many together here; also some escapee(?) goats running down the track towards us. I don't know why we've never run this route - we agreed it would make a good one.

Friday 2 Dec: Bireggwald. After waiting around for J. for a while ("I just have to finish this........", "Just one more telephone call.........") I eventually gave up and went by myself. Up the side of the woods, 1 1/2 rounds of the fig. of 8, down to the middle of the woods, top path of the Vita Parcours, and home along Waldrand. Not much, but it would have to do - I had an appointment to get to. 7.05 km, in 50:19. It wasn't long, but I tried to make it fast-ish. (Km 5 was 5:51 - not bad for this hilly terrain.) Again I noticed the uncharacteristic dryness for the time of year - there was no water at all coming into the trough now.

And Sunday 4 Dec: Bireggwald again, this time WITH J. Vita Parcours, for the first time in quite a while. Very put out to discover that the forestry workers, in their annual tree-slaughter, have cut down the one tree really essential to one of the exercises! My opinion of them sinks a notch lower (if that is possible.) Did most of the exercises, if not at great length. Even so, I noticed the effects the next day! - particularly the arms, but also stomach muscles (think this must be from trying to prove I can hold the Plank longer than J!) Trotting past the ponds on our way home, we noticed a couple of guys lighting a bonfire; there was also a wrapped-up tea urn, and one of them had a musical instrument (a tuba.) Clearly some sort of Event was in the offing. In view of the date - coming up to St. Nicholas - and remembering seeing something similar a couple of years ago, I guessed it must be that: the 'Waldsamichlaus', where St Nicholas and his retainers hold court in the woods, and local children, after being interrogated about their behaviour over the past year ('Do you help your mother? Have you been nice to your brothers and sisters?.......) can earn a 'Säckli' filled with peanuts, clementines, etc. in return for reciting a poem or singing a little song. They told us he was due at five, and joked that we should run around for another half hour (it was now half past 4), then come back . I decided I might actually do this.............. but I would need my jacket if I was going to stand around. So the half an hour's run was home and back again. I stuffed my camera in the jacket pocket, (but forgot the torch I also planned to take), and sprinted back. There was still just enough light along Waldrand to see my way there, and along the final stretch up to the ponds, they had planted an avenue of torches (of the flaming variety.) It was a few minutes past 5 by now, the bonfire was blazing nicely, and Samichlaus was already there, with a crowd of children and parents clustered round.

The usual Catholic Samichlaus is accompanied by a rather scary character called Schmutzli, dressed all in black, with a blacked-up face, and carrying a bundle of birch rods to chastise naughty children; this one, however, was accompanied by Knecht Ruprecht, a more benign character in a monk's habit, so I think this may have been the Protestant version. Also two teenage girls in white robes, carrying torches. (But no donkey this time.) Most of the children were quite happy to recite their verse and receive the expected reward, but there was one small girl overwhelmed with stage fright. She looked absolutely terrified and couldn't utter a word, despite all her mother's coaxing and Samichlaus's assurances that he wasn't a 'böse Maa' (bad man/someone to be scared of.) Finally he gave her a Säckli anyway, and said she could come back later and say it if she wanted to (which she finally did, in a barely audible whisper, once most people's attention had shifted to the bonfire and the tea urn.) From time to time there was a short musical interlude from the man with the tuba (probably not the ideal instrument for 'Jingle Bells'!) Meanwhile............ I had decided I would like a Säckli too, once I saw there were still plenty left over - though I wasn't sure if it was the done thing for adults to join in. (In fact, I was pretty sure it wasn't.) However, when Samichlaus himself jokingly asked two women standing nearby if they had a poem for him, and they responded with the standard two-liner ("Samichlaus du guete Maa........") and were duly rewarded for this feeble effort, I was encouraged to step up and tell him I too would like to earn a Säckli. I had tried in vain to think of a suitable poem, but all I could come up with was "Incey Wincey Spider" (learnt on my first ever day at school), and one or two highly UNsuitable limericks(!) No, a song it would have to be. So I said I would like to sing something, 'und zwar auf englisch', and launched into "Good King Wenceslas." (Chosen because it wasn't too Christmassy.) Oh dear, started too high, you fool......... this could be embarrassing when I get to the high notes! Simultaneously, another even worse fear struck me: DON'T ACCIDENTALLY SING THE RUDE VERSION! ("Good King Wenceslas looked out/Of his bedroom winder/Silly b****r he fell out/On a red hot cinder/Brightly shone his bum that night..........") Naturally, the more you try NOT to do something, the greater the danger that you will! And by now I had an audience. But by concentrating hard, and blasting the top notes, I successfully negotiated one verse, and said I would spare him the other 499. "Nächstes Jahr..........." he joked: next year. Okay, I agreed,next year. Entering into the spirit of the thing, I also assured him (tongue firmly in cheek) that I had been 'lieb und brav, wenn ein bisschen unordentlich im Haushalt!' (kind and good, if a bit untidy) and promised to try to improve. (No chance, I fear - my untidiness is chronic.) And with that, the show was over. Samichlaus and his helpers walked off into the depths of the wood, the light of their torches flickering through the trees (was I the only one who found this rather magical? - I seemed to be the only one watching, everyone else was now congregated round the bonfire, drinking tea and investigating the contents of the Säcklis.) I acquired a polystyrene cup of tea (something sweet and fruity) and hung around on the periphery of the group for a while, watching people grilling things (the second-favourite occupation of the Swiss, after cleaning) - mostly sausages speared on sticks, but some of them had actually brought folding grills which they set up over piles of embers raked out of the fire. But eventually I thought I should go home, and turning my back on this cosy scene, headed off towards Waldrand again. Alas, it was absolutely pitch dark now - even the avenue of torches was quite gloomy now they had burnt down a bit - so I had to go back the long way round, via the road. Navigated my way cautiously out of the woods, and speeded up a bit once I reached street lighting, Säckli tucked under one arm (à la Haile and his schoolbooks), empty cup still clutched in the other hand. Quite a pleasant trot home, down to Sternegg, and along Dorfstrasse and Hirtenhofstrasse. No Garmin for this one - hadn't seemed necessary for the Vita Parcours - but must have totalled some 10 km in all.