Wild Wood

Library Mural at Gt. Doddington Primary

June/July & Nov/Dec 24

‘The pattering increased till it sounded like sudden hail on the dry-leaf carpet spread around him. The whole wood seemed running now, running hard, hunting, chasing, closing in round something or – somebody? In panic, he began to run too, aimlessly, he knew not whither. He ran up against things, he fell over things and into things, he darted under things and dodged round things. At last he took refuge in the deep dark hollow of an old beech tree, which offered shelter, concealment – perhaps even safety, but who could tell? Anyhow, he was too tired to run any further and could only snuggle down into the dry leaves which had drifted into the hollow and hope he was safe for the time. And as he lay there panting and trembling, and listened to the whistlings and the patterings outside, he knew it at last, in all its fullness, that dread thing which other little dwellers in the field and hedgerow had encountered here, and known as their darkest moment – that thing, which the Rat had vainly tried to shield him from – the Terror of the Wild Wood!’

– Kenneth Grahame “The Wind In The Willows” (from chapter 3 ‘The Wild Wood’)

The Challenge: