I want to share with readers the memories of events that happened personally with me or in my presence. All three cases are connected, firstly, with fog, and secondly, with the surroundings of the Yakhroma River in the Moscow region - a place, in my opinion, amazing and even mystical.
Holiday on the shore
The first event took place on the day of the autumnal equinox. My wife and I were invited to our holiday by familiar researchers of traditional culture - the group "North Wind".
The author with his wife
There were promised ceremonies, magicians, round dances, old songs, food. We agreed with pleasure and by evening we were already at the place, on the bank of Yakhroma, not far from the village of Ilyinskoye.
After ceremonies and festive songs in the deepening twilight we were invited to the table. The hospitable hosts praised our own-made honey so much that we decided not to return home, but to feast with friends and spend the night in the car, since we left everything we needed in the trunk in advance - just in case.
Promotional video:
The holiday went on as usual, and my wife and I at about 11 pm decided to take a walk under the stars.
Krasnaya Polyana, where the action took place, stretched along Yakhroma for about 250-300 meters. A dirt road crosses it from end to end. On one side there is a forest, on the other - a river. So, slowly walking along the dirt road here and there, we noticed that a thick fog rises from the river, which quickly covered the entire clearing.
We also joked: here, they say, hedgehogs in the fog! The fire, at which the party was going on, disappeared behind a damp veil, and the sounds of songs and conversations that came from there gradually died down. For about fifteen minutes, talking, stopping and gazing at the stars peeping through the fog, my wife and I walked slowly along the road to the edge of the clearing.
And then I noticed an interesting phenomenon: in front, right above the road, something like a foggy arch appeared. It was twenty meters to the eye, and its height was about five meters. It even seemed to me that I can see color overflows, like a rainbow.
- ABOUT! Look - a lunar rainbow! I said to my wife.
- Does this really happen? - She wondered, watching the arch. - Come on, let's take a closer look!
At a leisurely pace we approached the arch. Alas, as we approached, she became paler and paler, as if dissolving in the surrounding fog, however, not moving from her place. And so, when we entered under its very arch, the lunar rainbow melted completely. After standing there for a while, we went back to the fire.
The whole walk took us about twenty minutes. But, approaching the fire, we met alarmed friends who attacked us with reproaches that we had gone somewhere without warning anyone, and they were looking for us for more than an hour!
- What time is it? We walked for only twenty minutes! - we were surprised. The friends looked at each other, puzzled, and showed us their watch. The beginning of the second night! My wife and I watch (I have electronic, hers - mechanical) synchronously lagged behind by more than an hour and a half!
Yakhroma river
Photo: komanda-k.ru
Toy road
The next time my friends and I were at Yakhroma on the night of April 30 to May 1. Part of our large company left early, set up camp and began to wait for the others. My wife and I had to stay in Moscow, in addition, we promised to pick up my friend Leonid and his wife Yana in the car. In general, we left Moscow at about 23:00, already after dark. On the Yaroslavl highway, I planned to get to the ring concrete, and along it - already to the place.
Around Korolev, fog began to thicken. At first, it did not greatly interfere with the movement, but then it thickened so much that I simply did not see the familiar turn to the right after the traffic police post on the concrete road. Realizing that I had missed, I stopped, returned on foot, found a turn and, having returned by car, only entered the desired road.
It became even more difficult on the concrete. Visibility was at most five meters. We drove at a speed of 25 kilometers per hour. And then - a surprise: the dipped beam goes out (as it turned out later, the relay burned out).
With the "dalnyak" in the fog, nothing is visible at all - a solid wall of light. With the headlights off, in the light of the moon, you can make out what is there ahead, maybe a couple of meters.
For some time we stood, conferring, whether to spend the night right here. We decided to take the risk and go further, fortunately, the road is familiar and there are practically no oncoming cars. We drive slowly, we find the roadside almost by touch with the wheels.
Already not far from Yakhroma, I was surprised to notice that I see the road pretty well, but somehow strange. As if from afar: the primer is very narrow, no more than a palm wide, and I look at it as if it were a toy, passing in front of me on the writing table. This is the only way to describe this strange feeling.
Well, I see - and okay! I begin to slowly increase speed, I see the side of the road, I calmly fit into the turns. After a while Leonid says:
- Listen, you can't see anything! Let's stop, wait.
And at this moment my "vision" begins to blur. Again fog, the road is not visible. The wife, sensing that something unusual is happening (I am a neat driver and not inclined to adventures behind the wheel), invites Lena to keep quiet:
- Since we are going, it means that Pavel sees the way!
Leonid calms down, my picture is smoothly recovering, I see the road again. I increase the speed again. The most terribly interesting is what is happening to me? So we reached almost to Ilyinsky, and there the fog cleared.
Later, analyzing my feelings, I thought that the effect of the “toy road” could be explained, for example, by a greatly changed depth of field. But why did I start seeing through the fog? Neither before nor after this incident did I observe such an ability.
The lens is like new
The third case all happened on the same Yakhroma in May of the year before last. While relaxing with friends, we discussed with my wife's friend Irina the difference between shooting with a reflex film camera and a digital camera. Irina had a rather old but reliable Zenit.
True, his lens gave a fair amount of distortion along the edge of the picture. This was noticeable both in the viewfinder and when printing photographs. According to Irina, this lens disease was observed from the moment of purchase and did not depend on the shooting conditions.
After shooting about a film and a half after our dispute, Irina was surprised to note that the distortions disappeared somewhere, and the lens began to give a clear picture. And it happened quite unexpectedly. I shot in the woods - the edge blurred, I went to Yakhroma - perfect clarity.
I carefully examined the lens - an ordinary, still Soviet station wagon, shabby, with a slightly scratched front lens. The aperture ring sticks a little … What happened to the lens is not clear. Did the magic of the place work on glass and metal?
Pavel Prokazov, Moscow