What is it?

After several years of helping care for a Mum with dementia, and a Dad knocked down by a massive stroke, they both passed away and I went looking for a peaceful place to rest and heal. I found a lovely little house in a quiet village outside of my hometown, with a farm just down the road where I could stable my horse and my 2 rescued ponies. I looked forward to quietly rebuilding my life.

But my garage was a portal.

It had a gardening shed attached to the back of it and when the farm across the road didn't work out, I moved the riding horse to another stable and turned the shed and part of the garage into a little barn for the 2 ponies. They became known in the village as the "The Garden Gnomes" or as I called them, "my lawn ornaments".

The first indication that something wasn't quite right with the garage was the day I decided to share it with the ponies. I had only been on the property for a short time and the previous owner had left the garden shed full of garbage which was spilling out the back door. I took lots of pictures to show how bad it looked before then rolled up my sleeves and got to work.

It was a hot day in July so every time I took a break, I would walk around the grounds and take pictures of the enormous 100 year old trees, the numerous flowering shrubs and the shaded pathways through the little strand of woods at the back.

When I finally finished and now had room for 2 ponies and a car, I went inside to the coolness of the house, curled up with a cold one and proceeded to download the pictures onto my computer. I couldn't wait to see the fruits of my labour.

The pictures of the property and the house were gorgeous - crisp, bright and colourful. But every single picture of the garage showed a misty form, exactly as I have seen in so many paranormal photos.

Later that day I brought the ponies over to their new home and just before bed I went out to check on them and to say goodnight. As I was standing there scratching their necks, a man's loud, raspy voice behind me said distinctly, "What happened to Celeste?" I jumped a foot and turned around expecting a practical joking neighbour but I was totally alone, except for 2 ponies who were standing perfectly still, ears pricked forward, staring at something, or someone in the corner that only they could see. They weren't upset. They just looked curious.

I don't know a Celeste. I never have.

A little while after this I was was driving home around 10:30 pm. It was a clear summer night with a bright, almost full moon, the type of night where you hardly need headlights.

He seemed to come from nowhere. He came up out of the ditch and ran across the road in front of the car. My first impression was that he looked like a silhouette, the whole image was charcoal grey, except for his black hat. He wore a box cut jacket with wide stovepipe pants and his hat resembled Abe Lincoln's, only half as tall.

He was running stooped over, with his upper body tilted to about 2:00 and he was running with an odd kind of gait. He was moving with long, exaggerated steps in big, clunky boots, lifting his knees high. Strangely, his head didn't move. It stayed smooth and level in spite of all the movement below.

Then, as I came to a stop, it began to dawn on me that his feet weren't touching the ground.

He reached the ditch on the other side but he didn't go into it. Under my neighbour's dusk to dawn light, he just disappeared.

The next day I was relating my story to an old childhood friend with whom I once shared an incredibly haunted house and who now worked just around the corner. But she didn't have the reaction I expected. In fact she was very quiet and asked me to describe him again. After I did she told me that one of her co-workers had come in that morning in an extremely agitated state, so much so that she went home a short time later. She said wanted to be with her husband. They were both so unnerved that neither of them could work the next day. She told them that as they were driving home the night before, a man ran up out of the ditch, a man who ran bent over with a funny gait, a large square hat, big heavy boots and his feet weren't touching the ground. He ran to the ditch on the other side and then just disappeared.

He came out of the ditch in front of my garage.

Later on that summer I decided to take pictures again because by now I had painted the trim on the house, the flowers were in full bloom and the white fences I had put up for the ponies had transformed the property into a proper little hobby farm. The camera had been sitting on my dresser without batteries for weeks. So I bought new batteries, a new card and went for a walk around the property. I took pictures of the house, the ponies in the paddock, the flowers, the wooded paths. When I downloaded the pictures there were 3 that should not have been there. They came from inside the garage. Two of them not only had the mist, they also showed items I had put in the garage only a few days before, when my camera was sitting on my dresser, with no batteries.

The 3rd picture defies description. At least it has so far. I sent all 3 pictures to a photographer friend of mine but he came back the first time saying he could open the ones of the mist but not the 3rd. When we tried again it came through as a big blur. The next time he replied that it came through but I needed to send him the original, that he couldn't do anything with a copy. I wrote back to say that it was not a copy, and to prove it I downloaded it again from the camera and sent that one. But I got the same answer. It's a copy of a copy. This picture was going nowhere.

So I went online to research paranormal pictures, found a good site and sent them an email about the happenings in the garage, along with the 3 photos. They immediately got back to me to say that the mist pictures were great but they couldn't open the 3rd. Two more attempts and I knew it was a waste of time. However, they asked if the mist seemed to focus on the ponies in any pictures I had taken? The fact is I have more pictures of the ponies inside the barn with the mist than without. In some it is so thick in places you can hardly see the pony. Along with a letter stating they would do nothing with the picture without my permission, they advised me to go into the garage and tell them this personally. Then attach a picture of the ponies with it the next time. So I did as they suggested. It went through perfectly and is now a featured photo on their site.

What is it?

Look and see and you tell me.

Ben

The picture has been examined by many professional photographers and all just shake their heads and say What is it?