Ten Minutes From Home

Advent Calendar / 10 December

… and also my post for: Friday My Town Shoot Out

“The theme for December 10th is a little different than what we are used to. 10 Minutes from Home. You can travel any way you would like, just let us know how you ended up 10 minutes from home. Walking, bike, drive a car, maybe ride a horse! --- After you get 10 minutes from home, show us what is there. So, in a way, this is a mystery for all of us!”

 

Unfortunately, 10 minutes walk in winter snow does not bring me quite as far as 10 minutes walk in the summer usually does. In the summer, I think 10 minutes would be enough to get me all the way into the little park beyond the white house on the left – the park I call my Butterfly Park.

This week (7 December) this was as far as I got in that direction in 10 minutes. Looking around, my eyes also fell on this snowy bike:

I’m  sure it must be the same bike took a photo of last winter?! (More accurately: less than ten months ago.)

 

Has there really been a summer in between?
Or was that just a dream…?

Now Covered In White

Advent Calendar / 3 December

Now covered in white
are the paths I used to walk
watching butterflies

The Road Not Taken

 

The Road Not Taken

by Robert Frost

Two roads diverged in a yellow wood,
And sorry I could not travel both
And be one traveler, long I stood
And looked down one as far as I could
To where it bent in the undergrowth;

Then took the other, as just as fair,
And having perhaps the better claim,
Because it was grassy and wanted wear;
Though as for that the passing there
Had worn them really about the same,

And both that morning equally lay
In leaves no step had trodden black.
Oh, I kept the first for another day!
Yet knowing how way leads on to way,
I doubted if I should ever come back.

I shall be telling this with a sigh
Somewhere ages and ages hence:
Two roads diverged in a wood, and I -
I took the one less traveled by,
And that has made all the difference.

---

Mountain Interval.  1920.

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The author Paulo Coelho had this poem by Robert Frost on his blog the other day (but with a different picture). On Facebook, Coelho added the comment: “ALWAYS chose the road less taken”.

Reading the poem, though, I felt less sure whether that was also Frost’s decided opinion? I searched a bit more, and then found this note:

Robert Frost on his own poetry:
"One stanza of 'The Road Not Taken' was written while I was sitting on a sofa in the middle of England: Was found three or four years later, and I couldn't bear not to finish it. I wasn't thinking about myself there, but about a friend who had gone off to war, a person who, whichever road he went, would be sorry he didn't go the other. He was hard on himself that way."
Bread Loaf Writers' Conference, 23 Aug. 1953

---

I too know people who are hard on themselves that way. Occasionally perhaps I also tend to be a bit hard on myself that way. But most of the time I try to tell myself that not all choices are as clear as being a choice between “right” vs “wrong”. Sometimes… we just have to choose a road and see where it takes us.

---

Look closely at the pictures at the top. Which one do you like better? Actually, one is the mirror image of the other, before I framed them (in Paint Shop). You’d have to know the spot where the photo was taken, I think, to tell which is the “right” one.   

 

 

Walk With Me

Autumn is upon us. Every day now the colours in the trees are changing, and leaves beginning to drop…

I was almost tempted to leave the camera at home as I walked into town today… Thinking: I’ve been walking these streets for over a year now with my camera. There is nothing new to take photographs of.

But the thing is, with the camera I see things I might otherwise just have walked past and paid no attention to, or forgotten as soon as I had passed. 

 

Like a miniature spider web on top of the stone wall.

Like the graceful shadow of a branch on an ugly concrete wall holding up the motorway.

Like the unexpected muffin (!) left behind on a stone wall in a church yard, to the delight of some very small black ants.

Like a Limousine parked in a street (arousing the curiosity of a lot of people on the other sidewalk – I actually noticed the crowd before I noticed what they were all looking at!)

Like a lot of other people running around town with their cameras, too (I think there must have been some sort of photo contest going on because most of the people with camera – except me! - were also holding on to a piece of yellow paper).

Like a beautiful flower arrangement on the wall next to a jeweler’s shop.

And without the camera, I would probably never have bothered going up to the top of the hill in the park

… just to look down!

To finish off, here’s the main reason why I went into town in the first place:

I needed a new pair of walking shoes…

Unpredictable

The weather forecasts for Tuesday predicted thunder and lightning and torrential rain and floods and all kinds of disaster to fall upon us in the afternoon. The morning papers even had big black headlines telling people to stay in if they could….

Pfft… Again, a few drops of rain was all that came. Not even much wind involved. There was a certain drop in temperature though. So there probably was thunder somewhere in our oblong country. But not here.

Yesterday by noon the sun was blazing and doing its best to heat things up again.

Dad was moved from the hospital to a short-stay nursing home on Monday, and my brother is staying at the house (in the countryside) for a few days. Yesterday we both went to see dad and to talk to staff at the nursing home. Seemed as good as can be expected from a short-stay place and dad seemed to be “accepting” the situation as well, even though having no real concept of where he was. He was able to answer some questions about himself from the past quite adequately though. It’s when we get to the last few years that it gets confused.

Afterwards my brother and I went into town for lunch – at the restaurant in the background of this picture. (I’ve blogged photos of it before – it’s the one with the outdoors chrystal chadeliers.)

In spite of frequent visits to this town and neighbourhood all through his life (we did not grow up here, but our grandparents lived here, later I came to live here, and our parents moved back when dad retired), my brother has spent very little time on foot in the actual town centre. I thought it was about time for a bit of an update! So we parked on the other side of the park and walked across to the restaurant. I love walking through the park, it’s one of my favourite places.

Flowerbeds being watered in the park. 

Today again it seems we’re in for a bit of more unpredictable weather. (Thunder?) Planning to spend most of the day at dad’s house so better get a move on…

A Nearly Perfect Summer Day

 

Lilacs (Syringa)

Lilacs for me are connected with the end of the school year, more than any other flower, ever since my childhood. (Because they usually bloom around this time.)

Today was a perfect summer day for all students celebrating the end of the school year and the start of their summer holidays: The sun shining all day from a clear blue sky, and still not too hot – just over 20°C, and with a nice fresh summer breeze.

Before noon I walked into town to get some groceries. When I got home (by bus, because of then having things to carry) I made a salad for lunch and was able to eat it sitting outside on the balcony. In fact I spent most of the afternoon on the balcony, reading, doing a soduko and listening to mp3/radio (using earphones).

 

 

I did not need to use my mp3-player all the time to shut out noise though. It was a quiet kind of day in the neighbourhood. I was also able in between to just listen to the gulls in the sky above, and the wind rustling the leaves of the trees nearby… Relaxing summery sounds.

My clematis plant (photo taken a couple a weeks ago; the flowers are withering now)

Later on I went for short walk just “around the block” (well, a few blocks). Spring was late this year, and we’re still really only just on the verge of entering into summer. There is still a freshness about all the greenery; and a lot of trees still in bloom.

Horse Chestnut
(Aesculus Hippocastanum)

In July it will be two years since I moved to where I live now (this apartment/ building/ part of town). Last spring and early summer was somewhat chaotic, connected to the death of my mother at the end of May last year. But this spring, I’ve been able to pay a bit more attention to my surroundings. Like how many different kinds of flowering trees are actually planted in the park-like area around these apartment buildings.

Crab apple tree (Malus)

From my kitchen window, I can see a horse-chestnut tree, a rowan tree, Swedish whitebeam, and lilacs, all blossoming right now. (Plus a number of “anonymous” trees in the background.) When I go outside, there are also Japanese cherry blossom and crab apple trees, as well as tall birches and lime trees (linden) and maples; and probably several other kinds of trees that I’m not able to identify.

 

Even if I knew that tomorrow the world would go to pieces, I would still plant my apple tree.
~Martin Luther~

Frogs Going AWOL

 

Guess what? Someone decided to “set the frogs free” and throw them in the river…

… and, to quote Alice in Wonderland, that dress is looking “curiouser and curiouser”…!

I read about it in the paper again this morning. As I was going into town later I decided to walk by the park and have a look at the damage with my own camera eye. No kids climbing on the statues today (well, if nothing else that will be harder to do with half the frogs gone). But there was a man circling around them as I approached. I’m pretty sure it was the art museum manager (his picture was in the newspaper the other day). I waited until he left to take out my camera…

In today’s paper they interviewed someone from the Town Culture Committee. He says: “We have to ask ourselves if this kind of sculpture should be put in a place like this. Maybe something a bit more solid would be better...” 

Again… excuse me, but… Duh!

By now I’m interested to see if any of the sculptures will still be left in the park on Friday, when the official opening of the sculpture festival is supposed to take place.

---

Previous posts about these sculptures: 
1. A Dog May Look At A Frog
2. Biting The Grass

Biting the Grass

  *

I promise, I had nothing to do with it!

When I opened the morning paper today, there they were again – the sculptures that I had pre-scheduled a post about for my blog today. If you did not already read that, please do so before you continue. 

The night between Thursday and Friday, someone pushed the red poodle over, and it lost its head. I cannot say I’m surprised. I saw “concerned parents” in the park earlier in the week testing the stability of the giant dogs before letting (or not letting) their children climb up and ride them. Watching, I thought to myself: I wonder how long they’ll remain upright?

The only really astonishing thing about the article is the interview with the manager of the art museum. He is Upset with People. He says Parents must act Responsible and not let their children climb Valuable Sculptures. He also says the sculptures are placed too close to the playground in the park! Excuse me… Who exactly was it decided where to put them…???

  *

It might also be noted that there is no sign about that actually forbids climbing the statues. A sign of course would not stop the children; but just possibly might be of help to some responsible adults. (I swear that passing by, I’ve heard parents expressing concerned doubts: “I’m not sure you’re really supposed to…”)

It cannot really be a big surprise to anyone that children like to climb things like these; nor that drunken teens might find it a challenge to try their strength on them. Another sculpture was pushed into the river two years ago.

Not that there should be drunken teens in the park at night, but we all know there are:

 

“Morning after” evidence from another weekend.

Anyways. The headless poodle (also missing its tail) has been taken away for repair, “and I’m not sure if we’re going to put it back”, says the sulking manager of the art museum.

I’m just a little bit annoyed with myself for not also getting a photo of the poodle from behind, before it lost its tail. I’m not sure what that looked like…

Eeyore and his lost tail (web image).

*The first two photos are from the web edition of the newspaper.

A Dog May Look At A Frog

 

“A cat may look at a king”

This English proverb dates back to the 16th century and indicates an impertinent remark by an inferior or upstart. It means that an inferior isn't completely restricted in what they may do in the presence of a superior.

The distorted version came to mind for me when contemplating some pictures that I took in our town park earlier in the week.

The town is having a sculpture festival this summer, and preparations have begun. We had some borrowed statues last year too, some of which I quite enjoyed. But the ones I’ve seen so far this year… Hmm…

Okay. We are approaching the end of the school year. High school students are looking forward to their proms. Girls will be dreaming of fancy dresses of a kind they would never wear on any other occasion. They might even be dreaming of that frog of a boyfriend turning into a prince…

 

Did you think the decorations on that red dress were pretty bows?

On closer look, you can kiss that idea goodbye!

The froggy dress is not just standing there on its own, either.

It’s accompanied by giant watchdogs.

Red poodle, the size of a horse.

 

Blue scary dog, don’t ask me its name.

Red twin of the blue one – having caught sight of something…

A small blue human frog trying to use the red ones as climbing wall!

Turned out (as so often) that climbing up was much easier than getting down again. Didn’t get a picture of that, but mummy had to come to the rescue…!

The sculptures work as magnets on little children. What do you mean, just look?! Obviously anything this colourful is meant to be climbed…! 

I probably take a boring grown-up view on this, but I hope the Town does not get ideas about keeping these ones permanently - at least not in the spot where they are now.

I like our town park. It’s got beautiful trees and flowerbeds. There are also sculptures in it since before which I actually like.

This one had to move to give room for the new ones. I have no complaints about that, though - I think they found a good spot for it.

But the red and blue ones… make me think of “the stuff nightmares are made of”…!

‘Fly, fly! About with your ship and fly! Row, row for your lives away from this accursed shore. --- This is the Island where Dreams come true --- Not daydreams: dreams.'

C.S. Lewis, The Voyage of the Dawn Treader
(Chapter 12: The Dark Island)

One for GB

Just before I went out for a walk today, I was reading GB's post on his last croquet tournament for the season in New Zealand.

In a park not very far from where I live there is a croquet lawn. I only know that because there is a sign that says so. During the two years I've lived in this neighbourhood I never saw anyone use this lawn to actually play croquet. Once last summer I saw a man mowing it, but that's all the activity I've ever seen there. Until today!  (a beautiful spring day)

So I'm posting the pictures of this very special sign of spring for you, my friend - with congratulations!