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…

Walking Into the Future

I'm feeling relieved just being able to go for a walk again, without having to keep my eyes fixed on the ground every step of the way to watch out carefully exactly where I put my feet.

Even the withered remains of last year's verdure are a welcome sight as they turn up again from under the snow.



Have to steel myself against the curious looks from passers-by, though. What on earth is that crazy woman with the camera finding so interesting about the old stone wall surrounding the cemetery?

Pedestrian Problems

Choosing some pictures today to give you an idea of the snow problems from pedestrian point of view. Here and there you do find a nicely ploughed sidewalk, going on for a bit - until...



... it suddenly stops! In this street corner, someone pushing a walker or pram or wheelchair, or for other reasons unable to "climb", just wouldn't get any further!



A pedestrian crossing over a heavily trafficated road - but if you manage to get across... surprise, surprise... you'll just find yourself facing another wall of snow, with nowhere to go!

Perspective Matters

Last Tuesday, I wrote a post about Walking My Camera, and coming home with a lot of pictures. I only showed you a few of them, though. Now I'm going to take you on a walk with me around the same lake, where there is also a bird sanctuary. The reason for this is that besides some unusual birds (which I don't have the names for) I also at one point had a very surprising sight of something completely different. For a moment, I almost thought Aliens had landed - and then I'm not talking birds! The Thing was Huge, and because of that there were two things about it that surprised me: One was that I had not seen It the last time I walked around the same lake only a few weeks earlier. The other strange thing was that only a moment after I saw It this time, It was out of sight again, and did not reappear.


We start from the south end of the lake, and walk north along the west side.


12:11 Here are some birds I don't know the name of.



12:13 Approaching bird sanctuary.



12:15 Black swans are not a common sight.



Some birds are kept within fence.



12:27 The north end of the lake.



12:36 Now we're on the east side looking back across the lake at the sanctuary.



12:38 Further away from the sanctuary.



12:40 Further still. All peaceful and quiet.
12:45 Next time I turn round to look back, there It is:



A few more steps... And It was out of sight again! Spooky.



12:48 Back at the south end of the lake. No It in sight!

Of course It is no space ship, even if it does seem rather 'alien' in these idyllic surroundings... The only reason for UFOs entering my mind in connection with It was really a recent discussion with someone... ;) It is here to stay, because It is part of a new district heating power plant, at quite a distance from this idyllic lake. And only visible from a certain point of view, if you walk around the lake anti-clockwise. Last time, just like now, I walked round clockwise; and then you don't see It at all, unless - like I did now - you happen to turn around and look back at exactly the right (or wrong) spot!

Walking - Far, Long and High!

Yesterday, I went too far. Or walked too far. Or too long... Whatever. It got a bit too much, anyway. It's still a delicate balance between exercise and over-exertion, with my neck problems...

Today I've tried to make up for it by staying in, and even on top of my bed a good part of the day. Heavy rain outside seemed to support an indoors day, too... However, I did go out for a very short walk to a shoe shop nearby - to buy myself a pair of expensive, but hopefully better walking shoes... (The very ones in the picture above.)




Both GB and Scriptor recently posted pictures of a statue called Dream, which I gather is 20 metres high. That beats the biggest one I have to offer with more than 100%. It's still kind of impressive, though, this 9 m high statue by American artist Jim Dine. It's called Walking to...  (google and thou shalt find) There was more debate about him before his arrival, than there is now. Both the size of him and his lack of any connection whatsoever with the place where he stands were much discussed. Why Pinocchio? Why Jim Dine? Why Disney? But he's been there a while now and we're kind of getting used to him...