I Knew I'd Get In Trouble

I knew I'd get in trouble with my camera one of these days.

This summer I've been walking around town a lot taking photos, and getting more and more unconcerned what people might be thinking about it. It's not unconceivable that behind my back, perhap I'm getting known as "that woman who always stops and stares, apparently for no reason at all" or "you know, the one always waving a camera about even in places were there's nothing really interesting to photograph".

For example, people who rushed by in their cars over the bridge on Sunday morning, probably never even caught a glimpse of those spiderwebs that I was taking dozens of pictures of, walking back and forth on the sidewalk very slowly, stooping down and whatnot.



I'm still hesitant about taking pictures of people in the street. I did take some such pictures at the autumn market, because somehow, on such special occasions, people don't seem to be bothered about it, or even notice. Sometimes, I also try to get shots of people from a distance - like walking away from me. Just to get some sense of motion into the photo. Their backs turned towards me, they don't notice; and it's highly unlikely they would even recognize themselves if they ever came across the picture. Which in turn in itself is extremely unlikely that they ever would since I'm blogging in English and rather anonymously.

Yesterday, not far from where I live, I stopped in the street and got the camera out to get a shot of the continued autumn colour change in the treetops. I did not even really notice there were people further down the street, until after I put the camera back in its bag. Then I heard and saw them, a bunch of school boys occupying the whole sidewalk, shouting rather loudly to one another. I crossed the street over to the other sidewalk - still at quite a distance from them. Then as they approached, suddenly one of them called out - surprisingly polite, considering the language they had just been using towards each other:

- Excuse me!
I wasn't looking at him, and at first did not get that he was talking to me, across the street. He repeated:
- Excuse me!
- Yes? said I, turning towards him, thinking maybe he wanted to ask the time or something.
- Were you taking pictures of us? (suspicious tone of voice)
- No, said I, surprised (and hoping to myself I was telling the truth).
- But you had your camera out just now! (still suspicious)
- Oh... Just the trees... said I, with a very vague wave of my hand towards the distant treetops... and feeling very stupid, because the view was not really all that obviously stunning and worth taking photos of!

By then I sort of half expected having to clear the memory of my camera on spot, under supervision of half a dozen nearly-teenage-boys...

But astonishingly, all I got back was an "oh" and a shrug.
And they continued their way, and I mine, in peace...

When I got home, I checked my camera.
The boys were not in the picture.
Relief for my conscience!

But perhaps I'd better check the surroundings as well as my "focus" next time, before taking pictures in strange places... Or I might end up arrested for suspicious behaviour or something!
 

Quotation of the Week 43/09 - Acts of kindness

Acts of kindness, like breadcrumbs in a fairytale forest
Lead us past dangers as light melts the darkness
...
Acts of kindness, like rain in a draught,
release the spirit with a whoop and a shout.
...

From the song I don't believe by Paul Simon (Surprise, 2006)
Read the full text at http://www.paulsimon.com/node/229
(And don't be deceived by the title!)
...

During the last week I have been in mood for this CD, Paul Simon's Surprise, and played it several times. By now faithful readers of this blog know that I'm a Paul Simon fan ever since my teens. I have quoted other lyrics of his previously, I think even from this album. Today, listening again, it was the words above that "popped out" to me. However, the lyrics in full are also worth pondering over. The song is entitled I don't believe. Much too often when someone utters those words, we kind of take for granted that we understand what that means. Instead of taking the trouble to ask: What exactly is it that you don't believe?

Leisure

Earlier this week, GB at Eagleton Notes had a post about making time to "stop and stare". He also referred back to an earlier post in which he included in full the poem from which that expression comes - Leisure, by W H Davies. I liked that poem so much that I printed it out. I'd also like to repeat it here:

What is this life if, full of care,
We have no time to stand and stare.


No time to stand beneath the boughs
And stare as long as sheep or cows.


No time to see, when woods we pass,
Where squirrels hide their nuts in grass.


No time to see, in broad daylight,
Streams full of stars, like skies at night.


No time to turn at Beauty's glance,
And watch her feet, how they can dance.


No time to wait till her mouth can
Enrich that smile her eyes began.


A poor life this if, full of care,
We have no time to stand and stare.

This morning, I went for a walk. My plan was to go for a stroll first, and on the way back pop in at the supermarket to pick up a few things. I'm a town girl, and going to the supermarket on a Sunday doesn't usually bother me, if it happens to be practical...

But today, Nature overwhelmed me with the most spectacular show I think I ever saw. I had to stop and stare!!! I'll pay my respects to the supermarket another day. Today, by the time I got as far as that place on my walk, I could no longer bring myself to break the atmosphere of tranquility and beauty by going in there. It would actually have felt like a sacrilege...

First, there was the morning mist on the river, lifting gently...





... revealing the whole bridge railing full of spiderwebs, a long row of them, one after the other, dew drops making them look like jewellery in the low morning sunlight...








So I passed the supermarket, without going in.

Instead I turned around, and went back again along the river...

Then, under the high alder trees, suddenly there was the song and dance of hundreds of birds, high up among the branches and leaves...



They were much too high up to let me identify them properly, or catch them with the camera... They were quite small. The ones I caught a glimpse of looked like great tits. This surprised me though, because those usually stay here for the winter. At least we see some of them then, too. But I've never, at any time of the year, seen like a hundred or more of them together before, behaving like this.The overwhelming impression was a concert of praise and excitement, like a last gathering and rejoicing over the autumn colours, before leaving to go south for the winter. I have never seen anything like it. I have never heard anything like it. They were fluttering about all the time. At the same time, leaves were dropping from the trees. Sometimes, you could not distinguish whether that yellowish thing headed towards the ground was a leaf or a bird.

Again, I stopped for a long, long time and just stared!
Finally I went home, because my feet were getting cold from all the standing still...



At home, I looked up the great tit  (Parus major) in my bird book. It says most of them stay here over winter. But some do leave, "especially certain years"... because of lack of food. Made me wonder if it was that slush-attack the day before yesterday that made them decide to leave! Or if they can sense in other ways that it is going to be a bad winter...? Anyway, it was a really impressive farewell-concert...

More pictures from today's walk in my Picture Book. I took I-know-not-how-many photos of the spider webs, because it was hard to determine how they would actually come out...! More might be coming up in future posts...

Raven's Wordzzle Challenge #85

I apologize for last week's absence from the Wordzzle. I was too distracted by other things to be able to focus. Now I'm back to tackle my own words... They seemed pretty good to me when I sent them to Raven a couple of weeks ago. Now suddenly they seemed not so easy at all...!

Raven's Wordzzle # 85
early morning light, Pinocchio, mist, leaves, sandy, coffee, walking, traffic, pray, stomach,
train, art, admirable, cotton, fluffy

The Slumber Party Mystery
Chapter 32 - Distractions

Much to his own surprise, while having coffee with Diana in the hospital cafeteria, Skittles found himself telling her all sorts of things about his own past rather than taking the opportunity to ask her some questions that had been on his mind since the previous day, about "the case". In fact, he was starting to wonder if there was "a case".

"John," said Diana – because he had just told her his first name – "I think I'll skip my bowling appointment, I'm late for it already. Won't you come with me to the art museum instead? They have a painting on show that I'm just dying to see. A friend told me it's so spectacular it makes you want to pray.You don't mind walking a bit, do you? There is so much traffic." She didn't really wait for Skittles' reply, but went on: "I'll just go and put my bowling bag in a locker here, and make a quick phone call to Sandy, that's my bowling friend. See you in a minute!"

Skittles watched her walk off. She was wearing a blue cotton dress today. He had a curious fluffy sensation in his stomach and was not quite sure if that was the heavy piece of cheese cake he had just been eating, or possibly something quite different.

An hour later, they were standing in front of a huge painting entitled "Pinocchio waiting for the train in early morning light and mist among the falling leaves".

"Well, what do you think?" said Diana. "Is that an admirable piece of art or what?!"

Skittles really thought that "or what" would be the more accurate answer – but nodded, and tried to look as if he understood these things. He had never set foot in a modern art museum before in his life.

Slush

This was the sight that met my eye when looking out from my windows this morning.



I do not rejoice. It is not really snow - it is pure slush. Icy cold and somehow even wetter than rain. There is no proper footwear that will hold against it and still keep your feet warm. It does its best to kill what was left of the glorious colours of autumn. It tells you that gloomy November is on its way...



See more photos from today here in my Picture Book.

The Honest Scrap Award, with and without Stipulations

It has happened again: I've been honoured with an Award!

I think it is the third, and I never quite know what to do with them.

The first one I accepted gratefully, but could not fulfill the attached rules, because I was still fluttering about almost by myself out in the vast cyberspace, not having anyone to pass it on to. I made another promise instead, which I have kept. You can read about that here. I said I would continue to explore the blogworld and hopefully make some new friends. I did, and I have!!!

Since then, I've seen other awards floating about, and I have also gathered that some people just love awards, while others have quickly grown heartily tired of the vast set of rules they usually come with.

The next award that came my way I also appreciated because of the giver and the motivation, but I decided not to send it on, because again, I found I got stuck on the to-do-list that came with it. And in connection with that, I also sort of made a promise, that if I ever gave away an award, it would be without to-do-list.

Then, the other day, when I looked in at Rae's Us in Tejas blog, I found myself on her list of recipients of the Honest Scrap Award. The way she describes it, I understand this to be pretty much the blogworld's equivalent to the Nobel Prize, and that of course makes me extremely proud to be nominated for it - and especially by Rae, who is a truly worthy recipient of that award herself. I'd have sent it right back to her if she hadn't already just received it.

However. This award too came with a whole bunch of Stipulations. (Rae's excellent wordchoice, but I added the capital S to make it look even more impressive.) Rather time-consuming ones, too. This requires some thinking! Especially since it is the Honest Scrap Award, and I have recently been having very serious conversations with blogfriends about honesty and promises. Not connected to blog awards, but still!

My decision: I will gratefully accept the award from Rae, because I feel very honoured to have her as a faithful follower of my blog; and because she used the word Stipulations instead of Rules! I will also more or less follow the Stipulations for my own part. I.e. visit the blogs of the other people she chose to give this award to; choose seven new recipients of my own; and share ten things about myself. But: When I send it on, I will make the Stipulations entirely volontary for those friends. They have so totally already earned it, without having to work extra for it. I think that is the best compromise I can arrive at.

Most of you know some of the others already so the checking-each-other-out part might not be too overwhelming. Come back another day if it doesn't suit you right now. The list will still be here. What you choose to do with the award itself after looking at it, that I leave up to you!!!  Here it is:

Ahem... Silence please... My announcement:
I hereby present the Honest Scrap Award to the following people:

To Rose-Anne at Welcome to My World (who likes awards), because it was she who got me blogging in the first place. In Rose-Anne's world, you'll find some honest scrap-booking.

To Scriptor Senex for his Words, Words, Words and Phrases blog, containing scraps of interesting information about obscure words and phrases in the English language. (This blog however is only one in a long list of enjoyable blogs by same author.)

To GB at Eagleton Notes, because his very honest blogposts and comments marked by British humour always make me smile and sometimes laugh. If you don't find him at home there, try his New Zealand blog, because he is about to travel again soon.

To Dan at Wood and Pixels Narratives for his striking pictures, thoughtful reflections and steadfast faithfulness in encouraging and keeping up an honest dialogue with other bloggers (me included).

To Simply Heather, especially for hosting  the Soaring through the world in pictures blog, "where people become friends, as they share their findings with each other". Heather is the honest wonderwoman in the background who takes care of all those little details that make it all the easier for the rest of us. (Layout and such.)

To Raven at Raven's Nest for keeping up her weekly Saturday Wordzzle Challenge in spite of all the chaos going on in her house lately. She keeps her participants constantly torn between despair and inspiration in our efforts to make sense of those impossible word combinations. She is also a very honest blogger.

To the Dragons at Dragon's Lair who mysteriously also always keep watch over the Wordzzles and give astonishing insights into the world of Dragons. Did you know for example that Dragons can write poetry in imitation of classic poets? Dragons are also very honest in their opinions about humans. I'm not quite sure how they stand on accepting awards from us, unless the awards are edible. Maybe I'll find out.

To Dr John at Dr John's Fortress (who I know does not like awards with Stipulations attached), for his surprising combination of very honest sermons vs. enjoyable crazyness in his fiction.

Now the reader who has been paying attention will shout: HEY! That's eight, not seven! Well, since I'm not sure whether dragons really want to be counted as people, I found it best to be on the safe side!

Now, here are my ten facts about myself. Actually you will find more than the stipulated number here too. I thought I had better try and make up somehow for all my other Stipulation-breaking.
At the age of 5, I liked to draw pictures. Also periodically later in life.
At the age of 10, I liked to read Enid Blyton. I have enjoyed almost any book with a secret passage in it ever since.
At the age of 15, I was madly in love with Simon and Garfunkel. Still am. I also thought I was one day going to be a librarian. That plan changed.
At the age of 20, I moved away from home to another town to study, joined a gospel choir, made some wonderful friends (quite a few of them I still count as friends 34 years later) and generally led a very intense life with a lot of fun. (Looking back, I don't understand when I found the time to actually study.)
At the age of 25, I was working as secretary for the executive manager of firm of consultants within the paper industry branch; and some of my spare time was devoted to a Christian book-café.
At the age of 30, I had completed another three years of university studies (English and German), moved to the town where I still live, tried to earn a living as a substitute teacher, lived in a sort of Christian community (15 or more separate families/households but with a lot of common acitivities and interaction) and again made some wonderful friends who I still count as friends 24 years later (although we no longer live so close).
At the age of 35, I had given up my teaching career (chiefly because it got too stressful when I could not find a full time job in one place) and was working as medical secretary at an occupational therapy unit.
At the age of 40, I was still in the same job (with proper medical secretary qualification added) but in a different church (and also 4 years of part time academic theology studies added). I celebrated my birthday "big" (well, sort of) with family and friends from both the past and the present.
At the age of 45, I had an unfortunate kind of accident at work in which I pulled a muscle or two rather more seriously than it seemed at first, and ended up with chronic neck-shoulder-arm pain problems. That turned most of my life as I knew it before pretty much upside-down, and not in a good way.
At the age of 50, I had been in early retirement for a while already. I was not really in the mood to celebrate my 50th birthday at all. But then I was invited to spend it with a group of friends from 30 years back, in the town where I lived back then; and still having them as friends did feel worth celebrating!
Since last summer, I have moved to a new flat, both my parents' health deteriorated seriously last autumn, and my mother died at the end of May this year. In the midst of all, in January, I entered the Blogworld. And somehow gradually found all the above Honest Scrap Award-worthy people, "and then some".

Friends - this blogpost took me three days to write.
I did feel inspired to write it, or I wouldn't have made the effort.
But I honestly don't think awards should come with Stipulations.
Only pick those up if you feel really inspired to.

Myself, I'm going to put this award in my sidebar. I worked hard for it. I still haven't checked out all of Rae's friends (now wasn't that an honest confession to end with!), but I'll get round to that.

An Artistic Experiment

Today I left my camera at home when I went into town to post a letter and pick up some groceries. I've grown so used to bringing it with me lately that now I feel like I've forgotten something when I do not have it with me, even when I left it at home on purpose!

I've taken so many photos these past colourful autumn weeks... This one, I played around with quite a bit in PaintShopPro9, and was pleased with the water-colour-ish result!