Weekend Reflections

After a gray morning, today turned out one of those almost unbelievably crisp and clear and sunny autumn days. I had intended to go into town, but changed my mind, and went for a much longer walk. The long way round, and many photos later, I ended up in the town centre after all.

I just downloaded around 300 pictures from the camera to the computer. 200 from today, the rest from earlier this week. I don’t know where to start! I’m sure not all of them are of blog-worthy quality, but you might be seeing autumn colours on my blogs long after all the leaves have fallen from the trees outside…

I chose some “reflection” pictures for this post.

The first two were taken by a little lake which is a bird sanctuary. (Link goes to a post from last year.)

The third is a mirror reflection of the photographer (i.e. me), in town. The mirrors are on a wall on one side of the river, reflecting the trees in the town park on the other side of the river. So I’m facing the wall and the mirror, and the trees are behind me. (The link goes to a post in my Picture Book back in June, where you can see the whole mirror wall along the promenade.)

Turning around, facing the park, I got the view in the fourth picture.

The last picture was taken from one of the bridges over the river, looking towards another 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…

Walkabout

The other day when passing the park in town, I noticed that the red dress sculpture was missing again. I almost wondered if they had shipped it away to Stockholm after all…

Yesterday, however, I found it again. Outside the library this time. In a yard with gates that can be locked at night.

I was not the only one who had gone looking for it. I heard these people (or possibly some other people) mumble: “Oh there it is… Couldn’t they at least have put up a sign in the park where they had moved it to?!”

To me, the way they are lined up now looks rather like someone said (in a very tired voice): “Oh never mind, just put them down somewhere… We’ll probably soon be moving them about again anyway…”

walkabout

1. Australian A temporary return to traditional Aboriginal life, taken especially between periods of work or residence in modern society and usually involving a period of travel through the bush.

2. A walking trip.

3. Chiefly British A public stroll taken by an important person, such as a monarch, among a group of people for greeting and conversation.

A Sunny Snowy Countryside Walk (2)

Behind the Mill, a path goes on over a small island, embraced by two different arms of the river. We continued our walk across it to the next bridge. The area is a nature reserve. In the summer, the island is a sort of meadow, with quite a few rare plants. This winter, it is a vast white field.

Hopefully the information on this signpost was not too important.

Half way across the island.

The other arm of the river.
This turned out to have its own set of ice formations.

On the other side of the river, the path leads on into the wood.

We did not go further this time, but turned around...

... and walked back towards the Mill.

A Sunny Snowy Countryside Walk (1)

On Sunday, while visiting our Dad, my brother and I went out for a dog-and-camera walk in the afternoon. We were lucky with the weather: Sun shining from a clear blue sky, over vast fields of untouched snow. The snow stays so much cleaner in the countryside than in town!

Usually, it is my brother with the dog, and I with the camera.

It is an even competition who makes more stops:
the dog or the camera.

On rare occasions, the dog and the camera trade places.

The goal for our walk was a nature reserve area at an old mill.

The ice formations at the mill-dam waterfall were amazing.

"Ice pancakes" was my brother's name for these.

. ~ . ~ . ~ .

In another post, I will show some more photos from the little island behind the mill, and the other arm of the river - which turned out to have its own impressive set of ice-art.

I will also be showing photos from this walk at my Picture Book blog this week (starting today).

. ~ . ~ . ~ .

PS 1/ Meanwhile, outside my windows, the sky is all grey and it's snowing again...

PS 2/ This is my second post today. To learn how we celebrate
Fat Tuesday (Mardi Gras / Shrove Tuesday) in Sweden, scroll down!

Walking My Camera

I love autumn leaves

Typical behaviour pattern this September month:
I discovered a letter today that I really should have posted last week, and which my dad really really should have posted two weeks before that; only (besides the fact he has not been able to walk to the mailbox for a long time) he had not even opened and read the letter which the return form came in (when I visited him last weekend); and then I too had too many other things to deal with last week, so forgot about this piece of paper; and only re-found it today... (In the meantime, it is more than likely this delay may have resulted in more correspondence from the same authorities, which most likely will also not have got opened...)

Anyway! Realizing how it was, I decided to go post the letter immediately (better late than never). Then I remembered that this is the week they will be taking down some mailboxes around here, and changing the times for emptying the rest of them... So I might have to go further than usual to find somewhere to post the letter. But since it was an exceptionally bright and clear Autumn day, why not bring my camera along, too, and go for a bit of a walk.

Now, I'm beginning to know where that leads to! Last weekend when my brother and I went on that walk with his dog - a Cairn terrier named Harry - I discovered that for me, my Camera has become my Dog! Harry the terrier runs along happily at good pace, then suddenly stops to sniff at something close to the ground, for quite a long time. Walking with Brother and Dog, I disovered that my own behaviour, when attached to Camera, is very much like Harry's... Suddenly I see a mushroom (or butterfly, depending on the time of year), and I have to stoop down and get a macro close-up shot (although I'm really not very good at stooping down). Harry, by the way, got very curious about my behaviour - whenever I stopped and stooped, he did so, too, to be sure he hadn't missed anything...


Brother and Dog, last weekend

Anyway. Back to today... As I said, I'm beginning to know where it leads to, taking the camera for a walk. I intend it to be a brisk 20 minutes. The camera gets quite other ideas. It's a hunting camera, it will want little flowers, and sun shining through yellow and red autumn leaves, and mirror images in water, and whatnot... So besides the camera, I packed a small thermos of tea, and a banana, or I might faint before I got home again (it was getting close to lunch time).

After posting the letter (hooray, the mailbox closest to me had not been taken down yet! - I only hope they also still empty it...) I walked on to a park with a lake where they also have a bird sanctuary. I walked all around the lake. This took me a very long time, because my camera went wild chasing birds. More than usual of the unusual ones seemed to be outside the fence today...


Couple of Swans

Then something happened that really made today rise way above a "typical" camera walk. A couple of strangers (human, not birds) came up to me and promoted me to wedding photograper! They were newly-weds, coming straight from the ceremony it seemed, for a little romantic walk in the park... I took four shots of them with their camera, which I'm afraid I can't show you. But then I sneaked one shot of them from behind with my own, as they were walking away from me, hand in hand... It's a little blurry, because I forgot to put it back from macro-mode. But quite nice anyway, I think.


Couple of Humans

I got home eventually, after stopping to get a hotdog on the way (tea and banana wasn't quite enough). With about 110 new photos in my camera, all taken today. All in all, in the month of September alone, I've been taking somewhere around 600 photographs. I've gone absolutely Nuts!!! Is there a cure?