My Neck of the Woods

For the past few weeks my life has fallen into a pattern. When the weather is good, it can be quite positive. When the weather is not so good, it's rather problematic. I guess when I was a kid I had slightly different ideas about things. I remember a time when I was ALWAYS hot. Mom had to put a limit on when I could wear shorts. I would eagerly check when the thermometer when I was languishing in the heat, only to be disappointed that it was not yet 72 degrees, and therefore shorts were a no go. But since my back breaking experience in 1992, my life changed to where I was far more likely to be cold, and my real love of the sun grew and grew.
All the same, I've been outside for several hours, rain or shine, reading or writing in my journal. I've definitely made up for all the time that I was missing out on reading during this year, and have already finished two books, with a third (over 600 pages long) almost finished as well. While I know I should really be working on my own writing (and have written more than 30 pages on a story myself thus far) it's been great to let myself escape into the stories of others, getting a feel for different styles of literature. The three books I've read, The Devil Wears Prada by Lauren Weisberger, Five Red Herrings by Dorothy L Sayers, and now Firefly Summer by Maeve Binchy, are all very different in style and character development which really helps me to come up with new ideas for what I'm working on.
Anyhow, yesterday, when I was on my way home, I was suddenly inspired to start taking some pictures. So here is a little glimpse into the places I've been wandering on a daily basis.


Both of the benches here are ones I've sat on for my little reading writing times.


There are a couple of different Colonnades here in town. On days when the weather is quite rainy I spend a lot of time here in this one. There are some benches under the roof, and not usually very many people, so it works out nicely. And right now the flowers are particularly lovely. I'll admit, I went a little silly and took some self portraits as well. Yes, I'm still a poser.



From here I wandered down the path toward home. As I've said before there are a lot of springs here. I wanted to get a picture of these little stairs down to the spring, but had to walk on slippery stones across the creek to get there. I was a bit nervous about the way, but managed not to slip and drop my camera. It amused the little old lady walking by with her dogs.

I also decided to enjoy one of the springs. I can't say I'm a huge fan of the water, but I do try on occasion for my health and all :)




And then I continued along and took a few more as I left the park.


This next one I took for Julie, even though I'm not sure she ever checks my blog. Mom, you might have to make sure she gets a load of this one, seeing as how she loves that green glimmer on a gray rainy day...
These last two are from the way up to the house once I come out of the park. I'm always intrigued by the mirrors, and I love the name of the street because it's the same as my birthday ;) Kinda nice having my birthday be a national Czech holiday as well as a common street name!

So I hope you've enjoyed this little drift with me...and I'm definitely hoping the sun comes back by the weekend as the internet so sweetly promised me this morning...