Took a walk downtown

This morning I took a walk downtown in the sunshine.


There's an attractive café on the corner of Broadway, and the tables are usually occupied. But I was walking quite early, when the tables looked very cheerful with just the morning sunshine for company.

The Broadtop shopping centre used to be full of quite 'mainstream' shops, but now has more secondhand and alternative type shops. I quite like the suburban, laid-back vibe.

 The light was at 'different' angles at this hour, and I liked the way it caught the lines at the entrance to St Pat's.

Finally I reached the Square, and there were tables and chairs galore for me to choose from: I should have taken a picnic brunch...

Calm before the storm

We have been promised a 'weather bomb' in the coming hours, so I decided I should get out and walkabout this morning while I still could- so here are a few 'bits and pieces' from along Turitea Walkway.

We have a series of quite interesting drain covers here in Palmy, that show some of our native stream fauna and flora:- this 'brown mudfish' cover was over a storm water drain near the bridge where I parked.

Near the Turitea Stream they had been renewing a bit of the track where some of the path had slipped away into the stream- and I found the cut surface of this felled tree trunk quite beautiful.

I always love catching sight of the light on drops of water, and mostly I see it on spiderwebs or plants. But on the ground this morning I caught sight of a gleam from the ground at my feet, and there were droplets on some fallen cicada wings.

It was eerily calm this morning- definitely the calm before a storm. And in a more northerly direction looking towards the ranges, the sky definitely had that weird pre-storm appearance.

 But looking in a more southeast direction, the sky still looked more blue and less threatening...

 I am becoming very conscious these days that my 'training' time is drawing to a close, and in less than six weeks I will be heading off to France for some much more intensive walking. And somehow that makes me more conscious of 'local' signs here at home. When I walked in France and Spain last time, I became quite intrigued by taking photos of signs, so much so that I 'stopped myself' from taking such a 'ridiculous' number of them. But I actually really like looking at photos of signs later on- they tell such a very regional story. I will be sure to take plenty of them this time, without censoring myself!

As I neared Old West Rd and came to this pond, the whole scene looked so peaceful and calm in this direction, almost like a summer's day.

On the path heading down to the pond, I was intrigued by the shadows of the fenceposts, so took this photo. But once I downloaded it back at home, I realised this photo showed the steepness of the path very well. I have been struggling with how to show 'steepness' in photos, and perhaps this is the simple answer- to show the scene from the top rather than the bottom! Then I will be able to 'prove' to friends and family how 'arduous' parts of my walking was when I get home from France!

Summer has come to an end, and it seems like there are many spider-nests like this one on some bushes. I especially liked seeing this one today. The gorse bush with its sharp spines is an invader into our landscape that is not well loved. But it has been found to provide a 'nursery' for native plants re-establishing themselves- and here it allows a spider to make a 'nursery'. I find the contrast between the sharp spines and the nursery to be an appealing idea...

Well, those are a few tidbits from this morning's walk. Now I guess we will wait and see how bad the promised 'weather bomb' gets overnight and in the morning.

330: peaceful spot

A peaceful spot beside the stream, along the Turitea Walkway. 

I'd been walking just over two hours before I arrived here, and this was a great spot to have a drink of water and an orange, before climbing back up the hill to where my car was parked.

326: another spiderweb

I used to think that I could only capture a photo of a spiderweb on a wet day when it was outlined with raindrops. But I have discovered recently that late in the day, when the sun's angle is low, spiderwebs hidden amongst the leaves of trees or shrubs might reflect back some of the sunlight that is falling on them...

304: spiderweb in sunlight

I have taken photos of spiderwebs before, but usually outlined by raindrops. I was delighted to get this shot this afternoon, outlined by the sunlight.

245: afternoon shadows

 There are some interesting shadows late in the afternoons at present...

238: Square Sunset

The sun was setting when I arrived at the Square, camera-in-hand, to look for today's 365 shot. It was a lucky coincidence that, for a few minutes, the colours of the clocktower lights matched the sunset colours in the sky. A few minutes to enjoy an unexpected bit of beauty.

234: bike shed shadows

 

This pattern of shadows in the bike shed at school caught my eye late afternoon.

210: winter church

Doing the 365 project this year has made me 'look' at all kinds of things more closely. I have come to notice how the intensity, colour and angle of light changes on some of the buildings around town. The late afternoon 'colour' of the light on this local church has changed markedly since summer, and I seem to remember that fewer 'faces' of the building saw the summer sun. But I will have to keep watching when summer comes around again to see if I am right...

132: Cyclamens

I live in a 'simple' ex-state house. Some people look at the outside of these homes and see them as boring boxes. But these homes were built in the 1940s of sturdy materials, and they were built for the light. In the colder months, the sunlight strikes into the kitchen first, then moves around into the lounge, and finally strikes the bedrooms in the afternoons.
It happened that the morning I looked at this house, early one June, the sun was streaming into the kitchen even more so than in this morning's photo. I loved the light, and promptly bought the house....

131: Morning Light

a school fitness trail, early morning

One  of the things I love about mornings in late autumn is the gentle quality of the light. And it is angled low, casting interesting shadows.