“Remoted – Hybrid” – Day 805 (Monday) – walks and photos

Pine cone bounty.

Today saw minor personal victories, including actually getting outside for a break during the workday. It was sunny with a light breeze and the temperature was 71 comfortable and seasonal degrees. 

I took a left out of the bank, and headed down the walkway along the trolley tracks to the canal. There were many sights to be seen. 

The equivalent of a pine cone harvest lay on the ground next to the walkway. It was a crafters dream, and knowing how much a bag of pine cones costs in a craft store, for a second or two I wished I had a bag to carry a bunch of them out. 

Water falling.

A yard or so away, the ground was carpeted with little acorn hats and a few steps beyond that, a plant with bright pink flowers. There was the waterfall along the canal, ribbons of pollen floating on the quiet water steps away, a sculpture that looks like a ribbon. 

Across the street, the contemporary new Justice Center filled with glass and metal and smooth concrete sits with a vintage brick steeple just beyond. Further along there was wrought iron metalwork and back at work, the fountain with factory smokestack shapes poured and splashed its reflective water. 

Fountain.

The entire scenic tour was quick and I was back at my desk in thirty minutes. Any time I leave for a walk, it isn't simple. There is internal dialogue/mental debate. Is my purpose walking (focus on exercise, cardiac betterment, and time), or is it for sightseeing and taking pictures (focus on looking around, taking photos)? There have been many walks intended for fitness where great photos were noticed and deliberately zipped right past because it wasn’t a photo walk. Sometimes the photo walk involves bursts of speed walking crammed between sudden stops to photograph something interesting. 

Some days, like today, the mission isn’t determined at the outset. Today, the intent was decided after noticing the pine cones and then a few feet later the acorns, at which point I backed up to get photos of the pine cones, then the acorns and then the objective of the walk was suddenly set. At the end of it, 25 photos and one accidental one-second video had been captured in pixels.