Photographs While On Informal Walks

This month, I present some photographs taken while out on some informal walks around my local area during August 2018.

Written notes, 29th August 2018, 12:20 pm: "It is a special treat to go out for a simple walk around my local area. As soon as I get outside, I am bombarded with many stimuli: the weather conditions, sunlight on the trees out the front, a myriad of colours, foliage moving in the breeze, some bees busily visiting some small flowers for pollen, seemingly isolated ants scurrying along the driveway, etc. I can hear various birds that are either flying about or calling out from various vantage points throughout the area: rosellas, crows, magpies, galahs, noisy miner birds, starlings, and small honey-eaters. I can hear the fabulous sounds of the wind passing through the needles of nearby pine trees.

"There is a marvellous sense of experiencing life and the world around when out walking. It is special to be able to get about by walking. Walking seems so easy for me to do. It doesn't seem to take energy out of me, and it allows me to see and experience many amazing things. As I move through the world, my 3-D vision provides me with a clear understanding of the changing forms and spaces all around. I can see that the world 'breathes' and changes over time. The sun changes its position in the sky over time. The wind moves foliage, long grasses, and the clouds. There are various smells that I detect and try to make sense of. These change as well, as I move around in the world. I get to hear things from all around me as I walk. I get to see fabulous rich colours reflecting back from a sunlit world. The sky overhead is basically a marvellous blue with moving 'white' clouds. There is so much detail everywhere.

"The bird calls and sounds of various foliages rustling in the breeze are fabulous.

"From some droppings that I come across on the road in front of me, I suspect that there is a Koala in a tree above me. I look up and slowly scan the tree for conspicuous lumps in branch forks - there is a Koala! It is sleeping hunched over in a branch fork. I have seen some Koalas sitting in branch forks quite close to the ground, and others in branch forks a long way up above the ground in very tall trees. Those, a long way up, would have interesting vantage points for viewing the world, but would also be very vulnerable in a bush fire.

"As I walk, I get to reflect on many things that I have previously seen or read about the world of plants, animals, and insects from books by David Attenborough, Carl Sagan, David George Haskell, Richard Dawkins, etc. It all makes good sense, and gives a strong sense of appreciation.

"I enjoy seeing the outside world that is away from home. Everything is fresh, breathing, and happening now! Some yellow-tailed black cockatoos squawk out loudly as they fly gracefully out over a gully towards some pine trees.

"With trees and plants that I see regularly, I can witness them go through various stages of flowering, or losing their leaves, or growing fresh leaves, or shedding their bark, etc."

The photographs presented here, represent a small fraction of the inspiration that I get from my walks around my local area. Most of the things that I have experienced when I am out walking, I haven't recorded.

Bee in Prunus Blossoms