Studio8 - Uniting the Arts

Speaking of walking, i love to walk. But for the most part i don't truly deal with the scenery. Now, listen to what i don't deal with:

Out of the house, across the shelter, lawns, past the loquat tree and the kids' houses to the dirt path. Taking a right, i walk by thick wire fence which divides the road from our irrigation equipment sto warehouse and all the fields. Around the outer perimeter of houses - new ones twice the size of ours with lawns (we have a postage stamp territory), and around.
Past the children's zoo which now includes a pony, some parakeets, geese and duck.

Past the doctor's house which is now occupied by the talkative accountant/cosmetician and her inept husband who manages something for some other organization.

Past the cactus garden and the metal 'sculpture garden'. On the left getting near the organic experimental garden and the cemetary.

On the right, more new houses also large and treed.
On the left, the huge paint and silicone factory.

Main road, i take either a left to the kibbutz gate or a right. Let's go right.

Past the garage, i hit the corner and go left. Straight past the machinery and the tractors lined up waiting to get back to the fields in the morning. Straight past a few huge chicken houses and to the road which i'll follow around.

Taking a right i go. On my left, thick fencing and thicker barbed wire separating the kibbutz from the wide open fields (our potato/wheatfields). On the left, the cows. The smell depends if we've had rain or not. Today the smell was pleasant due to dry weather.

past more chicken houses and taking a right.
Going straight, past the horses (there've been 6 ponies born these past few months). Cross the road, take a right, straight. On my left the tennis courts and there i take a left.

Past the col-bo - our store, and the communal laundry and left at the next corner.

Straight past the high school kids' rooms, and the office for renting out rooms to overnighters.

Past the maniac whose garden overgrows the sidewalk and who can be seen getting ready to water it again. Past another house and then into mine on the right.

That's it.

Smells, scenery, fences and a minimum of people watching.

What do you see when you walk?
i'm gonna post this and if my puter crashes, i'll never re-compose this walk in my life.

j

For someone that doesn't deal with the scenery, you sure have a lot not to see!

When I walk around here (in Phar Lepht) and that is only if the wind is not blowing more than 30 miles a minute and it is not 102 in the shade. I would take my dog Annie (Yogi can't go, he is too rambunctous) and head out the back gate to the alley (yes, we have an alley.)

I take a right, past the rock fences and backyards up the rocky road until I hit the cross street and take a left taking in all the graffiti on some poor guys' white garage door.

Then Annie has a sniff or two, a pee or two and we head straight for Grandview Park which is about a block from my house.

We usually take a left, depending on mood, and walk down the sidewalk that borders the park past the Senior Center that squats there. Wave at the Seniors, continue down the sidewalk past the
houses on the left of the street and the park on the right.

Sidewalk curves to the right and then Annie gets excited as on the left is a yard with several dogs. They bark, she growls and wags her tail. I pause near the swings and basketball court and watch the kids across the street at an elementary school. They are usually screaming and very noisy waiting for the bell to ring.

Then the sidewalk curves again and we start up a slope. Here is where we usually abandon the sidewalk and head up the hill towards the softball park fence. At the top, we skirt the fence until we get to the bleachers and I usually sit down and watch the sky or birds or something.

After a little break, we climb the cement bleachers to the outdoor public pool which is as blue as blue paint can get ( a stark contrast to the gravel and dirt outside the fence.) Since I walk early in the morning, no one is in the pool.

We circle around the pool and take a right until we reach our original starting place in the park, cross the street and walk back to the alley. It is a circular route all the way around the park.

In Ruidoso, I walk a lot more...never the same way twice. Down to the creek to pick some mint, over the mountain to the river and sit by the banks, up the hill in front of the FarOut House to see the wildflowers, I wander.

I am not a fast walker, I mosey down the road looking at bugs, trees, plants and the wildlife. I sit down occasionally and watch. Walking and sitting and walking again is what I like. No strenuous hiking, no cliff climbing...just a taking a walk. Actually, I think I like to walk to where I like to sit and then sitting is what I really like to do while watching. To me, walking is for the birds.

Walk? Wazzat? lol

Seriously, though, thank you much! I need to walk. I love to walk. I used to walk. I don't walk any more.

You have inspired me. I shall walk! Yes! I plan on walking! Until then, I will write about walking as soon as I can remember what it was like.... oh man... I really NEED to WALK! Thank you for the inspiration.

but first.... you said

"past the loquat tree and the kids' houses"

What's a loquat tree? Is that a fruit tree of some sort?

And what are the kids' houses?

Do the kids sleep in separate houses?

Or do they go to separate houses for kids activities?

Or?

Thanks for taking me along with you on your walk.

I enjoyed it very much.

And SooZ..... I enjoyed walking with you very much, too!

Geez.... I haven't had so much exercise in months!

How exhillerating!

above is a picture of delicious succulent loquats

here is a tree:



The fruit is ready now - late April. We used to have our own trees when we lived in the city in various houses. It's a fantastic fruit, with some large smooth seeds - not much danger of swallowing them.

As for the kids' houses. In this case i mean the private rooms of the kids after high school (army or post-army). They live in row houses with a small kitchen, bathroom and bedroom. They hang out on their front patios. Not bad cause they're beside the pool, which i didn't mention in this walk.

Walking is truly great. You need good weather, comfortable shoes and the knowledge that a walk makes life better.

i prefer non-concrete walking - it grounds me better.

and yeah, loved SooZen's walk, though it sounded more like an adventure than a 'walk'. The important thing is that a walk feel good. If it doesn't feel good, it isn't a walk, it's torture.

I have met with but one or two persons in the course of my life who understood the art of Walking, that is, of taking walks, who had a genius, so to speak, for sauntering; which word is beautifully derived "from idle people who roved about the country, in the middle ages, and asked charity, under pretence of going à la sainte terre"—to the holy land, till the children exclaimed, "There goes a sainte-terrer", a saunterer—a holy-lander. They who never go to the holy land in their walks, as they pretend, are indeed mere idlers and vagabonds, but they who do go there are saunterers in the good sense, such as I mean. Some, however, would derive the word from sans terre, without land or a home, which, therefore, in the good sense, will mean, having no particular home, but equally at home everywhere. For this is the secret of successful sauntering. He who sits still in a house all the time may be the greatest vagrant of all, but the Saunterer, in the good sense, is no more vagrant than the meandering river, which is all the while sedulously seeking the shortest course to the sea. But I prefer the first, which indeed is the most probable derivation. For every walk is a sort of crusade, preached by some Peter the Hermit in us, to go forth and reconquer this holy land from the hands of the Infidels.


- Henry David Thoreau excert from his essay "Walking"




Here is the whole essay

http://eserver.org/thoreau/walking1.html

http://eserver.org/thoreau/walking2.html

http://eserver.org/thoreau/walking3.html
_________________
Honda Stepwgn

"In dreams, I walk, with you...."

I love to walk, and I thoreau-ly liked the walks shared in these above posts...nice thing to read about, really is.

When I go for a walk, I usually drive down to the riverwalk and walk along the river a couple of miles...it's grand walking along under the big sky and next to the mighty Columbia, lotsa birds and sea lions, once in awhile the fish are jumping in a rainbow of colors, lots of boats, sometimes a freighter. I always wave to the freighters and once in awhile a sailor will wave back, one of these days maybe i'll get lucky and get the whole fleet up to the house for a visit....heh heh.....
I usually run into people I know walking their dogs and I say hello and pet the dogs. Some days i put on my headphones and listen to some groovy jazz while I'm struttin along...maybe get a little buzz going.....nothin beats walking for exercise if you ask me...I always feel physically and mentally exhilarated after a good riverwalk....Yep, walks are good.....Y'all oughta come visit and take a walk with me someday.....

H

i could dig that riverside walk.
i remember walking around Camden,Maine and being able to see the sea from almost anywhere - all those mountains, all those streets right by the sea. Sure makes for a sparkly existence when there's water involved.

wave to the sailor, Hes
wave to the fleet, Hes
run from the fleet, Hes.

Hes?

where'd that woman go?

i loved to be taken along with you on your walks, ladies, through rocks and gardanes, along rivers and imaginations - and the ari smelt differently each time, and the feet sensed grass and sand and rocks and clouds and water underneath them.

here's my walk - come with me, if you like!

i leave the house and walk down the concrete stairs from the front door down to our gravelled drive, which i cross, pass our neighbours' wooden house, and the turn right into the street (gufenbachweg) in front of our house.

i follow this street that is lined with small houses, old and new ones side by side. when the weather's decent, the street is full of kids on their rollerblade, bikes, monocycles, stilts, feet, or whatever, running, hopping, laughing, playing.
as i worm my way through them, i pass the house of the old twin brothers, heavy smokers and loud coughers, who live there with the wife of one of them and keep screaming at each other. i pass the house whose inhabitants have some sort of zoo in their yard - wild boars, a horse, a pony, parrots and other kind of birds, a pig, rabbits, cats, dogs, some baby does and probably more.
i also walk past pass the carpenter's house and his goats on the hills. last year, he has built a bread house out of clay, and on certain days, when he lights the fire, we neighbours can bring our dough and bake the most deliciously spicy bread in it.
i pass the house of the small beautiful old lady from berlin (she must be in her 90's now), who has such a vivid mind and is always looking so good in the self-made clothes and jewlery from one of her daughter who is a tailor in guatemala, and i walk past the farm house where we get our milk from, and often i am putting the empty milk churn on the low window sill there while i pass, so they can fill it with fresh milk later in the evening.

i continue to follow our street that curves uphill and downhill for about a kilometer, until i reach another farmhouse with loud and wild geese that attack passer-bys when they're in a bad mood, where i turn right into a small, steep and ravine-like path uphill that is called "buureloch" (local dialect for 'farmer's hole').
the walk up there makes me breathe heavily, so i don't really look at the scenery, which consists of grass walls, meadows and a small creek lined with herbs.

once i have reached the end of the buureloch (not the top yet, but the top part of the path) i stop, breathe deeply, before i turn right and continue to walk on the even path along the hills' flanks towards south.
around the next bend there is a well and the echo corner, and from there on, the path has a beautiful view towards west - open sky above hills and the opening münstertal valley into the rhine valley and france with the vosges (french mountain equivalent to the black forest, both mountain ranges running parallel along the rhine from south to north, one in the west and one in the east).

it's good to be up there - the sky is so very vast and the land looks so open and full of adventures and longings.
often it's the time of sunset when i'm up there, and the sky is huge and glowing while the sun sets behind the vosges, so close yet so yearningly far.

after a while the path winds its way towards east (left bend), and i look down into our narrow valley from up there while i walk.
among the abundance of green hills i see the main road winding itself through the bottom of the valley below me, along creeks and houses, along the sawdust piles, tree trunks and seasoned wood of the saw mill, along meadows and farmhouses. i see an occasional tiny car on the road, rarely a human. no need for them to be on the street. there's smaller paths for them, or they are on their fields and meadows, in their houses and yards and gardens.

i follow the twisting path along the hilly flanks, up and down, alway filled with the green view, until i reach the community's water reservoir where the mountain spring water is collected and stored.
from there i could walk the path down into the valley again, turning right and then right again and follow the shady road at the bottom, along houses, creeks and meadows, passing the saw mill and the bakery and the pottery until i reach home again - but usually i prefer to simply turn around at that point and walk all the way back, as i am not too keen on walking that dark valley road where the hills ascend steeply at both sides and shades cool the asphalt.
instead, i follow my own footsteps back home, walking west now, right into that beautiful sunset and open sky. i walk and absorb and enjoy, and then i turn left again and descend the buureloch, turn left and walk the gufenbachweg back home.

on my way back i get the fresh milk that is still warm and look at the first stars in the sky. the kids are called back in now for theri evening bread and the sreet becomes quiet.
i cross our gravel yard, ascend the stairs and open the door.

i'm home.

what an incredible walk
i'm crying now from the beauty.
(there must be a jota empath in the air)

j

a jota in the air and a judih on my path - what a precious walk this is!

here are the hills along which the path runs:



good to have you there with me.

3 wishes would be nice right about now

I'm panting Panta. Out of breath from such a climb but the view was magnificent!

Fresh warm milk and a loaf of fresh bread makes me drool...what a treat.

I didn't cry like dear judih but I did pant and drool a lot. Hah!

Hes, I miss the ocean view but I have endless beaches of sand. No sailors either except for the old salt in my bed.

Nice walks, I enjoyed them. Now Doreen, did you walk yet? Where did you take us?

across the shelter
shelter as in civil defense shelters?

deleted paranoid rant here about civil defense shelters,