2011 Streak 45/365: a more complete view

2011 Streak 45/365: Walk - 7.65 miles, Time - 2hrs 30 min, Weather - sunny

Before I started blogging each day's exercise I had not clearly understood how much the weather affected my attitude. But now, when I sit at the computer to make sense of what happened, I know the first thing I think of is the weather.

The grey oppression of January that had me feeling that the sky was pressing down on me like a heavier form of gravity. Now there is February with a strange mixture of one day rainy, the next day bright. The changes vastly affect my mood and the pleasure of the expeditions. That is not to say that a wet day is necessarily unpleasant, just that the mood and feeling is different.

Today there were nice blue skies and it encourages you to throw your shoulders back, be more open and take more pleasure in looking around.

It was another walk-out, bus-back trip, this time along the Nicky Line to Harpenden. The Nicky line used to be a single track railway but is now a footpath and cycle way. At the Hemel end it passes through the industrial area and it was here I saw a few of the cars which had been piled-up before being crushed. 

So today's photo is a glimpse of a car graveyard. Although it is hidden away it is only a few yards from two car showrooms. A neat conjunction and the lifecycle of a vehicle: from shiny and desirable to abandoned and broken. 

I have walked, run, cycled this pathway many times before yet this is the first time I have made that connection. 

Rather than giving myself some credit for seeing things afresh I ought to slap my wrist for being blind most of the time. I think what happens is that, on a walk, I look at the surroundings, then my mind follows a train of thought, I look at something else and then my mind  goes somewhere else again. I end up only paying attention to a few visual fragments and put them together as a continuos view.  In reality I see very little. On repeating the walk I see different fragments and it is only through repetition that I can build up a more complete picture.

If the current project has a purpose (and that is a big if) it is that - to build up a more complete picture of my surroundings.