Orange is beautiful

mammoth sunflower at the neighbor's fence, complete with feasting bumble bees

I can't get enough of walking around town.  My friend Erin was about to kick me in the shins the other evening while we were walking because I kept interrupting her mid-sentence to point out things like, "Look at that ladder in that apple tree!" or "Look at that cat arguing with that squirrel!" or "Look at that jug on that porch!"  Experiencing things closely on foot is entirely different from driving though town.  I don't think anybody in a car has caught sight of the gourd growing in the hedge near 7-11, and the magnitude of the poke weed jungle on the bank of the railroad tracks is definitely diminished when you're whizzing by on four wheels.  On foot, you walk through a surprise series of sensory experiences... you can find butterfly wings that praying mantises left behind, and lost grocery lists (why can't they be love notes?!), you can smell someone else's coffee and bacon expanding beyond their kitchen walls...and sometimes you can catch really intriguing pieces of conversation.  Here are some of the things I saw today.

white gourd nestled in the hedge

magical garden - you can still spy the gourd - and you know those bricks in the distance are the backside of 7-11

weathered wood

old directional sign at Buchanan & Kiguel

the sticky roots of ivy  (yuck!) ivy gives me the creeps

sun-drenched,  oily feather in the family dollar parking lot

poke weed jungle on the sloping bank of the railroad track

cedar, bark and lichen in front of the fire chief's house

volunteer miniature sunflower in a neglected flower bed at the edge of my yard