No walk to the Nemaal yesterday. Nothing. Totally nothing... I did. Except wash a lot of dishes that had piled up in the corner of my living room a.k.a. kitchen.

And so when I set out this morning (forgot what time but must have been around 07:30 a.m. approx.) I had this renewed feeling - just like having crept out of a dark, suffocating box and stepping into the sunshine. I vividly remember being 6 years old and sitting near the window in our classroom at school. I saw a flower growing at the yard's garden and I felt immensely jealous of it. I knew flowers don't live all that long but I was very much willing to trade my "prison" with that flower. --Granted, I could have easily walked to the Nemaal yesterday and this imprisonment was voluntary - but I honestly didn't have the ooommpphhhh to initiate anything after having gone through a full working week and other other situations I perceive as serious pressure. Sometimes I think I am not strong enough to face life....until:

I step outside (when I leave with the intention of a 'walk' -as in not walking to work or errands) I walk as if through a different atmosphere - I don't care how I look like or what people might think of me and I also don't let what is taken as "normative" occupy me at all: I only have eye for the things I find beautiful, endearing or otherwise touch my heart) .... and I land into my dream world.

Here are some of the impressions I let this diary share with me....

A flowerbud in Abba Hillel... looking like a peppered strawberry:

One of the very few flowers in a tree at the corner of Abba Hillel and Bialik - a tree that's covering up the benches homeless people are spending the night on... I still don't know if I should feel sorry or envy those people. They have 'nothing' and yet.... they have what's most important: freedom.

A Dandelion along the route - looking so vulnerable and yet as if hiding a secret only letting us believe it's vulnerable...

A closer look... Such complexity, sophistication. It makes me always look at what seems 'simple', and thus supposedly not worth someone's awe, with respect. All due respect.

Enter with me behind the gates of FairytaleLand... Of course there's first of all Fairytaletree (and since it's Tu-Be-Shvat today I hummed 'Happy Birthday' to him) -

He's so solemn and magnificent that usually I feel totally humble when standing in front and underneath him - when visiting him..

And a little before that is Rabbit Hill.. though the naughty, playful living toys do much more go to the playing grounds under Fairytaletree opposite that hill:

Slightly further down the 'trail' (mentally having stepped out of FairytaleLand already) I discovered a totally new species of the Bird Of Paradise - well... at least for me it is totally new. These grow on trees and are blue-ish i/o the orangy-red ones I know that grow on 'bushes' or plants:

I decided not to walk my usual route but continue on at Ibn Gvirol to find the address of the Tsa'ar Ba'alei Ha'yim (which I did, but it was closed as was to be expected). I so much want the company of a dog. I know I can't have a dog because I am not at home most of the time and it would be purely criminal to leave a living creature like that alone during that time but.... My emotions and reality (read: logic) have absolutely no contact with each other and I know my emotions will win and I will end up with a great friend living with me soon. I wish I was able to restrain myself :-(

And so - arriving to the Nemaal 'from the other side' I noticed this exquisite beauty resting near Reading power station. He let me take a few photos of him and then thought it was enough and flew away...

The sea was gorgeous as always. Today he was as grey as were the skies. The wind was blowing so hard I sometimes had to hold on to the balustrade. But it was a feeling of pure ecstasy that this wind blew through me. It lifted me higher and higher and at some point I imagined myself to be flying with the numerous seagulls that were performing their acrobatic stunts in the skies over the sea with the agility and expertise I would like to own. Here they're hunting for food... read = fishing. I ended up with numerous 'empty' photos of the skies because my camera just ain't good enough to capture these virtuosos on picture :-(

The last photo is of the Kitty I placed photos of before. She's really growing and this time, like always, made sure I would notice her - somewhere there under the hedge in Pinkas...

Going to face another week of reality. Such 'is' Life...