Walking Is Good For The Soul...

When I woke up this morning, for some reason that I couldn't put my finger on, I felt a little down. I didn't want it to get any worse, so I decided that the best thing to do was go on a long, long walk through the suburbs, making sure to go up every mountain I could find. Vigorous exercise is meant to help when you're feeling depressed, so I grabbed the camera, a bottle of cold water, and my iRiver MP3 player and headed out the door.

This mornings MP3 selections were from my David Bowie collection. Here's a tip for you: If you ever decide to put together your own Bowie collection, the first song must always be "Space Oddity". It would be against the laws of nature for it to be anything other than that.

So I hit the road to the pop stylings of "Space Oddity";

"Ground control to Major Tom..."

Not much traffic this morning so it seems...

As it turned out, the walk quickly turned into a nature walk, allowing me to indulge in one of my new passions, flower photography. I found out recently that my cheap little camera takes large close ups quite well. Anything that needs fixing I do on my computer when I get back home.

It wasn't very long before I found my first bunch of flowers:

"We can be Heroes, just for one day..."

This one looks like some kind of alien spacecraft:

"Ch-Ch-Ch_Changes..."

 This is one angry looking plant:

Now something more fragile:

Here's one of the hills I was so keen to find:

"Believing the strangest things, Loving the Alien..."

I found this following flower hidden behind a crash barrier on a main road. I have no idea how it got there or how it continues to survive:

"There's a Staaaaaaaarman, waiting in the sky...."

Here's an array of traffic posts. They reminded me of little soldiers guarding the road:

More flowers I found:

"When you're a boy, you can wear a uniform..."

David Bowie - Never disappointing.

"I am a DJ, I am what I play..."

Tried to get a close-up of the bee. I didn't quite get it. Too scared of being stung to get too close:

"Oh mooooon of Alabama, it's time to say goodbye..."

Here we go. My nemesis, Yokine Hill. Only true manly men (and womanly women) have the fortitude to make it to the top:

Getting close to the top now:

This is the view of the city of Perth you get when you finally reach to top of the hill:

Now, it's time to head for home. I found still more flowers on the way back:

"I'm afraid of Americans, I'm afraid of the world....Tra La La" Go David...

This one looks like crumpled tissue paper to me:

The last one before reaching home:

That's it. A walk that took over 2 hours. Did I feel better afterwards you may ask? A little bit. When I start taking photos I'm in my own little world. But when I come out of it back to the real world, my perspective is a little bit more even. I try to stay positive and not worry about things I have no power to change.

I'm going off to listen to Dale Carnegie's "How to Stop Worrying and Start Living" once again, minus the christian bits...

And David Bowie was still there at the end of the trip.