Deebo mural from the movie “Friday”
Walking for Happiness (or, What did you take a photo of on your walk today? PART 4)
Shinita
#25
We have very similar looking places around here 
Maybe a bit less hilly. I live maybe 10km from the Great Hungarian Plain so I am glad I get small hills from our mountain range and some more impressive looking ones from the neighbour one (one ends and the other starts immediately)…
Maybe I will bring some old photos if we don’t make new ones but I think we bring the camera today and we will see.
never2late
#27
Looks like a fantastic place Pete. I’m nowhere near as sporty as you, not really a couch potato either as I am seldom just sat on a couch, but pretty sedentary apart from my daily 40min walks. I would get winded soon I imagine attempting to trek up those hills, even though I would climb mountains back when I lived in Norway (my birth place)
Pete_A
(Pete A)
#28
I used to get very winded like 3-4 years ago. I have definitely ramped up. It’s taken a lot of practice and suffering!
I do like taking photos and tracking my walks. I go back to it in my thoughts regularly and it motivates and inspires me.
And doesn’t suck!
never2late
#29
I’d love to see a photo from where you live as the way you describe your surroundings always fills my head with curiosity, there are so many beautiful places around the world. Norway, where I’m from, is breathtaking. And England is tranquil. Scotland, when my SO and I went there on one particular occasion, had the best of both worlds. Wales is lovely. My mother went to Peru and was stunned by the landscape there. We once went to Spain, me and her, and was lovely there as well. I don’t think there’s a single not lovely place to visit in the world, as every place has beauty. I am also intrigued by America and its ancient forests and sky-high trees and wild mountain ranges. I will never been a fan of cities though as I much prefer rural surroundings, I grew up in a small mountain valley.
Shinita
#31
When I moved to a hilltop first, I was so winded in the beginning 
I lived in the Great Hungarian Plain all my life before, very far from every hill (seriously, I saw a 5m high mound and was impressed. it was very flat there)… Quickly got used to it and did lots of hiking on weekends. One can get rusty so easily, I always realize this when I get inactive for a while. Not natural to me but sometimes the weather is too bad for too long (hot summer or long term fog), I get sick (very rare but happens)… I shouldn’t let that again, I already feel weak as a kitten after neglecting my workout for a while and my weights got smaller and they were light to begin with 
(I never will consider them heavy but well, they never will be that.)
We didn’t see many birds today, just a few ducks. It’s impossible to visit the pond without seeing some.
Oh, photos… I am rarely pleased with them They are usually can’t show what I see and feel… I will find my SO’s shot of the view of his window when we had snow last winter, that was beautiful!
We have normal pretty places. Not those oh so romantic breathtaking ones with things like big mountains, blue waters and waterfalls (we don’t even have waterfalls, why? 
all stupid 3d game has them all the time and my heart is aching. we only have a tiny one and I need to travel for it and last time it was practically absent due to too little water in the river). But still pretty
I try to find some photos from the last years… Oh this is from the wildlife park showing the big pond (the one with zillion birds sometimes), I made it with a phone as we rarely bring the big camera there, only when it’s a big dedicated “snowdrop and hellebore shooting” or something similar
This is very close to it… Both were shot in the beginning of April.
This is another place (on the small hill in the middle of the first photo, beyond the pond ;)), I love these plants in autumn October. I keep trying to shot the vibrant colors but they never turn out well enough. If the colors are great, the other things are less so, this one looks good but the colors are less spectacular. Still nice.
Another place, we call it “Pine Hill”. I am not pleased with my photos but oh well, I want to show something The pond is visible from every high place around it including the very close Pine Hill, it’s my target for many of my walks. My default is the pond as it’s always clean (not much mud) and fun (bird) and the most neglected place is a nearby small forest where I only go when one of the 2 pretty flowers there are blooming. It’s boring otherwise though once I saw a deer there too. Not like spotting a deer is a rarity here, the wildlife park has multiple species but they are elsewhere too, quite frequently.
So, Pine Hill in November
And I can’t resist to show at least one non-scenery shot… Not a particularly tasty mushroom but edible and pretty and there is a lot on the Pine Hill.
Pine Hill, December.
Pine Hill, November.
Just outside of the wildlife park, November:
I think this is enough for now
Well maybe the spring in the wildlife park. The tiny thing originated there usually lasts about a couple of hundreds of meters before disappears… But I can get a lovely drink from the spring.
November.
We have some more spectacular (still small) hills farther, in the highest place of this mountain range but I don’t know where our photos from there are. Probably on my SO’s computer.
never2late
#34
Oh Shinita, it looks truly beautiful where you live, and the photos are lovely, so much enchanting Nature! If I still lived in my country I would show you the waterfalls, and those tall mountains and sparkling (on a sunny clear day) blue waters, though when last I visited my family those said mountains were just too steep for me to walk in, and you have to actually walk for quite a bit before seeing a waterfall. Or drive, lol. Now the English countryside suits me a lot more, nice and flat in some places, and a bit hilly in others. Your surroundings though are truly, I can’t think of another word just now, enchanting. I would just love to walk there on a misty day. I love mist, always jogs my imagination, the way wisps of mist drape trees and flowers.
Shinita
#35
Yeah it’s neat here Some people call it “middle of nothing” and someone (who merely had the job to give us a parcel, NOT talking about such things) exclaimed how anyone can live here once… Oh well. I lived in the capital city of Hungary, in bigger towns and small villages… I prefer this It’s about 4 km from 2 villages. 3 if we cross a forest… The 4th is about 6 km (through the wildlife park forest, it’s a pretty route, too bad my SO sees little of it in the dark, his work starts at 6am… but he sees/hears more wildlife than me that way) but that is a tiiiiny town since several years, not a village 
I lived in a WAY bigger village before…
The city edge is 20 km away (it’s quite flat and the climate is a bit different, it’s amazing how much just a few small hills can do. and some wind, it’s a very windy area), just like a bigger city we belong administratively or whatever is the term, won’t search for it. So it’s good, not too far, not too close
This is near another bigger town, it’s very close if we cross the shooting area but we don’t do that, it’s tiresome to figure out if there is shooting at the moment… It’s way farther on proper road. We usually take the other proper but way smaller road, it’s a scenic route but I only have one pic…
This is fun, there is a winding road with big elevation and on the top there is a big plateau with villages
And an area with red soil. In this pic one just need to roll down and voila, a “big” town. I mean, not a super tiny village sized one with a population of 5000 like the nearest one. I still find this funny, such a tiny place and it’s already a town… Though I heard about even smaller ones in other countries. My own village is very tiny, only 2000 people but it’s enough for the most basic facilities. We even have a gas station that sometimes works, sometimes not, now probably not because the fixed gas price was devastating…? It’s over now so maybe it is working again? It changes a lot, we don’t even go there anymore. The other nearest village is abnormal, 110. It hasn’t even a BAR! What village has no bar, seriously? It’s BASIC. No shop either or anything, only a temple.
I don’t know why I like to talk about these so much. Next time I will bring some nice photos but I pretty much run out of them for now. I rarely make photos and those are mostly birds and flowers and mushrooms. Or scenery too but no idea where the rest are… Like the waterfall thing. It’s called “Roman Bath” but it’s just a river with some rocks in a forest, it’s still pretty (it’s the best, letting Nature build something) but some people gets surprised, they except something more “developed” from the name We go there every year to watch the tiny waterfall and enjoy a small, lovely walk in the forest. Sometimes we find mushrooms.
@never2late: England has very beautiful lands too, I saw them a lot in documentaries (about ancient animals)… Not enough sunshine to my liking though. I need winters with lots of sunshine and I have that here Summer has too much sunshine, sadly
But having sea nearby… Well Italy and Croatia and Slovenia isn’t so far but my country has no sea High mountains, waterfalls and sea, I LOVE them. When I was a kid, I dreamed about living in the mountains. And well I do, I am not really displeased with these, merely want to see bigger ones here and there. And I did. It was a bit long ago though. The sea as well.
Oh mist It can be soooo pretty and my photos never come out well enough It just gets a milky blurry thing. I would need some bright colors closer to me but when there is fog during the day, it’s usually November at least, not so much color to find.
Sometimes earlier autumn mornings are like that, maybe one day I will make a nice shot, those mornings last late so I don’t need to do the impossible and wake up and go out early. I am no morning person.
never2late
#36
You are lucky to live where you live Shinita, with all that nature around you. I quickly grew accustomed to and fell in love with the english nature when I moved here. We don’t get much of a summer and hardly any sunshine, and winters here are long, and mostly damp. Spring will be, albeit always lovely with its fresh blooming of the blossom tree, both chilly and wet. And we might get a few nice hot days come summer, and lukewarm temperatures and mostly rain otherwise. Unlike you I love heat, as I am always cold. I truly feel my best on warm sunny days, but I can also get too hot, like when we were struggling with a heatwave. But warm summery days with a lovely light breeze makes me feel truly the best, a little warmth and sunshine so uplifting.
Yes, something in the mist I imagine would be harder to capture, and even the best camera (and I just have my phone) can probably not capture how truly magical such landscapes become to our perception and tickle our imagination.
Shinita
#37
I love sunshine. I am dying in heat. I can tolerate 25 Celsius but I better stay put there. I love walking below 15 Celsius and I may be able to run when it’s the cold part of the winter. I do try it otherwise but I get overheated in no time.
Winter has perfect temperature for outside activity and it’s often sunny too and rarely rainy. Now it’s rainy. We had record breaking rain last week, this January got more than it’s share in 2 days and there will come more. But climate change does this here, super dry summers and wetter times somewhere elsewhere, we don’t get less rain just not in the same more balanced pattern as before.
It’s not luck, we simply chose to come here. Anyway, we had no money for a house elsewhere… And it had to be a house.
cvkemp
(Chuck)
#38
I was born in the deep southern part of the USA and heat doesn’t bother me, but cold sure does. Where so many up north thing 80 degrees is hot, for me that is when it becomes enjoyable for me. I now live in an area where we can get really cold for me and the heat is comfortable in the summer. I have gotten use to cooler weather and don’t have to have such heavy clothing.
PaulL
(Bacon is a many-splendoured thing)
#39
I was in Washington, D.C., for Labor Day weekend once, and (as a good New England Yankee) was amused that the radio announcer said in the morning, “It’s going to be chilly today, low 80’s, so wear your sweaters.” And sure enough, we tourists were in shorts and T-shirts, perspiring away, and the locals were wearing their sweaters, lol!
cvkemp
(Chuck)
#40
Yep I spent 3 and half years of my Navy career in the DC area. But I was actually stationed at Camp David and the difference in temperature in that 70 miles was unbelievable. In the summer up there it would be 65 to 70 and DC would be in the 90s and almost 100% humidity.
Shinita
#41
I need to convert a lot… 80F is where I am inevitably dying (or feel so), it’s the hotness I can’t get used to. it doesn’t matter so much where one is born, I was born here, in a country with hot summers and I can’t get used to these summers.
I appreciate I don’t live in even hotter places and that hot and humid rarely comes together but still, it’s NOT FUN when it’s 15 Celsius HOTTER than what I can still tolerate well.
40C (it’s somewhere around 100F) happens here but I still suffer above 26C. 25 unless I already suffered 2 super hot weeks and my tolerance went up to 26C but it can’t do more.
I hate a room temp of 23C in winter as I am not used to it at that time. Therefore it’s quite bad when I chill (not necessarily literally but maybe) in spring… And the season that did its good impression of winter not long ago suddenly decides it’s the time for its summer impression now (we have normal springs but these half and half ones too with 2 proper spring weeks in between as well)! I can’t handle the sudden heat so it’s quite bad for me and it’s just May…
I have no problem with cold, Hungary has no cold enough winters for me to even think about wearing a winter coat (as long as I don’t just stand outside. and MAYBE when it’s -20C, it’s different but I don’t remember going out much in that temperature lately and I generated less heat many years ago. what changed, no idea).
I wear a thin jacket sometimes but mostly for pockets or against the wind. If it is a bit cold but normal winter, nothing too bad (5C today, that’s 41F. this is the average winter temp), I wear a cardigan. If it’s a warm winter day, I wear a long sleeved shirt, usually. And may regret it’s not a t-shirt, sunshine is powerful
OUCH! Horrible combo, it’s probably hard on everyone!
We had a humid summer period once, it was awful as we had no A/C yet. 70-75% humidity in the house (I wonder we didn’t get mold) and we couldn’t do anything as it was already too hot inside and our serious dehumidifier is a decent though smallish heater… I just couldn’t turn it on for several hours a day.
We don’t have very different temps here but other changes between the city and the mountain is huge The city barely ever gets snow. It may have a few snowflakes, we here get a small but decent snowfall (only 20 km from the edge of the city!) and the higher parts of our mountains easily get a lot (IDK, 50 km from here? on road so less than that, actually). It happened many times.
But I see slightly different climate in my tiny property too. One end is in the valley, another on the hilltop, almost. Fruits and flowers get multiple weeks delay in the lower part and frost comes much earlier and more often in the valley. Someone said the wind helps with it in the upper area. When my SO goes to work and goes down even more (I suppose that is the real valley part), he often encounters frost while our hill has none.
ShawnM
(Shawn Patrick Malone)
#42
I’m so envious of you. I live in Virginia Beach and the only mountain I have to look at is my daily drive past Mount Trashmore.