A MORNING WALK TO THE NEAREST POND

Not far from my house, there is a pretty large pond that looks like a small lake. Some hours ago, on a cold but sunny morning, I walked a couple of hundreds meter and spent some time by the water ...

... surrounded by birds ...

... and hanging branches ...

... of the Weeping willow.

This photograph was taken from just outside my yard. While my neighborhood was still in the shade, the landscape further up the road was dipped in golden sunlight. While I was walking uphill, towards that bright, promising place ...

... a van appeared and entered the picture.

A minute later I was passing by one of quite a few ordinary houses very similar to the one in which I live.

This particular one caught my attention because of the shadow on its facade.
At this point, I was standing on the top of a small hill ...

... from which I could see the distant village across the bay of Medulin. Medulin is my hometown and the village across the bay is called Premantura.

Here I changed my direction, and again, the way to the pond was leading towards the rising sun. The morning light turned the gray asphalt into gold.

Details on the road looked like mysterious, precious artifacts.

The sewer manholes resembled shiny coins.

The autumn leaves were like the fiery feathers of a Phoenix. From here, I was walking downhill.

Soon I passed by this unfinished house. It looked a bit like some ruin from an ancient empire. There was a vague Babylonian feel to its look. The bare bricks look great in this intense yellow light.

This mailbox was photographed on the wall of an older house across the narrow road. It's filled with supermarket publications. You can find great knowledge about offers and prices on those pages.

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A minute or two later, I arrived at the pond.

Here you can see me feeding the old goose, a nice, tame bird that greets every visitor. This photograph was taken by a friend.

The mallards were swimming around the center of the pond. Here you can see a group of three males and three females floating away from the camera.

In this photograph, only one male is passing across the frame.

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The seagulls were high in the sky when I arrived, but pretty soon ...

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... these elegant birds started landing on the powerline.

The seagulls formed a line on the powerline and stayed there for the next half an hour.

I spent those thirty minutes under the tree ...

... under a beautiful Weeping willow.

The pond looks the best when seen through the branches ...

... especially in the intense morning light.

In this photograph, I caught a reflection on the calm water.

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On one of the surrounding houses ...

... workers were building the second floor.

Here you can see the large, floating leaves of the Nymphaea alba plant.

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At one point the old goose entered the pond. After taking these three shots ...

... I took a look at the sky ...

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... and walked away.

I passed by this old oak covered with a dense, suffocating growth of ivy. The combination of autumnal foliage from the oak tree and the evergreen ivy looks pretty cool to me.

About ten meters from the tree, I photographed this old tractor with its interior on display.

Some minutes later, while walking uphill along the same road that brought me to the pond, I saw a cat. This photograph was taken from a considerable distance. When I came closer, the cat ran away.

I passed another twenty meters or so ...

... before encountering another cat. This one wasn't so shy.

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These are the shadows on my neighbor's house ...

... and these are the persimmon fruits in his garden.

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Once at home, I prepared an omelet for breakfast. These last two photographs were taken by a friend.

And that's it. Hope you enjoyed this walk around my neighborhood. As always here on HIVE, all the photographs except those three shots with me in the picture, are my work - THE END.