I found the sweet shop fast. Apparantly it's the only one in Colchester. It was neat inside - very old time-y. But, I wasn't in the mood for sweets, so I wandered on off and explored the shopping district. There are a lot of little quirky shops tucked away behind High Street, including one which specializes in doll house fixings. I happened across Waterstone's quite by accident, and ended up buying books one and two of Gene Wolfe's Book of the New Sun quartet for just over five pounds, which I call a good deal. I have heard great things about this series from just about everyone, so I think it's a good buy.
After that I wandered over to the ice cream place and got some really excellent mandarin orange ice cream. I wandered around Castle Park as I ate. Really, it's astonishing. This was the fourth time I've been there and I still find new things to look at. So today I travelled a path I had not travelled before.
Also...
I went
a little crazy
with the pictures:
Rooftops. Hills in the distance.
Pretty sun-speckled path. That's the old town wall on the right, and a modern chain-link fence on the left : P
The wall. 'S big.
The path curves away from the wall. The wall traipses off into a park. There's a whole neighborhood surrounding this park. Must be a nice place to live.
It's so GREEN
Going back up the path the otherway. That's a big ol wall on the left and a modern chainlink fence on the right : P
Door in the wall. There are houses on the other side! Imagine living right up against a Roman wall.
River shrouded in willows
Naked river
The sun drowned
Ok, this is a cool picture, but I didn't mean it to be. Also I think it might be upside down. But, see the little black specks? They're some sort of weird dragonfly/butterfly hybrid. Long bodies like dragonflies, with the four wings near the front. All black but for a bit of blue on the wings. But they move like butterflies - slower, not darting. You can see the wings beat. This is a terrible picture, but it'll help me remember.
Bridges are nice.
Lots of willows. They like water.
Bend in the river. Almost as exciting as a bend in the path.
The sun road.
Very confusing overhanging branches and their reflections
A treetrunk for some perspective.
It's just pretty.
There was a perfect spiderweb here, but my camera isn't quite that good : P
River
The yellow flowers remind me of someone leaning backwards and letting just their hair down into the water.
I like the shape of these leaves.
Pretty sparkling water.
FREAKY DUCK! WOAH! WHAT IS THAT THING?
No seriously, I have NO IDEA. At first I thought it wasn't real, but oh, it is. Just chillin with all the rest of the ducks with its freaky painted-looking feathers and those weird frills on its wings. WHAT IS IT?!!?!?!
There it is sitting amongst all the regular lady ducks... I just don't know!
White water
Water that looks like cloth until it tumbles over the edge.
BABY DUCKS! fuzzyfuzzyfuzzyfuzzy ^.^
A willow I would love to climb
And this is why I would love to climb it. No, this pic is not sideways, it's right side up. There is a perfectlly flat spot at the apex of this willow, and I want to sit in it!
Can you tell I like willows? They are secretive. How many trees can you say that about?
Oh, this is a very common bird hereabouts. I think it might be a magpie, since I saw the same sorts of birds in Romania. Of course, I don't know that those were magpies either, it's just a very vampire-associated bird : P
Big roses in Castle Park
Big roses from tiny buds.
And that was my adventure! It was lovely. And that is all for tonight.
Good night!
EDIT: The freaky duck is a Mandarin Duck (thanks Jake). That one would appear to be a male, so it's anyone's guess what he's doing with all those lady ducks... I wonder if they can interbreed. Anyway, here's what Honolulu Zoo has to say about them:
The Mandarin Duck originated in China but can be found almost anywhere there is a suitable habitat. They are believed to be semi-migratory and semi-colonial. They are scattered throughout Southeast Russia, Northeast China, Japan, Southern England and Siberia. Mandarins were introduced to the west for breeding purposes by aviculturalists and can be found in zoos around the world. The fall migration ranges from China, Japan, Manchuria, North Korea, to the central and southern islands east of the Sea of Japan. Mandarins prefer to live in woodlands next to water that has many trees with holes for nesting. They favor mountain areas with streams, marshland and forests.
Yeah. Not sure what he's doing here, but he freaked me out! Freaky duck.
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