I went on a walk yesterday along a long trail both in and out of my university. (You see, it branches off from the road leading to the Art and Architecture buildings, which are cut off from the rest of the school by a residential area. The acquisition of new grounds was brilliantly planned.) It was around 5:00 P.M., and it's a beautiful time of year; the whole area was resplendent to look at.

I'm glad I went--and I followed the trail to its end behind one of the Art buildings, instead of someone else's backyard like last time.


I was inspired by lavender88 to post these photographs, since she recently posted some very beautiful ones on her journal. These...are too grainy to compare. If only the grain of digital cameras wasn't as noticeable as the grain of film!


This is the beginning of the trail, just past the point where it branches off from the road. The road itself is actually very pretty to look at this time of year, since it's bordered almost entirely on one side with goldenrod. (On the other side, it's bordered by trees and the occasional metal sculpture symbolizing...student art projects.)


There's a lot of metal and wooden detritus in the woods, including pipes, at least one old tool kit, and this cube you see here. They're all so badly rusted, I can't help but wonder how long they've been left there.


The path branches off frequently--there's one path that goes around a graveyard, another that leads to the Art buildings, another that leads to a gravel road in the middle of nowhere, and many others that just go deeper into the woods. Coincidentally, have any of you seen or listened to Stephen Sondheim's Into the Woods?


The path I took was cut twice by a stream. This is the bridge one uses to cross said stream. (One can also take a longer path around and up a series of inclines, or simply step across the thinner parts of the stream. As for me, I always use the bridge.) It's much sturdier in the middle than at the ends, and the stream isn't deep at all, but it's best to move quickly across it.

I wonder if the stream swells at all in the spring?


This is close to the gravel road in the middle of nowhere. I don't care for that road--I have no idea where it is relative to the residential area or the school, and it's too quiet for all of the construction cones around. That, and it's near an open field leading into another graveyard, which doesn't seem to be connected to the one I mentioned earlier. There's goldenrod all around that area too, though, so it is lovely to look at.

And that is all for now! I have some photographs from my family vacation which I would like to post as well, but I'd best save that for another day.


Weirdly enough, I'm so on top of everything that I don't have much to do right now.¹ This will undoubtedly change come next month, but I'm glad to have this free time while it lasts.

¹ Besides making icons. I've already made eight new ones, five of which are larger colorings which can be cut into smaller files. (I'm so skilled at wasting time productive these days!)^2
2 Can you tell that I've been working on the bibliography for my semester-long research project? I've got thirty-eight sources thus far, and I'm pleased with my progress--the bibliography itself is due October 1st.