#6 Taking a Mental Picture 📸

a walk in the park

Taking a Mental Picture is the hastily-named segment where I immortalise moments I wish I’d captured on my film camera. #1 lives here; #2 lives here, #3 here, #4 here & #5 here.

We’re lucky enough to live near a lovely park, and we try and walk through there at least once a day (usually with a coffee in hand from the coffee shop where we know the staff by name and who really helped us feel right at home in the area when we first moved into our flat a couple of years ago). It’s become something of a ritual, and this morning was no different.

Apart from this morning, something was different. I don’t know whether everything was *actually* more picturesque, or whether I was just seeing everything through different eyes (having spent the majority of last night/this morning wondering how everyone got such gorgeous photos of spectating at the marathon when I only have 1 photo and it’s of my sunburnt arm - wear sunscreen, kids), but everything seemed positively poetic.

As soon as we entered the mouth of the park, we encountered a dog. This is not unusual; in fact, it’s one of the reasons we love it so much. Big ones, small ones, some as big as your head — there’s even a dog that we see being walked there called The Mayor, because he walks with incredible importance (I once ran into the Mayor and their owner in the above coffee shop and went “Omg it’s the Mayor!” and the very lovely owner looked at me very politely and said “she’s called Jessie”).

This one was huge, a St Bernard type, and it was splooted across the main walkway like melted ice cream. Wide walkway, wide dog. People kept stopping to check if he was ok, and his dog walker kept calling his name in a kind but resigned voice, like this wasn’t their first rodeo. Eventually, he shuffled off, but until that point, he was perfectly framed by the trees and the sun, and I think it would have made a lovely picture.

Further into our walk, we passed a man enjoying a coffee with his baby tightly swaddled to his chest. The sun was shining, the baby was smiling in its sleep, and the whole thing was serene. Until Rich nudged me and pointed out that the man was also reading “The Book of Disappointment”.

(I wouldn’t have *actually* taken a picture of this second one, because I don’t think we should take photos of random members of the public - but it would have made a great portrait if I did).

p.s. speaking of taking more photos, I’m going on Celie Nigoumi’s Spring Photowalk in May, with all the profits going to Islamic Relief's Gaza Appeal. Come along?!