Spring Break

A gentle breeze, mild temperatures, the birds are singing in their trees and eagerly starting to build their homes for the coming season, the first flowers already craning their heads out of the green soil. Springtime. But this was yesterday. Long ago. 24 hours ago even. Today is a different day. Winter is back. All is on hold again. Spring Break.

1/464, f/2.2, ISO 20, 64 mm, iPhone 12 Pro Max

A dear friend of mine mentioned today’s photo to me and suggested to post it somewhere, so I decided to get it ready for my blog and post it here. Probably another series about this topic will follow on Instagram as well. I’m a bit sad about my followers on EyeEm, I’m not very active there anymore. The community seems to slowly tail off. In the end I guess it’s just too much effort to maintain so many different outlets and keep them up to date. I remember EyeEm being quite a lovely place but it certainly never had the drive and the movement of Instagram. Forgive me there. Today’s photo is slightly cropped while maintaining the original aspect ratio, also the levels are shifted and it’s slightly desaturated.

This photo was taken during a weekend stroll through a near forest. There’s a little valley, a tiny river and usually green meadows following the path of the water. There are some ponds for different kinds of fish and there’s a winding path making the valley accessible to, let’s be honest, only a very few people. I discovered this very idyllic place on some trail rides with my bike during summer. In the hot months the valley is pleasantly cool and shady. Later I came back several times to revisit the beauty and tranquility of nature nearby by taking short walks up and down following the gentle ascent of the riverbed.

Also the roads connecting the valley to the rest of the world aren’t really busy roads. There are maybe five cars per hour, probably not much more. The winding road on the image is showing one of these little connectors. Probably they are mostly used for agricultural purposes, not to transport many people in the area nearby. There are indeed some tiny villages around as well. But again, they are small, maybe there are only 10 houses per village. It’s important to have spots like this one still exist in the world, tiny hideaways nearby that are able to break the usual rhythm of a busy life.

I had a rather time deciding if I should provide a link to the location of the valley on google maps. But I decided to not do it. There’s nothing spectacular about this valley anyway, there’s really nothing to see or to explore. It will never become an Instagram hotspot. I assume there are not even geocaches that would attract more strangers to discover the region. And I guess I want to keep it that way. It’s a special place. But mostly it’s a special place for me. Certainly you can get in touch with me on social media or via email if you insist to want to know more.