Memories of A Walk Downtown

It was 85 degrees yesterday! It made me miss my walk to work in downtown Kalamazoo this spring. While I don’t miss the cold weather, the leafless trees allowed a great view of structures that we don’t get in the summer.

I meant to post these images when I took them, but I hadn't really thought about what words to put with them. I still don't have the words, but I like the idea of sharing a little snippet of the things you might see when you visit Kalamazoo.


I called this "duckmaid with dog collar" I've walked by this sculpture for years, and never really stopped to look at it. I was thinking it looked like a duck/mermaid when I took this picture, and I loved that someone had put a red dog collar on it. I took a better photo of it on the way home, but unfortunately, I cut off part of the left "wing" in the composition. When I went to try and retake the photo, the dog collar was gone.


This house was redone a couple of years ago. They pulled off ugly green asphalt tile and painted it in an historic color scheme. It was part of a learning workshop for The Old House Network. I meant to sign up to help, but I missed the deadline. (I've learned a lot from this group — another wonderful part of living in Kalamazoo.) Last year they landscaped the front yard, but that's not visible yet in this photo. It was really amazing to watch the progress.



These images are from a mural on a laundromat. Kalamazoo has a LOT of murals around town. Maybe I'll make a project out of finding and photographing more of them this summer. This one has added 3D "people" that makes it even more fun!







Then, there was this marker in Bronson Park. Something else I've walked by for years and never paid much attention to. I looked up "The Women's Relief Corps" and got a little history lesson. Something I never would have know if I hadn't had that camera in my hand!



That's it for today. I'm finding my first thoughts about writing a blog are proving to be true. Even though I have a list of things to write about, having the time to do so is becoming more of a challenge now that the weather is calling me to be outside. I do have all the images — and a new idea — for my post on East Hall. It's going to be involved — not only from a research perspective, but I get so angry about what has happened to it that I find it hard to concentrate.