* The Weekly Image Thread 21 03 23 #543 *

Felt I needed to post something happier after I made people sad with the beggar shots. :-(

Loch Fyris is about 80 km, most of it north of town, and it ends in lake Mälar, 10 km south of the center of the city. A very interesting blogger, an amateur historian who has taught me a lot about my town, decided to try to find all bridges over the river. He expected to spend a couple on weekends on the task. It took him several years and he found 54 bridges, many, small, hidden and forgotten. He studied old maps to find bridges and spots where there likely had been a need for a bridge at some point and went scouting. I'm very impressed with his stamina.

This is the 17th bridge upstream and still within the city. I guess I'm familiar with about 25 of the bridges. I've planned to visit some of the smaller and more obscure ones, but the latest summers haven't gone my way at all.

I just noticed this is actually a B(ee)IF shot. The bee is almost in the center of the picture, half way across the bridge and in front of the darker foundation for the rail. :-D

Not to worry, Charlotte. It comes from all directions, not just you. The idea of a hungry child gets to me. Last summer I saw a young woman with a baby in a stroller and a similar sign begging food or money. They were both skinny. I stopped and gave her all I had on me, about $50. My companion for that day said, "Well, she didn't have to get pregnant. You gave her too much." That is an effective but cold way to avoid empathy. I turned around and took her home and haven't seen her since. Beggars have been hurting worse than ever during Covid here. Less people out to beg from and they don't want to get near. I saw an old man put $5 on the ground for a beggar then quickly step back.The City of Eureka where I live has made being homeless illegal by creating a no camping ordinance. The police can now look for them sleeping and run them out of town where they will starve for sure. They immediately sneak back in to find food and shelter. What a stupid law.

There are usually quite a few homeless in the area where I live. On of my neighbors, a crone who runs a Christian meeting every Sunday, and is eager to increase the flock and always proselytizing, caught me going out and demanded I sign a petition to urge the police run off the homeless in this area. She was with others of her kind at that time and she caught me when I was in a bad mood. I said, "I thought you were a Christian." She got angry and said she was. I told here that Jesus spoke to her when he said, about the poor, "What you do for the least of these you do for me." And that was a waste of his time. I also told her she would not likely ever meet her messiah and should prepare for heat. She got furious and started yelling and that cured my bad mood and I walked away laughing and was happy for a while. I am not religious and don't suffer dogmatic hypocrites well.

And, in case you wondered, I did not sign her instrument of cruelty.

I bet these guys sleep just fine in their warm, soft beds. Too bad. Rich

Rich Z said:

Not to worry, Charlotte. It comes from all directions, not just you. The idea of a hungry child gets to me. Last summer I saw a young woman with a baby in a stroller and a similar sign begging food or money. They were both skinny. I stopped and gave her all I had on me, about $50. My companion for that day said, "Well, she didn't have to get pregnant. You gave her too much." That is an effective but cold way to avoid empathy. I turned around and took her home and haven't seen her since. Beggars have been hurting worse than ever during Covid here. Less people out to beg from and they don't want to get near. I saw an old man put $5 on the ground for a beggar then quickly step back.The City of Eureka where I live has made being homeless illegal by creating a no camping ordinance. The police can now look for them sleeping and run them out of town where they will starve for sure. They immediately sneak back in to find food and shelter. What a stupid law.

There are usually quite a few homeless in the area where I live. On of my neighbors, a crone who runs a Christian meeting every Sunday, and is eager to increase the flock and always proselytizing, caught me going out and demanded I sign a petition to urge the police run off the homeless in this area. She was with others of her kind at that time and she caught me when I was in a bad mood. I said, "I thought you were a Christian." She got angry and said she was. I told here that Jesus spoke to her when he said, about the poor, "What you do for the least of these you do for me." And that was a waste of his time. I also told her she would not likely ever meet her messiah and should prepare for heat. She got furious and started yelling and that cured my bad mood and I walked away laughing and was happy for a while. I am not religious and don't suffer dogmatic hypocrites well.

And, in case you wondered, I did not sign her instrument of cruelty.

I bet these guys sleep just fine in their warm, soft beds. Too bad. Rich

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Jesus, I thought the left cop was peeing! Thank heavens it just looked like that. That's a good shot. I get a picture of the situation you have.

Your cops always look so, well, macho. I think I would be scared of them.

I think there's a difference between our situations. Your beggars are worse off. Ours are poor too. But they do have cars and they have each other. It's like clans almost. The men go around in cars in the evening and pick their begging women up. No luxury cars by any means, but there's a difference between having an old car and maybe a caravan to sleep in and having nothing. The men often sit on benches outside the grocery stores, smoking, drinking soda, eating chips and ready-made sandwiches. If my baby starved, that isn't where I would put my money.

We used to have a law against beggary. It was removed in the 60s, because we had eliminated the need for beggary, see? Yeah, right.

Nice shot with the purple!

NIce, Andrew .. I like seeing those irises in bloom .. None here so far .. I really do like that last flower .. well done ... Our flowers are beginning to show signs of spring, the tulips have come up and it was 70F yesterday ... Rained all morning and then the bad weather set in-- the sun came out ..if it stays out it will be in the70's by this afternoon .... not a good sign for today! ...

Stay well ... I

WhyNot

Sign of the time ... unfortunately ....

Stay well ...

WhyNot

Nice... it seems irises are blooming north and south of me but not here so far .. I'll look again tomorrow!

Stay Well ...

WhyNot

Leaves me speechless .... so I'll listen to Meow ....

Stay well ...

WhyNot

Very nice, Rich ... I like them all .. I see you're still using that flash effectively and carrying the water bottle along .. A bit of hard edge detail ..... slightly different from some earlier interpretations. ....

Stay well ...

WhyNot

you really need to get a bit closer to that bee .....

Stay well ...

WhyNot

Very nice I really like this dogwood ... Ours died last year after I estimate 70 years, as I wasn't here when they planted it .. But this one reminds me of the 100 year old dogwood that use to stand in a field at the local Botanical Garden .. unfortunately it didn't last mush longer and I never really got that great picture of it in bloom ...so this will do ...

Stay well ....

WhyNot

I do thank you all for your kind comments..... I do get out to the Botanical Gardens about once a week .. especially since this pandemic -- and it is a great place for a walk and I usually find something to photograph ...

Stay well ....

WhyNot

I wouldn't call our police officers' look macho. I call it para-military. They have a mind-set of them against us and act like any suspect is a hard criminal. I got pulled over because an idiot in my neighborhood removed my rear license plate to get me in trouble. It did. The patrol car pulled me over, called for back up and they physically pushed me around roughly even though all my vehicle registration papers, license and insurance were in order. This was just a few years ago, they were roughing up an old man, me. They insisted I'd stolen the car, which I'd owned for 10 years. It took all of my will power not to fight back, which is what they wanted. All 3 of the policemen I dealt with looked just like the ones in the picture. Also, I'm lucky I have light skin or I would have been much worse off.

Yup, it's the U.S. of A. where, among other things, a mental case can walk into a neighborhood retail store an buy a gun ( or several ) and ammunition if they have the price. Rich

Thanks, WhyNot. No flash on any of these. I always specify if flash is used as that part of the EXIF isn't shown at DPR. No water bottle, either. It's The Pacific Northwest Coast, no spray needed this time of year. Rich

WhyNot said:

Very nice I really like this dogwood ... Ours died last year after I estimate 70 years, as I wasn't here when they planted it .. But this one reminds me of the 100 year old dogwood that use to stand in a field at the local Botanical Garden .. unfortunately it didn't last mush longer and I never really got that great picture of it in bloom ...so this will do ...

Stay well ....

WhyNot

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Thanks, I think this tree must have been over hundred years old too. This place we visited is called Washington on the Brazos Historic Site in Texas. This tree must have been there since the beginning of the site construction or soon after it.

Rich Z said:

Thanks, WhyNot. No flash on any of these. I always specify if flash is used as that part of the EXIF isn't shown at DPR. No water bottle, either. It's The Pacific Northwest Coast, no spray needed this time of year. Rich

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Sorry about that but made some assumptions based on our earlier conversations and the first and last pictures had that distinct appearance -- very nice ...

WhyNot

WhyNot said:

you really need to get a bit closer to that bee .....

Stay well ...

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And risk falling in the water? No way! You could probably develop film in that soup.

Rich Z said:

I wouldn't call our police officers' look macho. I call it para-military. They have a mind-set of them against us and act like any suspect is a hard criminal. I got pulled over because an idiot in my neighborhood removed my rear license plate to get me in trouble. It did. The patrol car pulled me over, called for back up and they physically pushed me around roughly even though all my vehicle registration papers, license and insurance were in order. This was just a few years ago, they were roughing up an old man, me. They insisted I'd stolen the car, which I'd owned for 10 years. It took all of my will power not to fight back, which is what they wanted. All 3 of the policemen I dealt with looked just like the ones in the picture. Also, I'm lucky I have light skin or I would have been much worse off.

Yup, it's the U.S. of A. where, among other things, a mental case can walk into a neighborhood retail store an buy a gun ( or several ) and ammunition if they have the price. Rich

Click to expand...

So what we see in movies is true? What happened to you must have been very humiliating. I'm not good with humiliation. Did you get an excuse? I guess not.

Well, I'm glad I don't have to be afraid of the police anyway.

A nice picture, Charlotte. Soup and develop film? Polluted water doesn't fit into my mind's picture of Sweden. If you fall off a bridge around here you get swarmed and eaten by clams. Rich