Oh, the places you'll go...
And oh, the things you'll see!
If you know me in real life, you know I do a lot of walking. In fact, I decided to walk every single day for at least 30 minutes starting Jan. 1, 2021. And I did…right up until October 10, 2023, when I had a heart attack. The dang thing broke my streak at 1011 days! But my myocardial infarction is another story for another day.
I’m working my way around to the fact that while I was doing all this walking, I started noticing and finding some very interesting things, which I’d take pictures of and post on my Instagram page (@audreyoutloud – y’all come follow me over there).
One of the first things that caught my attention was a bunch of broom handles stuck in a bush near an unattached screen door. All of this was across the street from the Pig, so I don’t know what that means.
Since then, I’ve opened my eyes and my mind to seeing and finding the odd, unusual, beautiful, grotesque, funny, sad, and interesting things that so many people miss. I love to make up little anecdotes or poems about these things, often anthropomorphizing inanimate objects for the sake of a good story.
For instance:
I’ve also discovered all sorts of new places to walk outside my neighborhood, places I still go. I love the Birmingham Botanical Gardens and walked there so much during the pandemic that I became a member. There’s also Railroad Park, the Rotary Trail, and the Vulcan Trail.
One place I’ve come to especially love is the Jemison Trail through Mountain Brook. The City of Mountain Brook has recently renovated the park and trail to add wider paths, more benches, a lot of drainage to prevent the previous flooding issues, some picnic areas, and better parking and access to the trail. They also seem to be adding an additional bridge that will connect you to a trail on the other side of the creek.
When you walk near water, you often get to see a lot of nature, like waterbirds and hawks.
Or maybe a golden orb spider rebuilding her home after a storm. If seeing big yellow spiders triggers you, don’t watch this video.
You might see a pair of copperheads in flagrante delicto, which is a fancy way to say “doin’ it.” Ricky was excited because he thought he’d found a two-headed snake, then he realized what he was seeing. If seeing pictures of snakes triggers you, scroll on past this one too
There’s always some rando trash and lost objects.
Once, I found $5, which I didn’t pick up because I’m afraid of fentanyl, and you can never be too careful. Money is filthy anyway.
And this week someone lost these, which I didn’t pick up either because EEEEEEWWWWWW! Is anyone else wondering why they’re propped up on a stick? It's probably a satanic ritual afoot.
And damned if they weren’t still there two days later!
These are just a few of the hundreds of different things I’ve recorded over the last three and a half years, and as I keep on keepin’ on, I plan to share more of them with you here.
Want to know more about how you can walk for more than 1,000 days straight? Just ask me! I’ll be happy to answer your questions or maybe do a post about it.
That’s all she wrote(for now),
Audrey
P.s. Not quite all! Check out my latest over at It’s a Southern Thing. There’s one about shelling peas (a very Southern thing) and another about sweet tea (spoiler alert, it’s not as Southern as you might think).