On taking way too many photos of a natural swimming pool

I don't know what it is, but for some reason my only two kid-free mornings per week seem to disappear lately. I'll be planning to do all sorts of birthday card writing, sewing and just plain getting the house back to some sort of order after a busy week, and all of a sudden something else comes up.

Like this week. After spending most of Monday at my doctor's office (waiting, mind you. The actual appointment took less than five minutes), I had all sorts of stuff piling up on my to do list. So while I knew my dearest had an appointment on Friday to deliver a large-scale clock to a natural outdoor swimming pool nearby, I didn't realize that had anything to do with me. Until Thursday night. "So, you're coming with me tomorrow to take some pictures?" he asks over dinner. Uhm, well, I had other plans, but.... "Sure", I reply. What else can I say?

Of course the company hired to actually hang the clock did not get that done while I was there. Bummer. So while the guys were discussing technical stuff, I went off exploring with my camera. Truth be told, I haven't been inside the pool area yet. It's been open for two years now, but since there is this great (and free) water playground right in front of it, the kids and I went there on hot days.

This is the tower that the clock is supposed to hang on.

There was quite a thunderstorm the night before, so there were water drops on all the plants.

This little sunflower here actually has solar panels on the other side and turns to where the sun is. Not all that much luck on Friday.

I just love wooden decks. And I love how the wood that's already turned gray gets it's natural color back once wet.

Can you tell I had fun with the macro setting and the water drops? (Warning: this is not the last shot of those)

The inside of the tower looking up.

Someone help me with the English term for these, if there is such a thing. But it does look like a beach vacation, doesn't it?

And here we go, another water drop photo. Last one, I promise (not that there aren't another gazillion of them I chose not to publish).

We came back today to check if the clock is up yet, and it is. Yay! Note the brothers checking it out with daddy. In case you can't see it: It's that red thing at the tower, showing time, water temperature and (brrrrrrrrr!!!!!) air temperature. Which was at a freezing 11 degrees celsius today, which is quite a drop from yesterday. Did I mention I was cold? Freezing? Maybe wearing socks and boots instead of bare feet in ballet flats would have been a good idea, but those didn't match by brand-new bright red jacket I found on sale last week. I'll have to show you, well, that is if I can convince someone to take a good enough photo of me to post it. Anyhow.

I love the simple, clean lines of the architecture. Like brushed metal letters on untreated wood. Actually, I think I want a number on my house like that. Maybe a little smaller...

So this is the view as you walk up to the pool's entrance. And even if you can't tell from the photo (hey, I'm not a product photographer), you can read the time (or temperature) from this point. Which made a certain someone very happy.

The brother's didn't care at all though. They wanted daddy to take them around the water playground in one of the rafts. Mommy wanted to go home. As I said, I was freezing. Well, guess who won.

Funny thing is, we were at this playground, meeting with friends on a beautiful warm and sunny Sunday morning precisely one year ago. It was so warm the kids all got wet. Really, really wet. So here's to hoping the sunny (and warm please!) weather comes back soon. Maybe I'll eventually get a better shot of this little guy here, a wooden wale with a build-in fountain.

So hey, you made it. Over here it's been really, really busy, and next week is no exception. Until things calm down somewhat, you'll have to forgive me for compensating my lack of posts with posting way too many photos. Way too many photos without much of a story to go with them, but hey, I really liked them too much to just leave them in the archive.

Well, big brother will be back from swimming lessons soon, and I promise I'll try to avoid crashing into bed at 8pm tonight (like I did yesterday) so I can post something for tomorrow's simple things.

Meanwhile I'd like to know if you've ever been to natural swimming pool. Are there any where you live?

Have a great weekend!
Swenja