I haven’t gone on a good, old-fashioned walkabout in much too long. In college I used to walk around the town for hours and hours, taking pictures on a little point-and-shoot camera (this was before my D-SLR days…way back when). You always discover little pieces of your neighborhood that you might miss when you’re rolling by in your vehicle of choice.

So today after work, instead of sitting in my house for several more hours getting more done in front of a laptop, I donned a coat, grabbed an umbrella as I tut-tutted and it looked like rain, and hit the sidewalk. I took a film camera and my iPhone. It will take a little bit longer to get the film photos — has to get developed first, what is that? — but here are some fancy phone shots.

This monstrous piece of architecture lives in our neighborhood. It’s quite the manor. Not exactly the stature of our beloved, cottage house. Our cottage house is more in the commoner range. This bad boy is like the duke of all the houses. But frankly, I’m more a fan of the cottage-sized homes. What do you do with all that space anyway?

Good thing I brought the umbrella, huh? Sun and rain combos are my all time favorite. Gahgeous dahling.

So here’s something to share with the class — turns out, I am really bad at taking selfies. This is not false modesty. Following are my two first attempts.

That one there, super fantastic. Glad my feet got a blurry cameo. I don’t even know. Maybe one day I’ll be cool.

Once I got the hang of actually getting my face in the frame (what a concept), I looked one hundred percent awkward. The only way to combat that is by making faces. Scientific fact.

So there’s a walkabout. Now your turn, dear ones.