Sunday Selections # 327

Welcome back to Sunday Selections.

Begun way back in the mist of time by Kim of Frog Ponds Rock and now continued by me, with a drastic relaxation of rules.

Originally meant for showcasing old photos lost on your files, never seeing the light of day, the meme has morphed into photos of your choice, new or old, good or not-so-good, anything you please, but nothing rude please.

If you are participating, please leave me a comment so I can buzz along and have a look.
Elephant's Child always participates, and her pictures are always worth seeing.

Yesterday I took myself into the hills, by bus of course, it's too far to walk, to a favourite town of mine, Stirling. It's gorgeous up there at this time of year and I took a few hundred photos of trees wearing their autumn colours, but I'll show some of those another day. 
Today we'll see a few of the sights in Stirling, but to begin, I have two photos of interesting clouds sent to me via phone by 'no-one'. You all remember who she is? 

Last Wednesday's clouds. Can you all see people dancing in these clouds? I'm not sure the picture will enlarge.

this was the sunset last Thursday. No-one takes better phone photos than I do.

here's my shadow, leaning against the post while waiting for the bus to Stirling.

Once in Stirling I walked right through to the other end, then walked my way back taking photos. 

hand painted sign just leaning against a bush.

and the chestnut man himself. Notice the wire basket right beside the $6 sign? it sits over an open fire and he turns the basket by hand while the chestnuts within get roasted. I spoke to him a while and learned he has been doing this here for thirty years. I didn't think to ask his name :(

a couple of dead trees down a side road leading to somewhere else.

a little further down that side road, this cypress looks pretty close to dead also.

a pretty decorated stobie pole

which turns out to be mosaic not painted.

this pretty gazebo is in the small park adjacent to the "new" library building

much closer to the library building is this sculpture. I have no idea what it represents, or even if it does represent anything.

closer to the other end of town is this sculpture, by a New Zealand artist, the particulars are on the post there, but I didn't photograph all the sides of that. This is just one of many sculptures along the 'Hills Sculpture Trail'.

the other park at the bus stop end of town with another pretty gazebo. in the background is a playground where my grandchildren used to play, it is much bigger now and fully fenced so kids can't run onto the road. I took a closer shot, but it has recognisable faces of dads and kids so I won't show it.

across the road from the playground is "The Old Manse"

here is a side/back view

and the front. it is used as the physiotherapy centre now.

the carpark area for the Manse is right next to this old footpath which leads onto a walking trail along the hilltop; the trail connects Stirling with the foot bridge over the freeway to a smaller town, Crafers. I've walked this trail before, many years ago with the grandchildren, coming from Crafers into Stirling. I thought about walking it again, this time from Stirling to Crafers, but decided against it. I'll do it one day when I have a friend with me, in case I fall or trip or something. Sections of it are steep, there are leaves and rocks, 90% of the trail isn't paved.

So I walked back into the town and found my favourite bakery:

where I bought a couple of pastries, apple danish and apricot danish, to bring home.