Points of view

I was very taken by the kaleidoscope this window produced as I walked down the street towards it this morning. Each slight shift and it told a different story about its surroundings. It seemed very appropriate as I thought about some of the forceful differences of opinion around last night's dinner table. This comprises just two of the several different pictures I took of it.

This afternoon J-L and I went to see the waterfall tumbling down the cliffs at 'Le Bout du Monde'. Way up above us was the cliff top, sunlight through the leaves of perching trees and blue sky but no water. Empty. Dried up. There's a path behind the waterfall but instead we walked straight through the imaginary water.

J-L suggested we climb the slope up the cliffs next to the dry waterfall to get to the path just above. It looked steep to me, with loose rocks, crumbly soil and few handholds but I thought I could see a route up. And he seemed confident. It turned out to be steeper and crumblier than it looked but mid-way up when we started to have doubts it seemed safer to continue than to go back down. Then when we got to the top we found that the slope turned a corner and we were still only half way up. More roots to hold onto, more lumps of cliff to clamber up. I tried to focus just on the bit of slope under my body and not think about the long tumble down. I started to imagine our respective partners standing at the bottom telling us what a pair of idiots we were. And so we were but we made it. The walk back down on a proper path through dappled woods was a fitting way to mark the last ever cliff-climb I'll attempt.

Hours later I discovered that today's Abstract Thursday challenge - 'Big and small, scales of perception, optical illusion' - fitted very well with what the camera had done with my morning thoughts, so thank you once again, youoregon1, for hosting.