Taking my camera for a walk

I've been reading David Ulrich book, `The Mindful Photographer', and in a chapter aimed at using photography to free ones self from the straight jacket of conventional photographic images, he makes a number of suggestions, e.g using a `toy camera' or taking your camera for a walk and seeing where it leads you.  I think my journey was not  far ranging as I only got as far as the garden (it had been raining), but I haven't considered my neighbours drying umbrella as a subject before.