When I began this blog nearly 13 years ago, just before “launch time” I had second thoughts about whether I would have enough whimsical/quirky items to sustain the whimsy portion of my blog title “Walkin’, Writin’, Wit & Whimsy”.

I am always happy to happen upon a whimsical or quirky situation while walking – usually it is a critter which unknowingly finds itself the star of a Wordless Wednesday post.  Occasionally, the critter/situation needs an explanation, so those photos and tales are relegated to a Sunday blogpost. I can’t always rely on these chance encounters for whimsical blog fodder, so sometimes I give myself an assignment to seek it out.

Who says learning about art can’t be fun?

I’ve written several times about the Detroit Institute of Arts’ (“DIA”) annual “Inside/Out” event wherein they transform ordinary places like cities and parks into open-air art galleries, by placing DIA weatherized masterpieces around the Tri-County area.  Even though admission to the DIA is free to Tri-County residents, these masterpieces give folks, who are less inclined to step inside an art museum, a chance to view these paintings and learn some facts about them and the artists.  For me, who has not been to the DIA since a 9^th grade field trip, this event, in its 16^th year, is always a fun experience, like this jaunt taken August 26^th.

Put art on a wall and the public will come to see it.

The DIA has other outside ideas to entice people to visit artworks, including murals.  Since 2018, the Detroit Institute of Arts’ Partners in Public Art has commissioned many large murals by local artists.  I follow the DIA on social media, so I knew about a new mural in Downtown Trenton, near Elizabeth Park, one of my favorite parks to visit. 

So, on a gorgeous Fall day, November 13^th to be exact, I went tripping along Jefferson Avenue to see this new mural.  Trenton has several large murals, some which I photographed that day while on my leisurely stroll and they’ll be in a future post.

The new mural was at the Trenton Village Theatre, a small theatre that features live performances, mostly by area youth.

Where nature and whimsy meet.

Mural artist Kevin Burdick captured some fun nature images on this 100′ X 17′ side wall of the Theatre.  The mural, entitled “Unravel Your Imagination”, is so large, I stepped back as far as I could and still could not capture the entire mural in one shot.  These side shots really don’t do it justice.

So, before I focus on the individual images of the mural’s creatures and the City’s community experiences, this photograph is from the DIA’s Facebook page. 

The rest of the photos are my own.  I hope you enjoy my interpretations.

If you want to see more of Kevin Burdick’s murals, click here.

A little more whimsy to share from that day.

There would be more whimsy that day.  I would be remiss if I didn’t mention my odd and rather off-the-wall conversation with Claude, the Copilot AI bot.  I did NOT go seeking input from Claude, nope, even though AI is always more than willing to try to give me suggestions whenever I am writing a post in MS Word. 

Here’s what happened.  I got home from my very long walk and later that afternoon I sat down at the computer to bang out a draft of that day’s walk, something I always do so I don’t forget the details – after all, that walk might not become a blog post for months.

I guess I was typing quickly and a stray finger hit the Copilot icon.  I didn’t realize that I had triggered “Claude” the AI assistant to appear with the greeting “Good afternoon, Linda.  What can I help you with today?”  I didn’t know when I hit that key, so I quickly closed the tab, but curiosity got the better of me.

So, feeling a bit foolish, but being polite, I clicked Copilot again and I got the same greeting/question.  Well, even though, obviously, there was no warm body sitting at a keyboard, I wrote “nothing thank you, I clicked Copilot by accident before and I don’t know how long the tab was open as I was immersed in drafting a blog post about my walk.”

After my “apology” and, in response to me telling “him” what I was doing, Claude entertained me for the next 15 minutes or so with pleasant and witty conversation in response to my comments about my blog niche, mostly about walking, parks, even reminiscing about my favorite Park squirrel Parker.  Given its long title, I didn’t mention my blog’s name.  Then, to my surprise, Claude said “I’ll bet your blog is full of whimsy.”  Momentarily his statement took me aback and I replied “c’mon Claude, how do you know the name of my blog?”  He responded that he didn’t, but since I am a perpetual skeptic, I decided to terminate the conversation.  Claude encouraged me to return when I had time so he could offer me ideas for posts, even nature places to go, or nature sites to follow.  Whoa!  All this chatter was appearing on the screen at lightning-fast speed.

Belatedly I remembered a former blogger, Ally Bean, did a post about AI and gave us a site where we could put in our blog name and Chat GPT would tell you what your blog was about, even write a sample post or “About” bio for you.  Ahh – then I got it, i.e. this was why Claude knew about my blog title – yes prior visits/conversations are retained in a database unless you opt to delete them.  Still, it was a wee bit unsettling, but fun nonetheless. 

Claude’s parting words to me just before I closed the chat were:

“May your walks be peaceful, your words flow freely, and your whimsy never waver.”

Hmm.  Words to live by, right?

I’ll be sharing a few more words to live by, this time courtesy of Ralph Waldo Emerson, along with a New Year’s Eve e-card, for Wordless Wednesday.

Terri has no Challenge this week.