Can't we all just get along? Yes!

 

Geumsan Village, Gangneung.

These chickens are usually in a small field with a number of goats. I guess the farmer let them out to eat up stray rice grains in the winter field. 
Its head is down, but there is a turkey in the group. I wonder if the chickens recognise the difference between themselves and the turkey. For that matter, do they see the goats they live with as anything other than slightly odd-looking siblings?

Packaged Food for Cows

 

Geumsan Village, Gangneung.

Mandu

 

Woman Selling Mandu (dumplings) in Central Market, Gangneung.

Winter is probably the best time to visit Korea if you are interested in street food. Sweet potatoes and chestnuts roasted in barrels, pancakes stuffed with brown sugar and cinnamon, fish-shaped pastries (bungeobbang) filled with various sweet pastes, stir-fried rice cake in sweet-and-spicy sauce, boiled fish paste on a stick (sounds gross described in English, but is delicious), stuffed steamed buns, and dumplings. On a cold day, the steam rising from food stalls draws in crowds of hungry people and the occasional photographer.

No Parking in Front of Field

 

Hoesan Neighbourhood, Gangneung.

This plastic jug probably came from the restaurant next to the field. Someone put Xs on it to indicate you shouldn't park on the narrow concrete road. Someone else thought it would be a good place to put an empty tonic drink bottle so it would become Someone Else's Problem. It's not littering if someone eventually takes it away, right?

Balance

I called this post 'Balance' because as I was preparing the photo for upload, I noticed that the bright container is balanced by the light sky. I've posted a colour digital photograph of this scene, but I rather like this black and white film version. 
 

Barrels

 

Outside of town there is a school for learning how to operate heavy trucks and equipment. These barrels have been lying in the grass just outside the school property for years. There is rebar sticking out of them, and I have no idea what purpose they might have served.

You go your way, I'll go mine

 

Downtown Gangneung Shop Window

Myeongju Royal Tomb

(I wrote this almost two weeks ago and then forgot about it. Oops.)

I like to visit the tomb of King Myeongju from time to time because there are few people and no sounds of traffic, spitting, or screaming children (a few of the delights of apartment living).  At the bottom of the tomb site are a number of buildings where the king's ancestors do ancestral rites, probably once a year. There is also a large lot, which provides parking for people visiting the tomb, participating in the ancestral rites, or going up the hiking trail that goes past the tomb. There is a park nearby, but I've never seen anyone in it besides myself. When I visited in August it was mostly grown over.

I made the photos on my Fujifilm X-T4 and used a Kodak E100G film simulation on them in Lightroom. I'm not sure it really looks like E100G (my favourite film until it was discontinued), but it's easy to make decent looking photos with just one click. I'm really bad at post-processing, so I'm grateful for any help I can get.

There are a number of statues at the parking lot level of the site. Royal tombs usually have warriors and scholars. If I remember my history correctly, these were the two main branches of government at the time. Though I might be wrong.

A detail from the statue of the scholar.

Two views of a smaller scholar statue next to the tomb.

The tomb's altar seen through a stone lantern.

This scholar held my bag while I took some refreshment. 

This looks like a statue of a monk. This king lived before the Confucians decided the Buddhists had too. much power and started tearing down their temples and stripping them of power.

A view down the hill from the tomb.

One of the parking lot scholar statues.

And his warrior mate across the way.

The overgrown park.

It's the season for these tiny blue flowers. I wish I knew the name of them. They are my favourite flowers.

When you're feeling fierce and pretty at the same time.

I found what I think are interesting new perspectives of the tomb this time. I'd like to go back again soon before the grass starts to die. I might take colour film this time. I have some Kodak Proimage 100 and I think it'll look good.