Scarcely springing

More signs of spring in today's photos, although I'm not sure I can say we are getting much more than "signs". We're stuck in "single digit" above zero mode in the days, still getting down below freezing at night, edging into a couple of double-digit "belows" last week, plus a bit of a snow flurry on Friday. I have to keep reminding myself that I should be happy the snow is pretty well gone and compared to the last five months or so the temperatures aren't *that* bad, but yet......I'm ready to start crabbing about being too hot any time now. 

Due to the ongoing less than ideal weather, cold winds, and general grey sunless skies of late, I was in a bit of an unsettled state for much of the past week.  Add in Jim having gone out of town for several days, Alpac being unwell enough that I couldn't ride, and my back having gone painfully unstable on me, and I don't have a lot of fun stuff to report on. Haven't even been doing much of interest in the way of art images as for the moment I have no particular show deadlines, and I'm just not terribly motivated. Sigh. 

However, despite *my* minor case of the doldrums, other artists of my acquaintance seem to have been functioning splendidly, as I was able to witness over the past few days. Jamie Russell has a show in one of the galleries at the Mendel Gallery, Saskatoon's "big" civic gallery, and it was a treat to see so many of Jamie's interesting, impeccably crafted, and witty wood creations gathered together. Jamie and I have orbited in vaguely the same art and marketing atmosphere for many years, and I guess we can both be considered "survivors" of the Saskatchewan art and crafts scene of the last three or so decades. His work is well deserving of the space it currently commands at the Mendel, and I encourage any local readers of this blog to go check it out. 

Another satisfactory art experience was attending the open studio show/sale hosted by Bobbi Clackson-Walker in her very interesting (and well organized!!) home last Friday evening. I wasn't sure what to expect, since although I stay in touch with Bobbi in an intermittent fashion via email, I hadn't actually seen any of her work for a couple of years. I was quite surprised to see that her subject matter (or lack of, with the "non literal" direction she has gone) and media have changed quite significantly from what she did before. I was really taken with these new works which are "about" colour, texture, shape and pattern, but which nonetheless suggest natural forms. I like works that leave room for the viewer to bring their own interpretation to what they are seeing, and Bobbi's new images definitely succeed in this respect. I look forward to tracking where she will go with her work from here.

Today's shots are a compendium of some I've gathered in the past week. Although I was mildly down and out I still managed to get out with the camera on a number of occasions. 

Shot one was taken in front of the Mendel Gallery on the evening that Jim and I went there earlier in the week. There's nothing particularly special about this, but I really liked the lovely golden light of the setting sun as it warmed the bark of these trees. Another notable point is that there was a kestrel sitting at the very top of this tree, devouring a small rodent that it had caught. Couldn't get to the right angle to get a shot of that. 

The next three shots were taken at Ebon Stables on the weekend as I wandered about with my camera, which I tend to do when I can't ride. The pussy-willows (shot two) are out in full force now, at the correct time of year, unlike the ill-advised ones I photographed in late January. There seem to be a *lot* of robins around the barn this spring, and I caught this shot (shot three) of one sitting up in a large tree near the jump ring. Just after I got this shot the robin departed in some agitation. I wasn't sure what had caused this flurry of action until I looked around and spotted one of the barn cats emerging from the rosebush hedge. That would explain it! I had a little chat with the cat, pointing out that her job description began and ended with rodents, but I don't know how much of that she was willing to accept. 

Next birds were the sparrow flock which were flitting from place to place over by the turnout pens. Sparrows are amongst the hardest of birds to photograph since they are very spooky by nature and can (and will) disappear instantaneously and for no apparent reason. I got lucky with shot number four, since the perched sparrow seemed fairly calm and settled in. I got him in focus and just as I pressed the release on the camera, bird number two came in for a landing. My horse Alpac had come over to stand by me when I was taking this shot, and if you can get close to a horse when taking bird shots it helps, as the birds don't notice you as much, and are used to the horses and have a fairly good tolerance of them. 

The last shot is one I took this morning on an outing to Blackstrap Lake provincial park in search of more bird species. I did see quite a variety of mostly water birds stopping over in their migration (various gull species, duck species, cormorants, a few Northern loons, crows and a large hawk, hovering over the rest) but couldn't really get close enough to any of them. There is still a lot of ice on the lake and most of the birds were stationed out on the ice where predators (and photographers) can't approach closely. I liked the warm colours of the dried reed grasses contrasted with the cold blue-grey of the water behind them. 

And to close out this post, I'm happy to say that things are starting to look up. It's still chilly out but the clouds have gone and we have a nice blue sky and sun for the moment, Jim is back home, my back has pretty well settled down (I'm starting to wonder if there's a weather factor with the back), Alpac (if his extremely lively behavior of yesterday is anything to go by) is feeling better, and I'll be back riding tomorrow. All will be well once more in my world. 

For those who are following my series of articles for the Creativity Portal site, here is the link for the latest one http://www.creativity-portal.com/articles/judy-wood/basics-are-basic.html