I've had one of those days where I feel that I got shoved into the revolving door way earlier than I would have liked this morning, and have only just emerged after a long day of perpetual motion. Although unlike being in a literal revolving door, I did cover a lot of territory.The morning started with a phone interview for an article that Bethany Caskey is writing on my work for the July issue of Rural Heritage magazine. Seems Bethany found me via this blog, which makes me feel that maybe someone out there is listening (well, reading anyway) after
all. Then I spent most of the rest of the day rushing all over the city trying to catch up on the tasks I ditched last week while I was getting ready for the weekend show/sale in which I was a participant.
Since one of my destinations was Costco (where road construction has brought us a new definition of hell while trying to get in there) on the far reaches of the other side of town, of course I had to go there via the river weir where the pelicans live. I try to do this any time I have occasion to go to the other side of the river. In the end, I went to the weir three times today alone!! I assure you this wasn't in the original plan, it just kind of happened. First set of shots was on the outward bound leg, but it was kind of cold, very cloudy, and raining a bit. Seemed like a good idea to swing through again on the way home since the light had improved, although that stop didn't net much as no-body was within close range of the lens.
I had totally forgotten, while making these stops, that I was going to be very close to the weir around suppertime anyway, dropping a couple of photomontages off at the Mendel Gallery for their annual members show. Since I was in the neighbourhood anyway (and since the light was really good this go-round) I popped down there for the third and final visit this evening. I think it's safe to say that was the final one since the sun will be setting rather soon and that will be it for the day. Strangely, I'm not featuring any pelican shots today, but trust me, I have lots.
One of the fun things I did last week was to attend an outdoor flyball practice at the behest of my daughter who participates with one of their dogs. I really enjoyed the variety of dogs that were there, all enthusiastic in their individual ways, and all going hard at their training. The setting is very pleasant (in a park-like area on the university canvas) but a bit challenging for photography as the big trees cast shadows which meant the dogs were running from quite bright sun to shade, and then back to bright areas, making it hard for the camera to figure out what is happening. Also those dogs go darn fast. I plan to make a few return visits to work on my technique for this new area (for me) of photography. Today's top two photos are from that shoot. The happy young Jack Russell in the top shot is one that I last saw looking like a very small guinea pig at age 4 weeks, in a fall puppy photo session I did last October (October 6/08 in the older posts here). The second shot is one I got in the parking lot as I was leaving. Several fine-looking American Staffordshire Terriers were arriving, and this fellow was peeking around the corner to check me out. I hope they'll be at the coming week's session so I can snag a few shots of them in action.
Shot three is of a fox that ran across the road in front of my vehicle as I was leaving the art show I was at over the weekend--the show was located at Agar's Corner farm site, several miles east of the city. Of course the fox was much closer when first spotted, but by the time I got the van stopped and had the camera dragged out, this was the best I could do, and I felt lucky even to get this shot.
Shot four shows a fine fish that I purchased at the show from my friend Ric Pollack, who was another participant. I've wanted one of these for a while, and it seemed like a good time to get one. He's located by our outdoor fishpond, and can serve as a memorial for the poor pond fish that was the victim of Mickey the Boxer, as detailed in last week's post.
While I was out photographing the fish sculpture, I realized how many of the nice little early irises had opened up overnight, and I felt they were worthy of a spot of their own in the blog. I've been in major iris mode for the past few weeks, as I have a lot of them and all are shamefully neglected and overgrown. I've been digging, dividing, and dispersing them with great industry and almost feel that I'm getting somewhere with the whole process. Usually this is a fall chore for me (in the years when I actually get around to it) but I just couldn't stand them any more so am doing them now while I'm still enthusiastic about being able to be outdoors. Doesn't seem to bother them as some that were brutally yanked out of the ground and chopped into bits before being replanted in a new location are now blooming quite cheerfully. You've got to respect that kind of survival!
I'll end with a couple more links for those that care to follow them. The June article in my ongoing series on the Creativity Portal is now up, and there is a feature online interview on the Equinest, an online magazine. Seems like I've plugged in a lot of links this week, but sometimes there are just a lot of little side roads that need to be explored.
