Art show/sale next Saturday

And now a word from your sponsor. This isn't really an infomercial, but I want to alert everyone in Saskatoon and area (or those who can get to Saskatoon and area) that next weekend is my fourth annual invitational fall art show and sale. For the first three years I held the show on the grounds at Ebon Stables, a good venue with the added attraction of horses on site, but one with some limitations, chiefly the fact that we were at the mercy of the weather in an essentially outdoor setting. I decided my nerves couldn't take the uncertainty about the weather any longer, and found a good new venue for the show, just down the road a few kilometres from Ebon, at Agar's Corner. We have an indoor site, paved roads pretty well the whole way (one gravel strip of a few hundred metres), lots of parking, and the added bonus of a heritage farmhouse on site that is now the home of a catering business, so sit-down lunches in the old farmhouse are a welcome add-on. Come one, come all. I'd love to see you. No admission charge.

We've been pegging away at household repairs and improvements (there's an endless list) and last week it was time to repair the areas of the deck where chairs and people were at danger of falling through the soft spots. Our friend Ed the ever-capable provided the expertise for the job, and also helped with the hauling, as in shot two here. Ed (in front) and Jim walked the twelve-foot long 2 x 4s a couple of blocks from the Co-op Building centre to our house, none of us having a vehicle that could comfortably hold them. I caught this shot of them nearing their destination.

                                             

Harvest is pretty well completed in this part of the prairies, and despite the traditional laments from the farmers in the spring, it was a good one. Shot three shows the field across the road from the stables last week in process of being harvested. It has been dry here for a long time and huge clouds of dust swirled around the combine as it moved slowly along. Overhead this day there were about a half dozen large hawks (either Swainson's or Red Tailed) following along, swooping down intermittently to scoop up a dazed gopher who had just been stunned by the passage of the combine.

 Shot four shows my boy Mickey as he checked out the local school skating rink enclosure last week on a walk. The inside of the rink fence was painted years ago by the schoolchildren, but the artwork is dull and faded now, as can be seen on the bits of fence behind Mickey. This is the west-facing side which is much more faded than the east-facing, for whatever reason.

 I took this shot the same night that Mickey and I were out wandering in the schoolgrounds. It's dark these days by 7:30, and when we head out for our after-supper walk, the shadows are very long. It was the size of the shadow cast by these pebbles in the road that caught my eye for shot five. I'd actually seen a wonderful big ant shadow on a previous walk and was hoping to get a picture of that, but on the evening that I had my camera with me, no ants were to be seen.