Slow rotation

I'm starting to feel that my life (and this blog) are in slow rotation mode. It takes a while for me to come full circle, but here we are again, so if you have been following this blog for a while, and it seems like I'm starting to repeat myself, you're correct! This came to my attention last week when I was chatting with another boarder at the stables. I mentioned I was heading off to get some photos at "working cowboy camp" at the Clearwater ranch  and my friend remarked that he remembered that from last year's blog photos. Right.

Ditto with my grandson Mark being off school and coming to "camp Grandma" for weekdays during the summer holidays. Been there before, done that (for a few years now) and here we go again. This year his mother seems to feel we need to spend at least the occasional moment in edifying pursuits, so she has given us an on-going set of photography and Photoshop assignments to apply ourselves to. Daily!! We have made it through day 1 but I can already sense that this may be challenging for us to accomplish, given that most summers we just kind of drift through our days, happily busy but not necessarily fruitfully occupied. We'll see how it all pans out over time. 

The theory here is that Mark will take a "theme" photo and do something with it in Photoshop every day that he is here (which in the end adds up to a fair number of days, even subtracting the ones where he is off adventuring and holidaying with his parents). I get to do the Photoshop instruction, which means it will be a learning experience for me as well, since I'll have to think a bit harder about how to explain the process, rather than just poking away the way I do when I'm working on my own. Assuming we survive the process, I'm sure we'll both be better individuals at the end of the summer. Right. 

On to the photo collection from this past week. Shot number one is one that hasn't been part of my summer rotation in the past, but that I hope will become one in the future. Mable Elliott wanted some shots of her horses and her place for promotional purposes, and I headed out there on Thursday morning, a nice sunny and quite breezy day, pretty well ideal for our purposes. I had only ever been to Mable's when it was cold and not yet snowy, and really cold and snowy, so it was a wonderful treat to be able to spend time on the photos without worrying about the pain in my hands and my prospects of survival in general. She has a terrific collection of large willow trees all over the "core" area around the house and barns, and I liked this shot of a couple of the geldings pausing for a drink in the shade. This one has been enhanced with filters and various other Photoshop effects. 

Shot two shows grandson Mark atop Mount Mulch, which is chopped tree prunings that can be purchased cheaply and in large amounts from a local tree trimming company. The only problem is I am the one (with a bit of help from Mark) who gets to distribute the pile all over the front yard. I've been toiling intermittently for several days now and while the pile is somewhat diminished, there's still an awful lot of it in the driveway. To get an idea of the height of the pile, Mark is now a little taller than me, and I'm 5'5". Sorry, I grew up here pre-metric so am not sure what that is in meters. Tall for a mulch pile, at any rate. 

Shot three is one of the many lovely yellow roses in bloom in the front yard. I've always loved the yellow ones that I've seen all over the city for many years, and last year I finally figured out what they are and bought one. It got through the very tough winter in good style and is absolutely covered in blooms at the moment. 

Shot four is a very typical one from any gathering of western-style horses. I got this at the Clearwater place, and sadly it is one of the few from that shoot. By the time I got down there in late morning on Saturday, it was chilly and very overcast, with a big wind blowing. In the interests of the instructors actually being heard by those who were there to learn, they had moved the remaining Saturday events into the indoor arena, where the lighting is not conducive to photography. This was a big disappointment for me as this is one of my favourite photo ops of the year. Of course Sunday was lovely and doubtless they were all having a heck of a good time working outside then, but it wasn't a day that I could make it down there. Oh well, maybe next year!! 

The final shot is from a series I did later on Saturday afternoon. I was moving mulch around and feeling generally that I had been short-changed in the photo department that day, when my friend who does wildlife rehabilitation phoned to see if I wanted to pop over to her place and get some shots of her current residents. This is something I love doing (and did last year too, around the same time of year, to stick to our theme of recurring events) so I was only too happy to grab the camera and get over to her place. By then the skies had cleared a bit as well and we had some sun, at least intermittently. She has the usual number of baby ducks (i.e. quite a few) at various ages and stages of development, plus a number of small mammals, including a *very* young skunk and tiny rabbit, which have to be bottle-fed every two hours night and day. People who take on this sort of responsibility are truly dedicated! The young raccoon featured in shot five was having a wonderful time exploring the possibilities of the back yard, which include this great water feature. She skittered all over the place, all the while vocalizing in a truly appealing fashion. I don't look on the increasing local raccoon population with a lot of enthusiasm as I know how tough they can be on the domestic pet population once they get ensconced in the city, but darn it they are cute when they are little, and they also have their place in the larger scheme of things, so as with everything we all need to adapt and learn some tolerance. 

"Life's rich pageant...."

Well, it was quite a weekend. Likely it was quite a week as well but I hardly remember that far back, partly because I have hit some sort of wall today where the accumulated tiredness of the past several weeks has me feeling pretty stunned and slow of brain, but also partly due to the fact that there was a lot of stuff crammed into the weekend.

I did get the lawn move completed (save for a few shreds of tidying up) from one part of the back yard to the other, and purchased and planted eight out of nine shrubs for the new "shrubbery" where the lawn used to be. One final one (a lovely little yew) is awaiting the right moment to go in, as it's the designated "Bud" tree, where I will deposit the ashes of my dear cat Bud, who has been waiting patiently in her reduced form for her final resting spot to be determined. I had plans for her to go in under the apple tree Jim planted last summer, but he had it bought and planted while I was riding before I even knew he was thinking about it, so Bud missed out on that one. I haven't looked into the symbolism involved with yews but it seems to me there should be some, so I thought it would be the right one for her to be involved with. OK--I just looked up yew tree symbolism and there is lots. Here's one that seems right for my purposes--symbol of transformation and rebirth. Sounds good to me. I hasten to point out that mine is a small shrub version which will only get a few feet tall. In England they seem to be enormous trees. 

Saturday launched me into the weekend with a trip to Prince Albert, a small city about an hour and half north of here, to watch (and photograph) my son-in-law Bill as he competed in his first  Scott's Firefit competition. You can learn about it by checking the link but the short version is this is a challenging timed course done in full firefighter's gear (including breathing apparatus) that involves a number of elements of skill and strength of the sort used by firefighters in their work. Bill is a dedicated member of the volunteer fire department in their town, and he and his friend Norm decided to give it a try this year. They were among the oldest competitors (both vaguely near 40) and since they decided late in the game to go for it, they hadn't logged the extra training time that would have been useful, but both completed the course and acquitted themselves well. 

Since there are too many events and too few weekends in the summer here, I had to miss the first day of the Ebon dressage show on Saturday, but planned to spend much of the day doing shots of my clients as they rode on Sunday. Not to be. Finally the much awaited "first" rain of the season arrived, and it was torrential. The first few hours of Sunday were cool and damp but actually pretty nice conditions for the horses and riders. Mid-morning things got a little more intense, and much of the rest of the day was a wash, in more ways than one. Apparently we got over 65% of the year's rainfall to date just yesterday, and boy did we need it. Unfortunate timing for the show and for other outdoor weekend events, but for us horse people it means we may have hay after all for the winter, and the farmers of the area can actually hope for a crop. Up to yesterday none of it was looking too hopeful in those respects. 

On to the photos, and I guess I *am* brain-dead since I forgot to mention the moose! Finally "got my moose" on Saturday morning as I was heading out to pick up my daughter and grandson to go to Prince Albert to watch Bill compete. About a block down the street I couldn't help but notice a *lot* of the neighbourhood out on their front lawns looking north, many in their dressing gowns as it was fairly early. I looked around and couldn't see anything so gave a bit of a mental shrug and proceeded along my route. Then two police cars came scorching along from the side road by the municipal swimming pool, turning the corner and proceeding down the street I was on. "Seems a little early for criminal activity" was one of my thoughts. 

My initial thought on seeing the neighbours was "moose sighting!" but I had dismissed that as being too fanciful even for me. However, the next vehicle with flashing lights coming up hard behind me was a conservation officer's truck, so that made me quite hopeful about the moose possibilities. I got out of his way, and carried on with caution. Made it across 8th Street (usually quite a busy thoroughfare and a main artery of the east side of the city) and saw a whole whack of police cars, police on bicycles, and the conservation truck all converged on a parking lot just north of the tire store. There was the poor moose, who it turned out had been darted with a tranquilizer about an hour previously, then followed by officials as it made its way further into the city, until it was finally stopped by fencing, surrounding buildings, and its own inability to keep going due to the drugs entering its system. I got a few shots, then left as it was starting to show signs of going down. Watching big animals forced down by tranquilizers can be upsetting, plus I was on a timeline so couldn't stay to see the end. I am interested but remain unenlightened as to how they pick up an unconscious moose and what they use for transport.  

Today's first shot is of a little chipping sparrow that often comes and hangs out on the front yard trellis of an evening when I am out there reading. These are charming little birds who are much less spooky about people than house sparrows, and which we have had nesting in the front yard for a number of years. Jim says they are the only native sparrow species (house sparrows are an introduced species here) that nests in the cities. 

Shot two shows the moose with the dart in his hind end. You can see how stressed he is by the panting open mouth, also that he'd pretty well run out of options for moving along anywhere else, even if he had been capable of doing so. The moose that venture into the city are relocated at some distance to areas where there are other moose inhabitants. 

Shot three shows Bill at the top of a very tall tower (I think it was six flights of stairs up)  that he had to run up while carrying a 50 lb (20 Kg) hose. In this shot he is hauling a heavy weight on a cable from the ground to the top. Again, check the link above to learn about all the other challenges required to compete this grueling course.

Shot four is one I took for an online"photo assignment" of horse shots that had to be taken on the day of Summer Solstice. Given the pouring rain, I didn't have a lot of options, but got this one from my car window, featuring one of the competitor's horses loaded up and ready to head back home. 

Shot five shows the dressage ring as it appeared when I was leaving the barn in the late afternoon after checking on my own horse (who was tucked up snug, warm and dry in his box stall, happily eating the treats I had brought him). This is the sand ring which keeps a safe footing for horses and riders the longest of any of the show rings, but as you can see, there are limits even to what the sand ring can handle!! 

The goat ate my lawn......

Hard to believe (or even to remember) that only a week ago I was writing about how very cold it was, after the blazing heat of the last few days. Nice to have something different to comment on, although the heat isn't an unmixed blessing. Seems we in the western Canadian prairies are having the driest spring in the 113 years that such records have been kept. When I think of the two droughts (each several years in duration) I have lived through over the course of the past few decades, this isn't a good thing. I guess the cold was keeping me from noticing the lack of precipitation. Drought is undesirable in general, and even more so in an area where farming and the agrarian way of life is still very much present. Doesn't do much for hay supply or prices for us horse-owners, either. 

Now that yard and garden activity is not only an option but almost a necessity, we have been initiating projects left, right and center. First I decided that the alpine bed in the front yard was too big and the plants too small for it to look right, so I pulled out a ground cover area that I didn't care for and moved all the alpines there. Then I bought and planted a number of medium sized bushes, deciduous and evergreen, and planted them where the alpines had been. Other than the mountain of mulch that I have yet to order then distribute about the front yard, that's it for the front.

In the back, I've been dividing and de-mulching the iris beds as they have been sadly neglected. We took a trip to Solar Gardens a week ago and that made Jim decide that the entire iris bed needed to go so we could have a rock and succulent area in that spot. Then I thought that the irises would look good by the fish pond (site of the unfortunate dog and fish incident of a few weeks ago) so we have had to extend that area, remove existing edging, buy and install new and different (and, I hope, superior, or why did we bother?) edging, and generally prep for moving the irises. Plus we had earlier in the season pulled out the "upper" fish pond which always leaked, and now Jim fancies digging the pond liner into the ground for marsh plants. Sounds to me like a good way to breed mosquitoes, but I guess we'll give it a try. 

In the meantime, while I was at the Waterfront art show/sale on Saturday, my son-in-law Bill called by with "the goat" which is apparently the name of the turf lifting machine from the rental store. Bill attacked the far eastern strip of lawn so it can be removed to make room for the trees and bushes I want to establish there for birds and small wildlife. Of course that was the only half-decent remnant of lawn on the whole property and I'm removing it, but I had the bright idea of using the turf strips to fill in the troughs and dead spots (which comprise about half the remaining "lawn" area in the back yard) so I spent much of the morning working at that. I think I even moved a few weeds and some dog poop along with the turf to its new location--just so it will know it's still in the same yard!!  

Not sure about the origins of the rose in the first shot. I think it must be an indoor mini that I bought at the grocery store. The main thing there was I was trying out the new Nikon D40 that Jim got with airmile points. It's actually a really nice little camera and I'm thinking of taking it over as a back-up to my big Nikon. I need to read the manual(if we can find it) to figure out some basic stuff (like focussing) but once I understand how it works it will be a nice addition to my photo-taking arsenal. I hate switching lenses so with the little Nikon I will have a short lens camera available without having to take the zoom off the D200. Works for me!

You wouldn't know this was my blog without at least one horse shot, so shot two is the token one for today.  This is Kitten (Akeeta), a lovely Warmblood mare, a product of the Ebon Stables Warmblood breeding program. 

Shot three shows the vanishing lawn from the back yard. It was already quite hot by ten this morning when I took this shot, and Mickey decided that the cool earth was a better bet than the grass for his morning rest in the shade. 

Shot four shows a planting I did today, of two interesting succulents purchased on the recent visit to Solar Gardens. The plants on the left are Lithops or "living rocks", not to be confused with the non-living rocks I also put in there. The other plant that looks kind of alien is really interesting. Common name is "baby toes" and official name is "Fenestraria rhopalophylla". I bought them because I liked the visuals, but then read what it said on the information label and was really impressed. "Each leaf has a translucent window at the tip where sunlight is filtered to enable photosynthesis". Those little eyeball-looking things at the top of each tentacle are windows!

Shot five shows the net covering for the umbrella/outdoor table that I purchased (the net, that is, not the table)  on the weekend and installed today. It has a zippered opening for ingress and egress, and the hem you can see at the bottom is actually a rubber bladder that you can fill with water to hold it down. Not filled in this shot, but since a storm seemed imminent this afternoon (it didn't materialize) I did fill it with water in case of high winds. I took great pleasure in having my lunch in there today and watching the flies and mosquitoes on the outside, being frustrated in their attempts to get at my lunch and at me. Mostly I look forward to not having to worry about wasps when they come along, as many a nice outdoor meal has ended with us all running shrieking from the table ahead of marauding wasps after our food. 

                    

Layers

I'm not entirely sure of the question, but I'm pretty sure that the answer is layers. Or at least that's one of the answers. I work in Layers (that's the name of a Photoshop function) to create my photomontages. I have layers of time, space and meaning incorporated into many of my art pieces. And this past weekend I went back big-time to *wearing* layers, just like I do all winter.

With the double whammy of the first outdoor horse show of the season plus the Children's Festival downtown on the riverbank, you had to know chances were good for weather developments. Which with these events very frequently means *bad* weather developments. So, starting Thursday (warm-ups and clear jumper rounds at the stable) things were extremely windy, cold, cloudy, and intermittently damp. I suppose from the point of view of the horses and riders, the cold was better than the very hot and stressful working conditions that sometimes prevail at summer shows, but when the wind is howling out of the north so hard that jumps are in danger of being knocked over as they stand there minding their own business, that's getting a bit much. I recall looking into the sky above the jumper ring at one point and seeing two blackbirds overhead, pointing north and flapping their wings as hard as they could. They were staying stationary over the ring. Any time they slowed their flapping down, they went backwards. Sadly, since all the spectator areas for that ring face north, there was nothing any of us could do to shelter ourselves from the blast. 

By Friday and Saturday, I had figured out that I needed my layers back, so I headed off each day with a long-sleeved polo shirt as my base, over which I wore a fleece shirt, a heavy wool sweater, and my "light" winter jacket. Plus gloves. I was still just barely warm enough, and could have benefitted from long underwear or wind pants but didn't think of that until too late.

We turned the furnace back on, got the heater going in the backyard greenhouse, moved some of the tender houseplants and the few not-yet-planted bedding plants into the greenhouse, and wished the tomatoes good luck. 

I'm happy to be able to report that so far, late Monday, we still haven't lost anything to frost, although now the clouds are departing and giving us a clearing sky, all the better for temperatures to plunge this evening. One good thing about cloud cover is that it does help keep things warmer, "warmer" being a relative term these days. 

All today's shots are from the horse show. Shot one shows one of the rider's support staff (likely a dad) trying to catch a bit of shelter by the "outdoor facilities"  while he holds the horse between classes. Don't think it was an actual bathroom lineup, although at shows you never know for sure. 

This being Saskatchewan and still a farming province, you don't get too far in the country these days without seeing some sort of farm machinery on the move, since it is (theoretically) spring seeding time. Ebon Stables is carved out of the land-base of a working grain farm, so seeing equipment similar to that in shot 2 lumbering by on the road is never uncommon. 

I was able to snatch this shot (photo three) of two of the equine competitors having a quiet moment together as they waited for their turn in the show ring. They provided a nice peaceful counterpoint to the general chaos of a busy show and the vile weather that swirled around them. Those bridle numbers are always a visual distraction in my show photos, but they serve a purpose and need to be big enough for the show judges to make them out, so I'm learning to accept them as a necessary evil in these shots. 

Shot four shows ones of the "blanket people" who were in increasing evidence as the show went on and the weather continued to deteriorate. Everyone who could lay hands on a quilt, afghan, or horse blanket of some sort was trudging about the grounds, swaddled from head to toe. I felt we had the makings of a good science fiction B movie, titled "The Invasion of the Blanket People".

I caught shot five just as a big gust of wind and a whirlwind of dust blasted its' way through the warm-up ring, causing general havoc. There now, having seen all this, aren't you sorry to have missed this show?

One final note for anyone in the Saskatoon area. I will be at the Waterfront show (sponsored by the Saskatchewan Craft Council) at River Landing next Saturday (June 13) from 10 AM to 5 PM. Call by my booth and say hello if you are in the area. 

Do I get to sit down now?

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. 

The dog ate my ......

Finally things are picking up here, no freezing temperatures, no snow or even a threat of snow, and I've actually had a chance to wear shorts comfortably. Things are perking along quite nicely. I've been very busy on the home front getting plant material into the ground (much of which has been keeping warm in the backyard greenhouse with a heater running for the last several weeks) and also hauling my fairly large collection of indoor plants out onto the deck and to various areas around the house. Of course if the temperatures plunge yet again I'm hooped, but chances are it will be OK.

I had a nasty shock earlier today in the course of doing another of my seasonal tasks. We have a small outdoor pond in which we keep a couple of goldfish during the summer months to keep the mosquito larvae down, and just because they are nice to have. They winter over in an aquarium in the basement and I always look forward to releasing them to the pond as it must be such a nice change for them. Kind of like how Alpac and I feel when we can start riding outside again after a winter of indoor ring work. I had the fish in a bucket in the back yard, covered with a metal mesh strainer. While I left the fish to acclimatize to the outdoor temperature before putting them in the pond, I went out front to do some planting and digging.

Imagine my horror and distress when I returned to the bucket to find the cover off  and only one fish remaining where I had left two. I can only conclude that the wretched Mickey (one of my Boxer dogs and the only other living being in the back yard at the time) pushed the top off and ate my poor fish. Alive. I went as far as sniffing his mouth to see if he had fish breath, but really it just smelled like dog breath and I couldn't tell. However, I'd have to say the circumstantial evidence is very strong. He is the one that once raced into a flock of witless sparrows in the back yard and emerged with one in his mouth, so I'd say he is capable of having done this, although I'm not sure where the challenge was in grabbing a fish out of a pail. Poor thing. The remaining fish (of course Mickey took my favourite one, the one with the interesting shape and colours) seemed both in shock and depressed, but it at least is still alive. I have purchased it a new companion as I think even fish like to have another of their kind with them. I will definitely remember this event in future and keep Mickey in mind when I am doing fish transfers. 

On a happier note, I had a nice opportunity this weekend to get some shots of Tennessee Walking horses that were doing a demo at a local riding establishment (Riveriene Farm). It was interesting to see their way of moving and to learn about the breed history and their special characteristics.  It was also a pleasure to view the boarding establishment, owned and operated by someone I have known for a number of years, and a characteristically (for her) an impeccably put together and maintained boarding stable. 

Today's first two photos show a couple of the Tennessee Walkers, both owned by Sherri Hueser, who was unfortunately unable to ride either of them in the demos due to a knee injury that had her hobbling around on a crutch. However, this freed her up to give us a most informative commentary on both the breed in general and her horses in particular. The first shot shows Teddy in the rack, one of the specialty gaits of this and other gaited breeds. The second shot is Tango, a handsome black fellow with a noble head.

I had the camera at Ebon on Sunday when I popped out to check on Alpac. Little Murphy has taken up his summer occupation of chasing and "killing" his toys on the grass near the outdoor rings. I think in this shot he is wondering what would happen if his head got stuck in this position!!

Today I finally made it to the weir to start my annual seasonal collection of pelican shots (shot four). I continue to be fascinated by these birds and was interested to see that the flock seems bigger this year, with a lot of mature breeding adults (they have the upright keel on their beaks, unlike the juveniles whose bills lack this feature) like the two featured here. I suspect they are a couple, and they worked in perfect harmony much like synchronized swimmers, as they fished for their food. Other years I have seen few adults but many juveniles, so maybe this is the year that the teenagers have made the jump into adulthood, hence the larger number of physically mature birds. 

In my few otherwise unaccounted for moments (usually quite late at night these days) I have been working on some more of my rather odd photomontages. This one may or may not be completed. I am fairly happy with it as is, but I will often see other directions to go with these after I have contemplated them for a while, so it's anyone's guess at the moment whether it will stay like this over time. The nice thing about photomontages is that I can keep one copy as is, but do further work on another copy as I see fit. Kind of like having your cake and eating it too.  

Oh when will this end.....?

To get a feel for our experience here in the past week, just reread what I wrote last week and likely the week before that, and that's about it. The only change is that the intervals of warm are getting shorter and of cold are correspondingly longer. Every Tuesday (except tomorrow, I feel confident in saying) we hit about 22C / 70 F, a nice warm temperature for being outdoors in short sleeves, for gardening, and almost a bit too warm for riding comfort if you're in the sun and working at it. Every Wednesday the temperature plummets to about plus 2 C / 36 F, then the next day it snows. Only difference this week is we've hit the near freezing mark today (Monday) which is a couple of days early. And apparently snow is still possible in the next couple of days. So there's *that* bit of joyous news out of the way. I'm sorry to bang on about this week after week, but it does make me feel a tad better, and it should make you feel a *lot* better about where you live, unless your weather is even worse, or unless you live here as well, in which case you will totally understand. 

I've been using some of the "trapped indoors yet again" time to generate some new artworks from my photo collection, and the bonus of boarding my horse where there is an indoor ring is that my riding life can continue. Goodness knows I'm tired of the inside of that ring after the many months of winter (we are in our sixth month of below average temperatures) but on the days when the wind is howling, rain or snow coming down sideways, and things are generally foul, the indoor ring is a haven and a refuge, and I am properly grateful for it. 

The little birds of the area continue to carry on with their agendas, with the occasional unusual one appearing, usually after one of the foul weather episodes where they have been blown off course or have precipitated out of the sky to lay over until the wind abates and the cloud cover lifts. Jim (the official family birder) was telling me today about some birding terms that I hadn't heard before. One was a "big year" where a (need I say fanatical, well financed and with a flexible lifestyle) birder takes a year out of their life and goes all over the world in pursuit of bird sightings to add to their life list. Second term was a "big day" where a less ambitious (or at least less well heeled and shorter on time) birder will go hard for 24 hours non-stop, collecting as many sightings over as much territory as they can manage in that time frame. I'm not clear about what-all they are seeing in the night-time hours of their 24, but presumably there are owls and night-hunters, although how they would be spotted in the dark is yet another question. The third term was the "big sit", where a birder will park him or herself in a chair or on the ground, and stay there motionless for several hours, letting the birds of the area come to them. This was all news to me and confirms for me yet again that compared to birders we horse people are relatively normal. 

Today's shots illustrate some of the above information. First shot is one of the art pieces I got assembled while house-bound due to the weather. I call the one "Page Runner" and it features one of the young Gypsy cobs of which I am so enamored. You can check out my website to see a couple of other recent photomontages featuring these horses. If this link doesn't work (and I have a feeling that it might not), go to my website www.judywoodartphotography.com and check the first four images in the Photomontage gallery. 

The next two shots were taken on the 22 C/ 70 F day for this past week, which was Saturday. It was a supremely lovely day as you can see in the photos, although you can additionally see that there isn't much yet in the way of leaves or greenery in the countryside. It's also darn dry and we could use some serious moisture, rather than the irritating amounts we've been getting which get in the way of outdoor activities but do nothing for subsoil moisture. 

One of the signs of spring at the barn is the Pony Club lessons that involve eventing training, which is what the kids were doing this weekend. Shot number two shows Nichelle and Red going uphill onto the little bank, heading for another bounce upward to the top. All the horses acquitted themselves well, as did the riders. Apparently I missed the day when kids and horses were parting company all over the place and generally getting right out of hand. These are amongst the first outdoor lessons of the year, and certainly the first in the big sand ring that has the elements they are working with, so the horses tend to get quite excited, and the kids a bit daunted, with the results one would expect under the circumstances. However, that's what their very experienced instructor is there for, and she soon gets everyone sorted out and functioning well. 

Shot three shows Caity (cousin to Nichelle of the previous shot) with her new filly. This young mare hasn't been under saddle very long (relatively speaking), so she's not yet in the lessons I was photographing. After her schooling ride in another ring, her rider was taking her for a bit of a wander to relax and observe the other horses. This type of quiet teaching is important for producing a horse that will be able to deal with whatever she might experience in the course of her working life, and is a pleasant task on a nice day like yesterday was.  Dancer wasn't at all phased by the action in the sand ring as the "working" horses zipped past her viewpoint, which bodes well for her ability to stay calm and attentive to her rider. 

Shot four is one I got as I went the "long way" home from the barn via a farm where there was a farrier clinic taking place. This event was going to be written up in some magazine articles and my farrier Norm had requested that I call by with the camera to get some shots while the clinic was underway. This one shows the visiting farrier (well, a little bit of him at any rate) as he is hot-shoeing the demo horse. I was quite amazed at the number of participants at this clinic, and that was only a portion of the farriers from central and northern parts of the province. 

Final shot is of a small bird that Jim wanted me to photograph. This was done during my "little sit" earlier today. I parked myself near the front yard feeding area and tried to be motionless and invisible until the sparrows got used to my presence. They are very spooky little birds and flee quickly and with great regularity, but if you can be still for long enough that the sparrows feel safe in coming back to the feeder, all the other little birds will come too. I was quite proud of myself as I sat for maybe 15 or 20 minutes (felt like it, anyway) which for me is quite an achievement. I tend to be action oriented for my shots so if I've hung around for 2 or 3 minutes and nothing exciting has happened, I generally get frustrated and quit. This type of shooting is good for developing my patience, if nothing else. If I could practice on a nicer day with a bit of sun, I think I might be able to get right into it!! Maybe next week.