Mushrooms

Coelacanth Traveler checks out the Male mushrooms.

A.

Sent by mobile.

update:  LOL  I didn't eve notice that my spell check put in "male" mushrooms.  It was supposed to say "Maleb" which is the name of the town the park is near.

 

Ya Just Gotta...

See the giant egg while in Vegreville.
All these years of road trips, yet somehow we never stopped here before.
Quite a nice park it's in, too.

Sent from Anna's phone

Festival season has begun - The Works

Anna:  It's that time of year again.  No, not storm season (though it is that, too).  It's festival season in Edmonton.  At the moment, we've got The Works Art and Design Festival.  Here are just a few of the photos I took today.  (You can also check out my favorite artist here.)




Every year, a pair of arches are painted during the festival.  This is the one on the south end of the Square.  Every year, I look forward to seeing how they turn out.




There are a couple of tents with these.  Smart Cars covered in papier mache.

I really hope there are not real cars under there, or it would be an incredible (and expensive!) waste!




Part of a larger work in progress.  Several old junkers filled with soil with transplants.

Funny.  On the farm I grew up on, we have a graveyard of vehicles (as do most of the neighboring farmers) with some that have been sitting so long, they've got trees growing in them, too.  I never would have thought of them as being art.  Mind you, no one's ripped the seats out and filled them with good soil.  With the wasps nests that get built in some of them, I doubt it would be a good idea to try.

You can see the rest of the photos I took today here.

A lovely day for photos

 Anna:  Today was a lovely day for taking photos.  An overcast sky made for even, if slightly dark, lighting, with a temperature comfortable to walk around our neighbourhood in.  My older daughter wanted to head out with her film camera (she likes to use black and white film), so I brought mine as well.



Not far from our place were several blooming plum trees.  I love trees that go into full bloom before their leaves are fully in. 




Like this one!  This time of year, there are many trees like this all over the city, with flower petals drifting down like fragrant snow. 



A few more blocks brings us to City Hall, where someone decided a statue could use a little jewelry.

Exploration

Anna: Today we got to visit with someone we haven't seen in many years, taking the opportunity to explore new areas. One of those was the town of Beaumont, located south of Edmonton.



This is the reason we stopped. From the highway, we could see this striking building at the top of a hill. It's the historic St. Vital Catholic Church.



This statue is in front of the church (it has a grotto, too). I played around with the lighting and contrast of this photo, after using the clarify function on my PSP X2. I don't usually like to modify photos much, but it really made an otherwise flat looking photo pop, and the white of the statue stand out from the white of the clouds.

The Rescuer

The Rescuer
Originally uploaded by amkb

Anna: While doing a bit of exploring today, I finally got a photo of this statue, called "The Rescuer." The detail is really fantastic.

280:365 Artsy Fartsy, part three

DSC_1827-50%
Originally uploaded by amkb

Anna: Posting photos for today and the rest of the week...

One last photo of a temporary art display in front of the Shaw Conference Centre.

This style of sculpture seems to be really popular in Edmonton. It's interesting, but I don't particularly care for it. :-/

279:365 Artsy Fartsy, part two

DSC_1830-50%
Originally uploaded by amkb

Anna: Posting photos for today and the rest of the week...

Another of a series of temporary art displays in front of the Shaw Conference Centre.

278:365 Artsy Fartsy, part one

DSC_1824-50%
Originally uploaded by amkb

Anna: Posting photos for today and the rest of the week...

We took a break to get away from all things moving related and get some fresh air. Which is when I remembered I needed to swing by my job at the Shaw Conference Centre and talk to someone about whether or not they want to keep me, since I haven't been able to work for so long with my elbow issues. (I was told to give it a few months if I want, and come back whenever I felt I was ready.) So while Philippe and the girls took the river valley, I headed straight downtown and walked to the conference centre.

In front of a new section of the building is several areas where temporary art displays are showcased. This is one of them.

I was only able to get pictures of 3 out of 4 sculptures. One of them, which makes me think of a giant haggis, wasn't visible, with the annex it's in blocked off. Perhaps they're in the process of changing displays.

192:365 - Dressed for the weather

Anna: Headed downtown today. I took a detour round Churchill Square when I noticed an addition of a real shirt to this sculpture. I just had to get a shot. People frequently add things, like the flowers in his cup, or removable Oilers tattoos to his cheek, but I thought this one was the most creative of any I've seen. Mostly, I was curious as to how it was put on - you can see part of the cut along the side seam and sleeve.

166:365 Taking a walk.

Anna: It's past midnight... does it still count? *L*

The girls and I went on a photo walk today. I've uploaded a set of photos you can see here.

We spent quite a lot of time in a Chinese garden in the river valley, downtown. A series of statues featuring animals of the Chinese zodiac surrounded a gorgeous arched bridge. This is my favorite shot - though my younger daughter found the rabbit's eye gave her the willies. *L*









Near the end of our walk, we sat at a picnic table for a rest. I didn't have the macro lens, but I think I still did all right getting this leaf that happened to be on the table.

148:365 Colours

Anna: Headed out for a walk this evening, taking some paths to an area I haven't walked to before.

Along sections of the LRT rails that run near where we live is a walking/bicycle path. Once the tracks near downtown, they go underground while the path continues on. On the path side of the opening into the tunnel is a long row of graffiti murals. Some are really fantastic. Unfortunately, little effort seems to be made to maintain them, so the work of the artists is being mucked up by the taggers.

The lack of maintenance was clearly demonstrated by the decorative raised beds. I had to cross a street just before the tunnel entrance. The cross walk for the path is bordered by decorative poles and large raised beds with trees and shrubbery. On one side, the bed, though sparse, was mostly free of weeds and garbage. On the other side - near these murals - the bed clearly hasn't seen any maintenance all season. The tree and shrubs planted in it were nearly choked out by weeds, with plenty of garbage stuck in them as well.

I went far enough to get a photo of the last mural before turning around and heading home. By then I could see the people I'd been hearing for some time. From the sounds of it, the "party" had already started some time ago, in the back of some business' property.

So much for chain link fences and No Trespassing signs.

95:365 Signs and Reflections

Anna: After a trip to the library, the kids and I met Philippe for lunch at a mall downtown. Afterwards, I finally did something I've been meaning to do for our Art Project for a very long time. This mall has unique sign holders all over the place, made of wrought iron, brass, welded steel, rebar and other materials. This spider is a detail of one of them. The bottom portion of the
sign holder is a large web with the spider near the base. The web supports a frame that holds the signs. I got photos of about a dozen of these, each very unique in design, and I'm sure I've missed at least a few.





One section of the mall has a gorgeous skylight, surrounded by mirrors on the upper levels. The effect on a bright day like today is quite amazing. The photo doesn't do it justice.

87:365 A day at the museum

Anna: Lots of pictures today. The girls and I headed to a museum - I ended up taking some 180 photos alone, plus a couple of videos. (More photos available here.) I still need to go through them and toss the ones that didn't turn out. This museum has really excellent grounds, and we spent quite a bit of time getting pictures. It was a great way to avoid the three bus loads of school kids that were there at the same time. :-/ I have to admit, when I saw those three buses, I just about turned around and went home! *L* It worked out all right, though.



This is a Jeongja, a Korean pavilion built in the old way, using joining techniques and no nails. It's absolutely gorgeous, and I got lots of photos of it.














This is a detail of one of the faces on a Ksan totem pole.














There are a lot of statues on the grounds, and this is one of my favorites. There's just something about the upward turned face that I really like.


















As we were waking into the building, in between the inner and outer doors, I spotted a sign on the wall I'd never noticed before. It turns out the stone on these walls are Tyndall Limestone from Southern Manitoba. The walls were filled with fossils of all kinds. The kids say this one looks like some types of bacteria.

Now I know what those fossils I'd been finding on Gimli Beach were. :-D







Before going to the front desk, the girls and I went to the cafe for lunch. We'd placed our order and were sitting at our table waiting for it, commenting on the changes since the last time we'd been there, when my younger daughter suddenly exclaims, "there's a whale on that lamp!"

Someone had taped a toy Sperm Whale onto the electrical cord of one lamp.

Why?

To make visitors wonder, perhaps? ;-D










The museum is setting up for a new theme of dragons next month. In the entry was a 1:4 model of a Korean turtle ship. The plexiglass covering the spikes is definitely needed - those things are real metal, and real sharp!













One of my favorite displays is the eggs. It's amazing how different they can be! I wasn't able to get shots of my very favorite, but I like this "painted" looking grackle egg, too.

Because of the lighting, I had to take these shots from the rear of the display, so they were upside down.









I couldn't resist adding this one of the girls. I thought it was just neat. :-D













There are several displays of these "floating" artifacts. One was all arrow heads, another spear heads, but I can't remember what type these ones were. Possibly fishing harpoons.














And finally, a guest photo from my younger daughter, a macro shot of one of the skulls they have on display for people to touch.

85:365 Downtown

Anna: The kids and I headed downtown to take in an event that turned out to not be running on Sunday. We still got a chance to get pictures, though. Our older daughter is really enjoying the new camera - her typical photo day would be just over 40 photos with the old camera, but for the last couple of days, she's been taking double that. :-D


Watch Your Step!

We all thought this piece of graffiti was very cool. I do wonder how they get onto the roofs of these places, though.











Eyes: Some graffiti can only be described as works of art. I love the detail on this guy! The eyes are really impressive.














Art: I walked right past this thing without noticing it. It was the girls that pointed it out to me. It's a piece called Hollow Point.

Uhm... ok.


















Hockey Season: For the truly dedicated, hockey season never ends.

There's a square in the downtown core that is frequently booked for summertime events. Today, the square, 3 blocks of street around it, plus another block alongside the City Hall, which you can see in the background, were fenced off into hockey rinks. Two of the street sections had 3 rinks on them each.

45:365 The eyes have it...

Anna: Today was a very productive photo day.

Since moving to our current city, one of the things I quickly discovered is that there's a *lot* of public art. I've been slowly working on what I've creatively dubbed "The Art Project," getting pictures of as much of the public art that I can find. This afternoon I went for a walk towards the downtown area and finally got photos of a bunch of murals I've been meaning to get for almost 2 years now. This is one of them. It's called the Moseyeic Mural, put together by a team of youth street artists (I'm not sure what that means) for a 2002 art festival.

Sadly, it's not on the best of areas. This wall is the side of an empty pawn shop, one of many in the area (though most of the others are still running). It's an area of contradictions, actually. It includes Chinatown, some beautifully well maintained homes, modern office buildings, the local police station, 24 hour XXX peep shows, run down buildings, both private and commercial, a great many boarded up businesses, some wonderful murals, and a couple of blocks so questionable, even the two tattoo parlors left, though the murals where they used to be still remain. There's also a mission, a Chinese Christian church, and The Church of Scientology, with its windows filled with giant posters advertising how Scientology will answer every problem a person might have.

A truly colourful area.

29:365 - Downtown hideys - updated - Art

Philippe: This guy's just hanging around in the building next door. Lighting isn't the best and I can't really play with it here, but it's still kinda nice :)










Anna: Look! It's... art! Or something... ;-)

This is a detail from a sculpture next to our city hall. It's supposed to be a ship. At least I think it is. One of my daughters thought it was supposed to be birds, and thinks it looks like a diseased insect. *L*

10:365 It's cold out there

Anna:
The girls and I walked to nearby Little Italy, to stop at a fabulous Italian grocery store that specializes in Italian and Polish food.

I still can't figure out the Polish part, but I'm not complaining. ;-)

Across the street is a park with this life sized sculpture of a man playing cards. I thought someone adding a scarf was quite funny. Hey, even statues get cold, right?

Philippe: This is my Christmas present; it sat dormant for the past three months.. This is it's first lighting ever... The first of many, I'm sure :D

P.