Ten Years?

Ten years! It's been 10 years today.

Happy anniversary Sweety!

She's a lot prettier than I am don't you think?

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Then I come home to ..um...well done roast beef anyone? This wasn't a false alarm this time! Apparently a neighbor left the house with a roast in the oven. Either they just plain forgot or things just didn't go as planned. We have sprinklers. Thankfully nobody was hurt.

I think there should be a law that says everyone should have sprinklers...

But is it art?

I was thinking about this at length yesterday when I was running.

Is this "art"?

"Tomatoes"
That's an HDR image I made from a series of photographs I took last August.

Here. This is the basic photo of the image depicted above:

Is this art?
Of course, the work of Ansel Adams is art. He could create a masterpiece with a Brownie camera. He could and he did. Proving, by the way, it has nothing to do with equipment. Of course photography is "art". I never gave it much thought. Photographs hang in galleries. Framed photographs cover the walls of our homes and offices.

But when really, does a "snapshot" become a "work of art"?

Back in the day I had "mastered the medium" (at least I thought I did!). I used all kinds of different films for different reasons. I used one kind of film for portraits. Another for landscapes. Another for documentary work. I used technique and style to direct attention to what it was I saw. I'd use different chemical treatments and procedures (I had a darkroom too...) and papers and filters and, oh, all kinds of tools and techniques and there was never a shred of doubt in my mind; I was doing "art".

I don't know why it is I find digital photography so much different from chemical photography. It is for sure very different. Oh I think photographic film is a far superior medium than digital sensors and I can write a paper on that. But more than that, I sometimes wonder, as I tweak an image's color balance in Photoshop (aka "'shopping"), what's so different about that than say, using a filter while printing an image on paper?

I still haven't quite figured it out. I just don't feel like an artist when I'm using Photoshop. The passion and the extent of engagement is just so much different.

So. To answer my own question? Ya, I suppose it's art. But it's not as clear as I'd like.

Not in my backyard?

We have green neighbors where I board. I'm mostly all for it. I've been there a long time and I've enjoyed good relations with the neighbors. Then last year, right about this time of year as a matter of fact, POSTED signs went up all over the property. Complete with fine print noting "all previous permissions to be on the property are withdrawn". And we haven't exchanged a word since. In fact, I haven't seen anyone to have word with. Rumor has it "the management changed".

Which is something of shame. L and I have enjoyed countless hours on that very idyllic property. It's a large property and the signs number in the hundreds.

Now about this green thing. There. See the windmill? That's a $650k wind powered generator they run the property with. We'll never run out of wind! And all in all it's ...pretty harmless. An eyesore, sure, but no more than say, all the utility poles we've grown accustomed to seeing all the time. There, see them there on the left? They're ugly and we don't even see them anymore. And yes, it does make a "whoosh whoosh" sound you can hear almost a mile away when the wind is right. But it's really hard to argue against it being a good thing and it's much to their credit they're powering their property with it.

In the foreground to the right is a lovely 34 acre pasture. It's been used for hay and vegetables over time and it's another one of those country life things I enjoy so much. I run out here sometimes and I just love those hot summer days with crickets in the grass. The fields and orchards go for miles.

And here, looking from the other side. Yes, there's an excavator out there. Thankfully no, they're not building 100 houses out there!

5 May 2013 What they are building however...is a solar power station.

31 May 2013
A $15M solar power station. Of course it really is none of my business. But solar power plants aren't any prettier than any other kind of power plants.

4 July 2013

34 acres of these
There is good news! Remember, we haven't been talking much with the neighbors lately. So we didn't know exactly where this power plant was going to be built. There were rumors and vague descriptions which...

Described this field perfectly
Which is adjacent to our barn. See that red roof at the end of the treeline? Thankfully they did *not* put it there! I had been a little anxious about that.

One Tough Horse

I swear she really enjoys messing with me sometimes.

12 October
L was a little..."up" Saturday. It was cold and wet. Felt almost like November. So I decided to free lunge her and help her get it out of her system. I let her charge around like a nutbag for a minute and then we got down to work. After 20 minutes or so she carried her head low. Her eyes were soft. She licked her lips. Classic submissive posture. I'll admit. I was fooled.

All I did was divert my eyes from her and...boom. I didn't even look away from her. Just shifted my eyes. She leaped and spun an outside turn and wheeeeeeeee hahahahaha charged off in the other direction flagging her tail. Oh <groan>. She used to do this a lot. She was playing. Of course I couldn't leave it here. We were at it for another 30 minutes. After putting her through all of her moves. I had her do all her gaits. I had her turn. Turn again. And again. Do some circles. Halt. Back. After staring at each other for 5 or 6 minutes she turned to face me. And took one step. That's as much of a "join up" as you'll get with L.

L knows not to leave her stall without an escort. I can leave her door wide open all afternoon while I do barn work and she'll stay in her stall. I can even leave the barn. Go unload hay or make a trip to the manure pile and when I come back she'll be standing in her stall doorway watching the door. So several weeks ago I make a trip to the manure pile. I come back into the barn to find her watching the door. As soon as I come in...she takes a step out of her door. One step. And she stands and looks at me. So then I charge half the length of the barn screaming and barking and flailing my arms. Quietly, without hardly a blink, she steps back into her stall. Just past the threshold mind you. No further than what she knows is necessary. Really. What kind of horse does that?!

I'm very lucky she's such a sweet gentle animal. She's 100% Canadian Horse!

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Ok. I might be overreacting here. One of our local orchards.

$15.95 for a pie?!
Wow. Just. Wow. They're getting $15.95 for pies and people are lined up to buy them. And $14.95 for apple crisp? I thought I was seeing things. I think anyone that would pay $15.95 for a pie should have their head examined.