Sculptures in the Forest!

Before I return to the valley (we're actually already back), let me tell you about the astonishing, lttle-known sculpture forest at Haliburton School of the Arts. The sculpture trail has 22 modern sculptures, in a trail through the forest, wrapped around the Haliburton school, and I was blown away by the quality of the sculptures!

'Kennisis: Horse and Rider', by Bill Leishman, is the most stunning sculpture there, standing near the welcoming front doors. Bill is the innovative ultra-light pilot who first flew with migrating swans.

This heavy duty steel box, etched with outlines of tree leaves and ferns, is actually a resonant chime in disguise, 'Sound Vessel: Forest', by Metalgenesis, a team of Don Dickson and Amy Doolittle. I expect relatively few observers stick their arms through the holes to move the musical chimes, but being curious, you know what I did.

'A Walk in the Woods in Haliburton', is by Ellen Farrow. Holding a Canadian maple leaf to its chest, this symbolic hiker rested on another boulder down the trail - many of the sculptures were mounted on natural boulders in the forest.

The other one that intrigued me was the 'Redwing Frond' by Darlene Bolahood. In the early morning sun, it was stunning against the blue sky.

Learning Better Photography

Just back from an intense, educational and inspiring week at Haliburton School of the Arts, and we're both exhausted! I took a course on photography and travel writing, so I'm hoping it will help me improve my blog, both with better photos and better writing! 

Grass in the early morning light

We had two instructors, who were outstanding. I moved a long way beyond the 'auto' setting on the camera, and learned about white balance, ISO settings, and depth of field. I'm now shooting mostly in 'aperture-priority', and have significantly improved my range of options for pictures.

Water spray

One morning we were challenged to get out with our cameras by 6.30 a.m., to take advantage of the early morning light, so these pictures were mostly taken then. It's the magic hour for photography, and I'm determined to make a date with myself to get out early at least occasionally to take advantage of it.

Willow trees

We also practiced close-ups, using a combination of aperture and shutter-speed settings to get the close-up while leaving the background blurry, and sometimes focusing on just part of a subject, like this.

Woodfern

Eugenia Falls

Stopped by Eugenia Falls today, having heard a rumour that they were shutting the power plant for a week, and all the water flow would be going over the falls - usually a fairly small trickle of its former self. And they were right! It's flowing with more water than I've ever seen.

Eugenia Falls is on the Beaver River, in the village of Eugenia, where the famous Eugenia Gold Rush occurred in the last century. In the early 20th Century most of the water was diverted through pipes to a power plant on the edge of the escarpment several miles north. Two dams back up the water to form Lake Eugenia, and normally only a small amount flows over the original falls. But today is was almost like the spring flood.

The falls has carved a deep but short valley known as Cuckoo Valley, westward into the Beaver Valley itself. This is the view west - note the river, a light spot on the bottom left of the picture.

Inglis Falls

The best known waterfalls in this area is Inglis Falls, at Owen Sound. A group of us went on a photo expedition there today, and I practised getting photos from different perspectives, crawling over the boulders at the base of the falls to get close.

The first is the conventional view of Inglis Falls; the rest are my different perspectives.

And more Daylilies...

What can I say? They come in a lot of varieties!

Day Lilies Galore!

We're right in the middle of day lily season in the garden. I'm constantly amazed by the different varieties, from pale yellow, almost white, to deep reds and purple. Here are a few from the last few days - the first picture taken after a rain a few days ago, the others more recently in the morning sunlight.

Day Lily Season

It's been day lily season now for nearly 3 weeks, certainly the brightest time of the year in our garden. This tall yellow day lily was the first to bloom, all by itself on the first day, and continuing in large groups of blooms every day.

My favourites are the brightest ones, preferably bright orange, like this 'Saugeen Sunrise'.

There are two or three dozen other varieties, from pale cream coloured to deep purple. This deep red and yellow/green one is another early one.