Thursday, or Thereabouts - November 20, 2014

A little something for Throwback Thursday

Steam Tractor, Erin Fall Fair 

Yesterday I was invited to participate in a Black and White photo challenge currently circulating on Facebook®; one photo a day along with one new nominee/invitee for five days.  I'd been watching for over a week as friends invited friends and the photos mounted up, longing to be invited to join the B&W band. Truth be told, I was feeling a tad miffed at being left out. It's not like I never post any photos!

Anyway, all is now well with my world. One of my writer friends, Corrie Haldane Adams, threw down the gauntlet and I spent most of Wednesday trolling through photos and playing with way too many photo editing tools. Let this be a warning to any other B&W wannabes out there - a single mouse click to convert from colour image to black and white is only the beginning; one mouse click just leads to another and a mouse's favourite food is time! Still it's interesting to see what develops, and what doesn't.

Images I thought would benefit from the conversion, images that lacked a lot of colour to begin with, were often so-so, even with time spent tinkering with editing tools. The eye-opener for me was the re-discovery of that subtle play of shadow and light, form and texture that is the hallmark of B&W photography. Amazing stuff!

Tower Bridge, Sacramento California

The other thing that has happened as a result of this challenge is that now when I set up a shot, I think about how a scene might look not only in colour but also in black and white. This is such a full colour in-your-face kind of world, it's a real treat to engage a throwback to black and white, to experience feeling and mood without blush and hue, without reds, greens and blues.

Pepper, Australian Shepherd (pup)

And This is only Day 1 (and a half) of the Facebook® challenge. What do you mean, ONLY 5 photos?? How in blazes am I going to chose just five? My image basket is twice that already.

I'm having a blast though. I may not be out until Christmas!

Cheers!


©2014 April Hoeller

Monday Moanings - October 14, 2013

Thanksgiving Day in Canada

In my household, today is a day to kick back, relax, enjoy and Clean Up - our family celebration was yesterday. As always, it was more than of a feast of plenty, it was a feast of  "too much". We all ate too much, I made too much, and it rained too much. Yet it was also a plentiful cornucopia of good conversation, good laughs, and great love. We feasted on the usual roast turkey with two stuffings (my Mom's traditional sage and thyme bread stuffing with chestnuts and a wild rice & rye stuffing), candied sweet potatoes - also my Mom's recipe - and oven roasted veggies (broccoli, cauliflower, beets, butternut squash, radish topped with pomegranate and bacon bits).


We pushed ourselves away from the table to take a breather before tucking into a dessert of apple pie with ice cream and pumpkin pie with whipped cream.

And the wine, all Ontario of course, ... we polished off rieslings from Thirty Bench and Cave Spring (my family are lovers of this varietal and it's a great choice for turkey, though personally I would have gone with a Gewurztraminer or Viognier), a Malivoire Old Vines Marechal Foch, of which the turkey enjoyed a really good snootful and an Angel's Gate Pinot Noir. Phew!





Good thing we got some exercise on Saturday taking in the Erin Fall Fair. Humongous pumpkins, cute animals, humongous trucks, the usual rides, humongous tractors, great french fries and to top it all off a tractor pull. Nothing says southern Ontario farming better than a good ol' tractor pull (unless of course it's a ploughing match).

 

This year we didn't have to wait until 11pm for the fire and smoke of the modified tractors. The order was changed to place the noisy classes of tractors earlier in the evening. Apparently the seniors in the nearby houses complained about all the raucous way past their bed time. Yup, I get that! Thanks to my sister Cathy and her hubby Bill for offering soup, sandwiches, free parking and clean washrooms! Love ya!

It's been a great weekend of thanks giving.
We are safe.
We are happy.
We are healthy.
We are free.
My heart is full, love and gratitude woven finely together. It can't get much better than that.

Happy Thanksgiving!

text and photos ©2013 April Hoeller