I was welcomed into the countryside by fields and fields of rolling velvet green.

The wee bird in the centre of the photo below was enjoying the evening at least as much as I was.

As was the man checking his mailbox (you can just barely see him having crossed the road at right).

Soon these fields will be grown high with crops, colours changing, darkening, browning under the summer sun.

But for now, for the fleeting now, we are in the deepest of spring.

Drink it in.

It really was quite stunning.

I also had the opportunity to take a cast photo of Coleman Lemieux & Co.’s production of From the House of Mirth at the Market Hall.

Here they are gathered under their enormous gazebo set piece.

It was lovely to be in the space watching them warm up on stage in their finery. The stage was transported through time. And the show was beautiful to watch.

On the other end of the performing arts spectrum, I also checked out Wine With Everything’s 20 year reunion show.

That’s Cathy Petch on the saw, Chris Brown on the snare and Pat Walsh hollering on the guitar.

Transporting, as well, but in a totally different way.

Above is Vicky Paradisis wearing a design by Beth McCubbin using materials from East City Flowers.

This is Angela Sorensen wearing a design by Victoria Wallace using materials from Rona Hardware.

Here’s a little detail:

And below is Max Price wearing a design by Mel McCall using materials from Pammett’s Flowers.
Fantastic designs using materials that you wouldn’t normally expect to find on a runway. Great talent for a good cause and clothing that steps right out of dreamland.

Before I post my photos, I’d like to invite you all to the opening of Exposed 2012: Be.Here.Now.  Thursday, May 3rd from 7 to 9pm at the Gladstone Hotel on Queen St.

It’s part of this year’s Contact Photography Festival in Toronto. I have a big panorama wrapped around a room in the Gladstone. I’d love for you to come out to see it.

And now, on to my recent travels…

I just spent a week in Boise, Idaho working on a show (Spiderwoman’s Red Mother) at Boise State University.

I took an hour of free time one evening to cab out to the foothills to snap a few photos. So beautiful.

My cab driver, Enes, (you can see his cab at the bottom of the frame, above) was worried about me hiking up into the hills without a guide and loaned me his pocket knife.

“There might be wild animals,” he said, “you never know.”

The terrain was not that steep and the ground was dry in spite of rain earlier in the day.

The view was stunning.

The flora was scrub and grass, but it’s spring, so everything was flowering, including the Antelope Bitterbrush (above) with it’s multitude of delicate yellow flowers.

The rain clouds had been hovering over the city all day. In one direction this huge black cloud threatened to let loose.

The only “wildlife” I saw, this Black Billed Magpie, didn’t seem worried about the weather.

So I climbed a little higher to see what was on the other side of that cloud.

More clouds. More hills.

That’s the thing about foothills. There’s always another hill. Another crest. Something that makes you want to keep climbing.

I had to get back to work, so I turned around and headed back down.

On the drive back to the city limits we passed this Military Cemetery looking very evocative under the clouds.

I had a hard time choosing among the dozens of great photos to post here so I’ve added a few more in this gallery (below). You can see the city of Boise in the valley below in a few of them.

Enjoy.

I certainly did.

]]> http://www.evmustang.ca/blog/2012/04/boise-and-exposed-contact-2012/feed/ 1 http://www.evmustang.ca/blog/2012/04/beside-herself-and-spring-green/ http://www.evmustang.ca/blog/2012/04/beside-herself-and-spring-green/#comments Fri, 20 Apr 2012 18:49:08 +0000 evmustang http://www.evmustang.ca/blog/?p=1888 Continue reading →]]> I spent this week and last working on the show, Beside Herself, which went up at Market Hall on Tuesday and Wednesday. Above you see Michaela Washburn and Patti Shaunessy standing in the beautiful set created by Jimson Bowler.

Meanwhile, the leaves are starting to bud out and things are turning green.

We haven’t had enough rain yet this month, so the green isn’t a lush as it could be.

But we are definitely on our way there.

These two skies were dramatic and the dam (above) and hydro wires (below) compliment their moodiness nicely.

On Wednesday I was lucky enough to catch him as he played to an adoring crowd of fifteen at the Garnet.

It was my favourite BA Johnston set ever. It was so good he had to take the show out into the street to share it with the world (above).

Then he brought it back inside.

As is his way, he climbed on the furniture.

He crawled on the floor.

He did all his hits, including the audience favourite “I’ve got a deep fryer in my bedroom.” And he wants you to come see his next show.

For those of you for whom rollicking vulgarity is not a joy to behold, here is a lovely image of a huge cloud that hung over Peterborough for about 18 hours. I caught it at the corner of Mount Pleasant Road and Highway 7 just before the sun went down.

I went out last weekend to visit a friend at her new farm and to and meet the new addition to the family. Merv, a Jack Russell, is a source of boundless energy.

Somewhat less energetic were the cows…

… who aren’t actually as big as the barns, but pretty close.

Two of them had just calved and the others are close behind.

The land around this farm is so beautiful. We had to do the full tour.

A path leads down to Indian River through the woods.

The stroll back is just as beautiful as the walk down.

This is Catalina, our hostess, with Merv and Xica leading us home.

And with big, strong Merv rushing ahead to check the fields for dragons, we have nothing to fear.

And just in case you didn’t get enough of the cuteness of Merv…

Even the peepers and geese are a couple weeks ahead of themselves. If you look closely to the mid left you can see a goose just lit by the sun.

This is the marsh on University Road. It’s  in full spring swing.

You should hear the peepers and geese making their springtime cacophony.

In fact, you can – I made a not great recording on my cell phone while I was there so you could hear what I was hearing:

Spring marsh sounds, University Road, March 19, 2012

And these are the Peepers that were going crazy with spring joy up at the University this week:

Spring Peepers, Trent University, March 20, 2012

Those are some serious sounds of spring.

We’ve been having really mild, in some cases record high temperatures around here and it’s almost like summer. But it isn’t even officially spring.

The last two nights the sky has been lighting up like a penny arcade and tonight I decided to drive like a mad woman (very carefully, mom, I promise) out to my favourite lightning shot spot. For some reason it never rains as much in Douro, so after racing through the downpour to get ahead of the storm, I was able to get these two shots in before the rain came and chased me and my gear back into the car.

Wow.

(This one’s for Jes.)