Work? Who Has Time?

The predicted polar vortex hit us last night, with high winds and freezing temperatures that continue into today. Braving the winds this morning in my slippers and sweats, I refilled my heated hummingbird feeder to ensure my delightful feathered friends have enough to eat in this cold weather.

As I slid open the patio door, I could hear the familiar 'click, click, click' of the hummers in the hedge, probably thinking, get that thing filled, woman! After the last time of making their nectar and burning the daylights out of my pot, I've since found that I can just boil water and pour it over the sugar instead of boiling the mixture. Good. I might save a few pots from being burned again.

Life has been exceptionally busy with photography, as I've been asked to join a number of sites and find that has taken up most of my time. This coming Monday is our exhibition night with the assigned subject of 'circles'. Originally, I was thinking of doing a physiogram, but I didn't get my act together to set it up in time. Having come down with 'something' last week, although I went out to take photos, I didn't have the energy to set everything up inside.

On my journeys to wherever, I noticed an old Austin truck on the top of a container and stopped to take a photo. The yard that it's over top of is filled with 'junk'. I'm pretty sure the guy is a hoarder, but he does have some very cool stuff there. I asked him if I could poke around the yard (it's a commercial building with a gravel lot in front), and not only did he say yes, he showed me all kinds of neat stuff and even pulled it out from behind things for me to photograph.

First, there were the Austins. What treasures! In all kinds of aging and disrepair, they offer all kinds of photo opps. I've been back three or four times to photograph just those guys. There are four Austins and a Rover that he's going to be painting this year (I wonder how many years he's said that?).

Then there's the old wringer washer that apparently still works. That brought back memories of standing on my grandmother's back porch with her while she did laundry in the wringer washer and being told to keep little hands and fingers away from the wringer.

He has bikes galore, and one really old rusted one has probably the first baby carrier ever attached to it. One of the really cool things he has that I photographed for circles is a series of round steel pans that look like different sizes of cheesecake tins nested inside of one another. In the centre is a solid piece of steel that's free floating. Setting it on a tire so I could get over top of it, it was very cool and would have been perfect for 'circles' except for the fact the light was too harsh.

Asking him what it was, he told me it was a rock grinder for mining companies to test minerals in the rocks. Interesting! There's so much there, one could spend days just poking through all the stuff.

Today, I'm back to photographing old barns. Our assignment next month is serendipity and the one after that is abandoned buildings. I have some awesome photos for the abandoned buildings and continue to find more. There's one that I haven't quite got the photo I want. It's a burned out old house that the earth is waiting to reclaim, with weeds, trees, and shrubs taking over. The peak of the house and front face of it are leaning backwards as the roof has fallen in. Again, I haven't been happy with the lighting, so need to go back when the light is more favourable.

Looks like it's blowing snow outside now, so today may not be the day to head out. If I get time, I might add some photos later. Or not.

I gave myself a birthday present last week and paid for a workshop on Street Photography in June. I'm contemplating a watercolour workshop in March, as well. I'm certainly loving this retirement thing! Who has time to work?!