Monday October 12 was Thanksgiving Day, and it was an unusually warm one. It got up to about 23 degrees Celsius, which is almost summer-like weather for this time of year. I went to my friends', Mac and Brenda's, for Thanksgiving dinner. It was so beautiful that we decided to eat outside, al fresco. Margaret and John were also there, and Margaret took this picture just before the main course.
It was so warm I was wearing sandals. I can't remember the last time I was able to wear sandals on Thanksgiving!
I took this picture of Mac and Brenda's driveway. The light is amazing at this time of year!
After dinner, we had coffee and pumpkin pie (Yum!). I took this pic of Brenda, Mac, John and Margaret (and Betty the dog), still enjoying being outdoors, even though the afternoon was waning and it was starting to feel chilly.
Margaret explored Brenda's garden and took this picture. When she sent it to me, she called it "Secret Garden". It really does look like a secret place! Great shot, Margaret.
The sun started to set and it really began to feel like Autumn, with the tree branches starting to look bare and the browns and golds and reds everywhere. A beautiful day!
Last Saturday (September 26th), the members of FEH - that is, Fran, Evlyn (me) and Holly - got together to explore the possibility of creating one of our site-specific installations in the woods somewhere, as we have been doing for a couple of years now. The last time we did this was very early in the Summer, and now here we were, hoping to do one last one this year before it got too cold. We went to Hudson, Quebec to try a different venue (most of our installations in the past have been at Voyageur Park). It was a beautiful, clear, sunny day - perfect for a walk in the park by the river, looking for a good site and for some good ideas.
We ended up on a sandy beach but still didn't have any ideas. However, it was such a nice day we decided just to enjoy the sun and the emerging Fall colours and the lovely view.
There was lots to see and enjoy. We were lucky to spot this big Blue Heron among the Canada Geese swimming and plunging down for something to eat.
We were just sitting on the sand when suddenly Fran had an idea...
She was inspired by the light shining through a water bottle on the sand, creating a beautiful green shadow. We added other objects to make different kinds of shadows on the sand.
We also sculpted the sand with our fingers to make patterns that would enhance the effect of the shadows.
This installation was different than other FEH installations because it was not the objects themselves that made the artwork, but the shadows of the objects. Fran and I took a bunch of pictures to record the piece, created by light and dark on a sand canvas.
Later, we removed the bottles, but the shadows were still beautiful. I continued to take pictures. I really like this one.
Then we realized we had a problem. How would we sign our installation? We usually use some of the materials we have been working with to make the letters F, E and H in some corner of our work. But this time we were working with shadows! Not easy. Then we got an idea. We stood beside each other and decided to sign our installation with our own shadows somehow.
Like kids playing with flashlights at night, we decided to use our fingers to make shadows of our initials on the sand. So in this picture, Fran is on the left with two fingers making an "F", I am in the middle with three fingers making an "E" (and trying to hold my camera at the same time), and Holly has made a fabulous "H" on the right.
FEH strikes again!
