A bird just chillin’ & wastin’ time (just like me).
Thursday’s ride was disappointing to say the least; the heat and relentless winds made the ride anything but fun. Thankfully I made up for a crap ride by catching up with some friends in town later that evening for Art Battle and some beverages.
The eventual Art Battle winner.
For those who don’t know, Art Battle is a contest put on by Art Reach that goes on every year in which a group of local artists compete against each other and the clock to complete a piece within a two-hour time limit. The pieces are judged by the public as they’re being worked on by the artists. As a hack art school graduate and one time illustrator type turned graphic design jagoff, I can respect what these folks are doing. I also don’t know how they do it with hundreds of people watching them!
Skull in mid-vajazzle.
Out of the various painters, illustrators, sculptors and other artists battling, I voted for the dude sculpting the big ass clay head (seen above). I liked the scale of the piece and it reminded me of the cartoon illustrations I used to do years ago. The woman who was vajazzling the skull would have been my next choice due to the intricate pen work on the skull. For what it’s worth, the dude I voted for won. Cheers for big giant clay heads! There were lots of quality artists there, but for some reason the giant head and skull spoke to me the most.
After shooting a few pics around town with my s95, my friends and I grabbed a couple of beverages and some food (I passed on the food) at The Brass before I headed home and caught the end ofvone of the worst movies ever produced with Wifey and B-Man. I’ll never get that half hour back.
Friday brought more high winds and heat to Michiganderburgh, so I said “fuck it,” and chose not to ride my bike. Instead I grabbed my D3200 and went to Deerfield park and did a 3.5 mile photo hike.
As a non-riding activity, I would have probably preferred to have gone fishing, but with the high winds I didn’t feel like fighting choppy water and wind-blown casts. I am also now dealing with a super sore thumb from Monday’s “incident.” Hopefully that doesn’t interfere too much with shifting on the mountain bike come ride time on Saturday.
Along one grassy trail I came upon a snapping turtle. He didn’t seem to mind me taking a few pics of him so I helped myself to a few shots, being careful not to get too close to his jaws. Once I got home and looked at the photos in Lightroom, I noticed that the turtle was carrying a passenger of sorts. It’s hard to see in the pic above, but the one below shows it better.
It seems that a leech has attached itself to the shell of the turtle. If that is indeed a leech, I gotta say that it’s the first one I’ve ever seen in person. Of course I didn’t really notice it until I got home and saw the photo, so maybe that doesn’t count? In any event, it’s cool to come across stuff like that when out in the woods.
If there is one benefit to hiking–and I’m grasping at straws here–it’s that you see more of the little things in the woods that you might not see when cruising trails on your bike.
I wasn’t needed at the shop this week, so I am a little disappointed that I didn’t do more ride wise with that available time, but the week’s not over yet and I still have two more days to get some rides in. Wich is what I am going to go do right now.
Later.