Late post to "Good Fences"

A reflection of a fence that I've shown quite a few times begins this "Good Fences" post to add to TexWisGirl's meme today.  Many thanks, Theresa!  It is along Vancouver's Coal Harbour bike route and one of our favourite stop-off places.  The little gathering of Inukshuks was new to us when we visited a few days ago.

 Here's the actual fence with a favorite fallen tree behind it.  And behind that, you can see afternoon commuters making their way out of Vancouver and onto the Lions Gate Bridge.

 Zoomed in a little bit more here.

As we stood looking at that fence, I could hear the King Fisher.  Surely, it had to be the same one we have encountered a few times lately, always calling loudly from a perch on one of the boats in the marina by The Rowing Club.

Can you find him?  Here's how he looked without zooming in.  (I sort of see a "fence" in this photo.)  I've assumed he is a "he" though my photos aren't good enough to be sure.  I've learned from googling that males and females look the same except for the bill colour  (all black for a male, and orangey-pink on the underside for the female).

 There he goes.  The day was cloudy and the sun was setting so I was happy to get this shot with my 300 mm lens. 

The lens, with photo greatly cropped afterwards, managed to see his catch, something my eyes missed completely.  I did suspect he had something in his bill, from the way he struggled and bobbed about.

Such a vocal fellow. I always imagine he is calling to a lady friend, with words something like, "Look, look what a great provider I am!  You'll have a real winner if you choose me!"  I think I'll name him Cal (shortened from Coal for his location by Coal Harbour).  That will rhyme with Hal, the heron, who often sits in the pond on the other side of the bike path.

As we stood watching Cal, the geese began their nightly trek to wherever they go (It seems to be a restless back and forth trip.)  The ones at the front were a bit bunched up.  There was just a little pink in the sky.  And yeah, I see a sort of fence in this shot too :)

They organized themselves here..

 and I focused on their almost perfect "V" though it continued..

 to shift patterns as I watched.

 As we turned to walk back to our bikes, I noticed a bird in the trees.  It didn't look like this at all.  (I am in awe of my camera.)  My eyes saw only a black silhouette, but there was something a bit different about the shape..  too small for a crow, too big for a sparrow, and somehow, not quite a robin.

A Varied Thrush!  I know they're considered common, but I've only seen a few in my life, so this was a very happy sighting.  And with a bit of cropping, I thought its colours showed up rather beautifully!

The rest of the photos here were taken when we attended the Push International Performing Arts Festival last Friday at the Vancouver Art Gallery.  I shared some impressions of that in my last post, but here is a work titled "Bang" that we quite enjoyed by..

Al Weiwei.

A quote taken from this site gives some idea of its meaning.
"The single stool as part of an encompassing sculptural structure may be read as a metaphor for the individual and its relation to an overarching and excessive system in a postmodern world developing at lightning speed," Gaensheimer explains in the preface to the pavilion’s catalog."

Here are a couple of close-ups of various parts of the work.  Al Wei Wei is a very angry individual.  He rebels against a government system that he finds intolerable and incomprehensible, so I warn you that visiting the link to his personal site (given after the first photo of the stools) will take you to some angry language and disturbing scenes.  

He was jailed for 81 days for his open attitude of disgust, though never charged with any offense.  This quote, discovered only after I researched his name, makes me see his work in a different light.  It refers to a movie called "So Sorry" that he made.  (You can see it at his site.) In "So Sorry, you see the investigation led by Ai Weiwei studio to identify the students who died during the Sichuan earthquake as a result of corruption and poor building constructions leading to the confrontation between Ai Weiwei and the Chengdu police. After being beaten by the police, Ai Weiwei traveled to Munich, Germany to prepare his exhibition at the museum, Haus der Kunst. The result of his beating led to intense headaches caused by a brain hemorrhage and was treated by emergency surgery. These events mark the beginning of Ai Weiwei’s struggle and surveillance at the hands of the state police.

But, when we visited the museum, I knew nothing of this story.  I just knew that I was attracted to the visual images (and yes, I see a kind of fence).  This photo was my favourite of the evening.  I had asked Bill to pose for me, and as always, he did so with his own uniquely sweet take on his surroundings.

There was much to see at the exhibition - more than we could take in in one evening, but I'll leave you with this newly discovered work of Emily Carr's (with fence reference too) and..

a little info about it,

as well as a quickly snapped photo of the stairway and balcony "fencing" as we made our..

way through the crowds of visitors at Vancouver Art Gallery.

Many thanks for stopping by.  Have a wonderful Friday, everyone!