Winter Shines
It’s officially Winter: the groundhog has made his prediction. According to Gainer the Gopher, we Saskatchewanians will soon see the end of winter. Though, honestly, here in Saskatchewan, no matter what the groundhog says we know Winter will last at least another six to eight weeks. Snow on my birthday, at the beginning of April, is common.
Which is why, perhaps, we are fans of the winter festival. What else is there to do as Winter drags on but revel in the bliss of all that is divine about this sparkling, cold season?
In Saskatoon, WinterShines 2012 is running from Jan 28th to Feb 12th…
For the last couple of years, the festival center has been at the Farmers Market site. Ice sculptures abound. I’m not a big fan of ice sculptures. I prefer snow sculptures as they mold better and it is easier to tell what they are. Plus, ice sculptures seem more hoity-tooty. Aren’t these google images, of snow sculptures, amazing?
As for these Birds of Prey (my title for them), are they eagles or griffins? Labels would have been nice or the opportunity to get close enough to touch; I a fan of touch and close-up photographs. I like to zoom in and try to capture the tiniest details (impossible to do at this distance with my point & shoot camera).
I’m assuming this is a duck or perhaps a Canadian Goose. I’m sure it’s even more nondescript this weekend (I took these pictures last Saturday when the ice sculptures were newly carved). We’ve had a week of warm, melting inducing temperatures since then.
What I liked best about photographing the sculptures was trying to catch the reflections from the every changing spotlights. Here we have blue…
The sculpture, I think, is a jousting knight which has no Saskatchewan connection. If you’re going to do an ice sculpture for our Wintershines shouldn’t you try to connect with us?
Here we have reflections both Orange & Yellow verging towards the Tangerine perhaps. And who is this woman supposed to be or is she a mermaid? I can’t tell.
I’m a little crabby today, aren’t I?
I’ll try not to be so crabby.
I loved this idea, coloured children’s blocks carved out of the ice. The children loved it too. It was very hard to get a picture that showcased the colourful blocks as they were consistently being used.
This is my second favourite picture. Sun. Sun. Shiny, happy sun. Saskatoon Shines is one of our local mascots. Sun was also hard to get a picture of as it was always moving and surrounded by children. Doesn’t it make you want to smile back at it? Isn’t Sun looking so warm and happy?
I think crabby me is gone.
🙂
Go out, enjoy Winter Festivals where ever you are and don’t be wary to visit Saskatoon in every delightful season.
I’m just glad we don’t even consider a polar bear swim.
Solitary Spinster 