A wicked wind storm hit town on Sunday. The clean up continues. In our ‘hood, a couple of big, old conifers couldn’t hold on and ended up in the street, or like this one, against someone’s home. Although I didn’t see it go over, it looks like the fall might have been a slow, but still very startling tumble.

Look at these roots. Shallow and squeezed to fit the tight little space it had between sidewalk and street. It almost looks as if you could just push the tree back off the the second floor railing, it would right itself and settle back in. But, unfortunately, that’s not reality.

The gardener’s helper took these shots. He also noticed the local neighbourhood cat came back, taking advantage of the new express route to the second floor deck. It’s always sad when a tree goes down. It’s a constant battle to secure and maintain green space in the city core. Hopefully the city won’t take too long to plant the new one in the spring.

David Hoffos is an installation artist who has a show on right now at ACAD. This is the last stop for his show called Scenes from the House Dreams – a collection of 21 different scenes that David created over the last five years. It took him about three weeks to set up the show in the Illingworth Kerr Gallery.

It’s well worth a visit. I went to the opening last week. And I’ve been thinking about the show. So when I was on a ride this weekend, I noticed that the trees along the river reminded me of a couple of David’s installations.

His miniature scenes “Airsteam‘, ‘C.P. Fail’, ‘Treehouse‘, ‘Winter Kitchen‘, ‘Circle Street‘ and ‘Overpass‘  all have a forest or tree’d street as a component of the installation. Below is a shot of the ‘Airsteam‘ scene in the show, with the video component visible.

Big heavy old poplars, like those in the river park I rode through on Sunday, could be what he was thinking about when he crafted the scene. Coincidence or nice connection, I’m not sure which, but I like how David’s dream images triggered my memory.

David’s show is up until mid-December. You should go.

What number are you?

I’ve been playing with growing moss this year on the balcony, inspired by Barry in Toronto. Recently while in Jasper, I did a hike that took me through a moss zone. Loaded with mushrooms.

Now, of course as per the National Parks Act, you can’t “collect or remove any natural objects or historical artifacts (this includes berries, wildflowers, mushrooms, antlers, wood, interesting rocks along the river, etc.)”, so photos are all I brought home.

And I’m not a forager like Marie and Ellen in NY, but if I wanted to become one in search of mushrooms, I’d join the Alberta Mycological Society.

Timber Press also has a number of books on the subject. But for the time being, I’ll just enjoy the pics. Want to see more? Here’s a photo database of Alberta mushrooms.