At this point in the season the shows and meets are wrapping up for the year so gradually we are running out of car-related events to attend. Fortunately I have many photos saved from the past several months – unpublished photos – which I can use to keep the blog going this winter, and of course there will be updates on cars as we get ready for the 2016 show/meet season. In the meantime I continue to work through the sizable pile of photos gathered from recent events, and for today we move on to one from a few weekends ago – Tree and Shine.

Tree and Shine was a show hosted to raise money for the Calgary Humane Society as well as for planting trees. Originally scheduled for Sunday September 6th – the day after Park and Polish – a last-minute decision was made to push the show back a day. With how the weather was that weekend, this was done in hopes of more sun and less rain.

We arrived the morning of to register and set up the cars and found it to be a smaller show in terms of attendance. A sizable portion of the lot at the Grey Eagle had been reserved for the event so we wound up with a fair bit of room to stretch out. Despite the size we had fun hanging out for a few hours and it was for a good cause anyway. Thanks to those involved in putting this on! Let’s get to the photos:

Starting things off with a little Miata hiding under a semi trailer. Even with how small these roadsters are, this was still a pretty tight fit!

A couple of the usual suspects – Keith and Yolanda.

Many of the cars are ones that you may recognize from previous Grey Eagle meet photos.

Keith provided some music for us as we relaxed by the cars.

Jacob arrived shortly after and joined the show with his IS.

Insert emissions scandal joke here…haha.

The Cement tC which was also at Park and Polish…I still really like that colour.

A pair of slammed blue Scoobies joined the fun. The white Hellas behind the grille (matching the wheels) are a nice detail. Methinks I should get some for the Focus…

I had seen this Evo a few times before but this time it was sporting some wider fenders which looked rather good.

The angry little Miata had quit hiding under the trailer and was showing off its under-hood mural.

The Mint R32 is one I can’t help but snap a photo of when I see it. The colour suits the body really well.

With relatively few cars on hand, I found myself switching lenses more often than usual so that I could play around and get a variety of shots. Another shot of Halo’s headlight for Yolanda…

The bird was present, with Root Bear driving again. Keep an eye on the Driving section in the Calgary Herald as it was recently shot for a feature there. We don’t yet know when exactly it’ll be published but hopefully before too long!

Decided to grab a shot of Keith’s halo too, why not?

I perhaps have been paying a little more attention than usual to Evo Xs this year, since Scott picked one up earlier in the season. It’s always fun to watch a new project start to progress.

I had to get a close-up of this Evo’s fender, seen earlier.

The black Speed6 was showing off its under-hood decal collection. If this counts as hellaslow, mine must be hellahellaslow.

Since arriving at the casino that morning we had been watching the skies, and at this point the rain we had been hoping to avoid started to fall…oh dear.

We thought it might remain light, but quickly it got rather heavy so Jacob and I ran inside to wait it out. The others were in the casino to grab a bite, and were surprised to find out the weather had changed already. We waited just inside the doors so we could keep an eye on the lot and before too long the rain finally ended and we walked back to the cars.

A number had left during the brief downpour so the lot was a bit more empty, but we decided to stay since the rain was over.

Besides, the wet cars certainly made for some nice photo opportunities!

The lighter stripe you see running on the peak of the Thunderbird’s fender is pinstripe vinyl. It generates quite a number of comments and questions at shows and many are surprised to hear that it’s just vinyl.

Fortunately I didn’t spend much time cleaning the Focus before the show. Not much work was undone by driving on wet roads after. #firstworldproblems

Some people still have the Driven 2015 decals on their windshields which is awesome to see! It seems like it took place forever ago but it has been only just over 4 months since.

The high-horsepower S4, and the mint R32 again…

The show was scheduled to run until 3 but with the rain – and some attendees leaving because of that – it wrapped up a little early. I thought for sure that this would be the last official show of the year that the Focus would attend but I fit in one more a couple of weeks after this.

I find it hard to believe that October starts tomorrow, but as they say time flies when you’re having fun! I didn’t bother to count but without a doubt this year I set a personal record for the most shows/meets/events attended and it’ll be hard to beat. Beyond that, some friends picked up new projects, numerous awards were won among us, features were earned, and some amazing cars were seen. Looking back, 2015’s was definitely a good car season. It’ll be fun to go back through the photos in December for the year-end review!

-Bill