Wing It

There will be an art exhibit about the Cherokee Marsh that will be on display at Warner Park Community Center during the month of October and during the time that the Northside Planning Council will be holding its 15th Anniversary celebration. This is a pastel drawing that I'm considering submitting (19 in x 24 in)

Ouch!

See if you can locate the bees nest in this movie loop. Ack found it -- by stepping in it while weeding!

End of summer nears...

As the summer draws to an end, Ack is getting ready for class which starts the day after Labor Day. Anne is in NY with Erin helping with Ack's mom. Then she's going to Rye for her dad's surgery. The image here is a pencil drawing Ack recently finished.

Happy Anniversary!

We celebrated our 28th wedding anniversary (32 in all) at the Midwest Folklife Festival held in Folklore Village. Anne helped to organize it and worked at it and Ack pretty much just hung out. We camped there and went for a walk in the prairie, where these photos were taken.

Garden Report

The zinnias and moon flowers are triumphant. The cucumber plants are starting to show signs of blight brought on by the squash beetle but I won't be sorry to see them go because three plants is two too many. The beans might make it; I planted them late and they're only three inches tall now but stressed by the resident rodent and some kind of wilt on a few of the leaves. The rodent has done a job on the carrots and beets; I'm trying a chicken wire barrier around the carrots and that seems to be helping. Kale is crazy good; so are the zucchini and sorrel and borage and asparagus and lemon thyme and marigolds. The brussel sprout plants are great but the sprouts are slow in development. No rush - I want them for Thanksgiving. I planted the tomatoes late and should have them in September. I'm digging up all the strawberries. The voracious Japanese beetles are doing a number on the new mallow plant. The nasturium got covered by the squash leaves, as did the basil -- what, me plant things too closely? Actually, I goofed when planting, thinking that the zuke seedlings were the cukes. Ah, they worked anyway.

All Scattered

After a wonderful week with the whole family here, they all scattered and left me with time to fill. So now I'm finding homes for an abundance of garden cucumbers, working overtime to get ready for the Midwest Folklife Festival at Folklore Village this weekend, and finishing up grades and invoices from the Milwaukee Cultural Tour. Here's a photo from registration day of the tour -- my colleague, Ruth Olson, delighted by a few of the trickster mascots who shared the same UW-Milwaukee dorm as us during a cheerleading camp.

All Together...

We are all together. Erin and Al came to Madison on Wednesday after camping with Al's family at Governor Dodge State Park (Anne went to visit with them and go hiking on Tuesday.) Alana arrived about a week earlier to visit and also clean out her room, which will become one of our hobby rooms. Ack spent most of last week at a meeting in Corvallis, OR. In addition to hanging out, we went to see "I See Her Everywhere," a play that Reed Gaines (Margaret and Meg's son) was in. It was at Shake Rag Alley in Mineral Point, a beautiful arts-centered historic town in southwest Wisconsin. Reed was very good in a tough role. The play, written by a local playwright, could have used Anne as an editor. Al is playing in an ultimate frisbee tournament this weekend - final round is on Sunday. The portrait was taken just before we took Alana to the airport to return to DC. We think of Mom as she is back in the hospital, and are so grateful to our family members caring for her.

A Drive on a Beautiful Day

We've been having unusual August weather these past few days - cool and NOT humid. Anne and Ack went for a drive to see Man Mound, a rare human-shaped effigy mound built about 1000 years ago. Click on the photo; Ack added the little white circles to show the shape of the mound better. It is very large, 214-feet-long. Most of the hundreds of effigy mounds built in this region were plowed under for cultivation in the 19th century. Man Mound survived, except for the bottom of his legs; those were cut off when the road was built. Some local supporters painted them back in (see the white paint in the road and by the cow pen).

On our way back home, we took the Merrimac Ferry across the Wisconsin River. The ferry is free and has been provided for more than a century. The boat is propelled across the river by cables connected to both shores. We also drove by Circus World Museum, checked out the results of June flooding around Devil's Lake, and stopped at the "Susie the Duck Day" celebration in Lodi, where the highlight is a rubber duck race in the creek that runs through the park.





We also visited Olbrich Gardens where Anne had a conversation with some bears.





Alana is in town visiting for a week. Erin comes to town later in the week as well.

Noisy Birds

Anne is off in Milwaukee with the Making It Home tour. Ack is supposed to be in Brazil at a meeting but his visa application was rejected 3 times. One of the rejection reasons was because in the photo sent for the visa, there was not enough contrast between the background and the top of his head (ie, he is too bald for the electronic scanner!).

The sandhill cranes are back for the season - there are two families in the neighborhood. If you haven't heard their calls - turn on the video and imagine being awakened to that at 5:30 am!

Busy Weekend...

On Saturday, after working in the garden and correcting papers, we went to Miracles of the Spirit, an art exhibit in Whitewater on Wisconsin visionary/outsider art. There were a few nice pieces by Mona Webb, the mother of a friend (Cookie Martin-Smith) we knew from our days back in Colorado - you can see one of her paintings in the background of this picture (the purple portrait).





On Friday night, we went to hear Carrie sing in a choral group she is in - the Isthmus Vocal Ensemble. Wonderful music, especially the piece by a Finnish composer E. Rautavaara that used a surrealistic style to set the poem of Federico Garcia Lorca - a 20th century poet who was executed in the Spanish Civil War. Afterwards we (Anne, Ack, Carrie, Ellen, and the two Annes) went to Michael's for custard.



We have visitors this weekend - Jamie and Greg, who are in town for a wedding. Jamie used to work with Anne and was also part of the group of students who worked on Wisconsin Weather Stories, back before she moved to Brooklyn.