Welcome, September

What an amazing first day of September!

Opened the Northside Farmer's Market with Ack; harvested more from our deep wealth of zinnias (grown for Erin and Al's July wedding but peaking in August instead); sailed my little Expedition for the first time in a long time; Ack sold the dinghy a day after he posted on Craig's List; and Bob (stepson of good friend Jo Shuman) stayed with us on his route from Seattle to New York.

Forgot to ask his last name!  Vosper, perhaps?  Here's his journey blog on Track My Tour:
http://trackmytour.com/XMJXV#344875

Best part of the evening -- out on the pontoon with Margaret, Meg, Bob and me and Ack to watch the annual lighted boat parade but, as Bob put it, a lightening storm off in the distance stole the show.  Huge cloud over Lake Michigan (90 miles away!) that showed awesome flashes for hours. The stars on the way back were a close second - beautiful night. 

A November Friday with Mimi

 My mother is game for any adventure. 

On this sunny but cool day, Mimi and Anne putt-putted the pontoon over to Governor Nelson State Park for Donny Anderson to take and store it for the winter season.  This was after a few other steps first: shuttling a car over to the park (Poppy did that with me), clearing out the boat and drying the  hidden water in every compartment, finding that the battery was dead, and then recharging the battery.  The short ride on the lake was beautiful.

Then later in the afternoon, we went to the 60th annual lutefisk dinner at Lakeview Lutheran Church, down the road from our house.  Even though she wasn't hungry, and despite the fact that neither of us planned to eat the fish (the white stuff on the platter in the photo), we had a great time.  I ate the meatballs, mashed potatoes, rutabaga, cole slaw, lefse, cranberries and pie.  Mimi had a few tastes of the meatballs, taters and pie.  What's as delightful as any of the foods are the enthusiastic stories people tell about lutefisk: how they grew to like it, advice (to me) on how to eat it, their favorite way to prepare it, their favorite places to go for it, the church lutefisk suppers they've gone to this season already and will go to next. 

Through it all, Ack did great work at work and Daddy kept guard at the dining room table or napped in the guest room. 

Jonas Sees in Color

A great show tonight! Lots of energy, wonderful music and great performance. Too bad it was only an hour. The band are healthy and looking fine - lucky considering the accident they had.

Erin Visits!

Erin is up visiting from Indiana for a week. Here we are putting together a 'stepping stone'.

Mary and Joe in Madison

Mary and Joe came to Madison for a three-day visit. They had chilly weather here unfortunately. They'd had temps in the 90s first in California during their visit with Michael and Evelyn, and then when they got home to NY. Some highlights: watching "Bucky" the groundhog at the house, going to the art exhibit opening at the Lt. Gov's office (Anne has photos there), and going out to dinner with Margaret, Meg, Ellen & Carrie. It was a fun visit.

Photos show them stranded at a bus stop on Capitol Square after the Old Fashioned restaurant wouldn't seat us for 40 minutes, and then happily seated at the Avenue Bar instead.

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.

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.