Each Little World

Wordless Wednesday

The first day of 2018

The guests have departed, the dishes are done and the hosts are drowsing by the fire. Another lovely New Year's spent with friends from our local EVP coffee shop sharing smoked salmon, lox, bagels and bubbly at our house to get the year off to the best possible start.

For once, we actually took a few photos so I can remember what we ate and how I managed to squeeze that much food onto our kitchen counters!

Wednesday vignette

On our way up to Stout's Island Lodge in July, we stopped in Eau Claire at Caradori Pottery. We first discovered David Caradori at the old Cambridge Pottery Festival. We bought our first pieces of his work at the festival and later made stops at his shop in Eau Claire and also visited his home to see his personal pottery collection. 

Caradori's a fan of Japanese tea bowls and has worked with the esteemed Japanese potter, M. Kusakabe, so he and Mark immediately hit it off. These are sake containers made by Caradori which we brought home from our stop at his shop. Their lids turn into little cups for drinking. Perfect for an autumn afternoon in our Tea House.

We usually sit on cushions on the floor when we're in the Tea House. The Yanagi butterfly stool is as much a sculpture as seat and we rarely actually use it. Mostly just enjoy its crisp lines contrasted with the rough stucco walls.

In a vase on Monday: flowers, food and books

Mark's book club, aka The Community of Reason, meets once a month on a Sunday morning. I am a bit of a fair weather member and only attend when I'm not otherwise engaged or I am particularly interested in the book. This month the book was "Janesville: An American Story" by Amy Goldstein of the Washington Post, which I'd read earlier this year and had recommended to the group. Since I knew we'd be sitting in the living room, I put together this quick arrangement for the coffee table that we would all be gathered around. These lilies (L. lancifolium flore pleno) have been a real joy, they've been blooming for weeks and still have a few more buds left to open. We ate the delicious Michigan peaches later that afternoon. 

One of the members of the book group who has a beautiful garden brought me this bouquet. A bit difficult to see but I love how the colors picked up the same  tones in the ceramic platter behind them. 

I put this little quickie together to enjoy while I worked in the kitchen Sunday afternoon after everyone had gone home. I roasted and froze another batch of Roma tomatoes and onions all pre-weighed for winter soup, made the green beans with olives and marinated beet salad from the NYTimes and this fabulous curried chick pea salad which I have been making once a week for the last few weeks. It's prime produce season and I am really trying to take advantage of all the delicious things available at our farmers' markets. 

I'm joining Cathy from Rambling in the Garden who hosts this Monday meme. I often make bouquets but I try not to miss this great floral outpouring each week. You can see what other gardeners have created here.

. . . 

 

If you are looking for a great book on contemporary politics, community and economic issues, I'd suggest "Janesville." Here's the review of it that I posted on Good Reads:

Like "Evicted," this is another important book coming out of Wisconsin. Ostensibly this is the story of the General Motors (GM) plant closing in Janesville from the announcement in 2008 right up till now. Author Amy Goldstein, as a Washington Post reporter and a member of a Pulitzer team, proves eminently suited to see this event from the aspect of personal stories as well as following the ever-widening ripple of repercussions that fateful decision has on the larger community.

In one sense this is another depressing story and yet the former GM workers and the town are determined to somehow overcome this dramatic change in their fortunes. The auto workers and their families, the educators, social workers and community activists we meet are hard working, sacrificing and inspiring on every level. The politicians and business leaders are folks who we already know like Paul Ryan and Diane Hendricks of ABC Supply Co. Golstein gives all sides in this story, often right from the horses’ mouths as it were. We can damn the participants or praise them based on their own words and actions. 

The hardest part of “Janesville” is not watching folks struggle to stay afloat and find new jobs. It’s the analysis and statistics that Goldstein amasses in half a dozen years covering this story that point to a critical misconception about how to retrain factory workers for new careers, whether they can be retrained and what the new work and pay will be. The government essentially has one plan and this book says it’s not working. Whether anyone is listening is the big question. 

I found this to be a great read and so much more worthy of my time than “Hillbilly Elegy.” It's been days since I finished it and I can't get these folks out of my mind.

Olbrich's Spring Show: Good enough to eat!

Spring Flower Show: Banquets of Blooms

March 11-26, 2017

10 a.m. to 4 p.m. daily

Show Admission: $3 for adults (ages 13 & up), $2 for children ages 3 to 12, and children 2 and under are free.

It's also free for Olbrich Botanical Society members. 

. . .

The staff at Olbrich Botanical Gardens always pulls out all the creative stops when it comes to their annual spring floral event. Of course, it's a real boost just to walk into a room filled with the scent and color of flowers in March in Wisconsin, but this year's display goes way beyond mere floral beauty. It is a clever, creative and utterly charming spring show. (Do double click to enlarge the pictures so you can enjoy the details.)

This year's theme of "Banquet of Blooms" is exemplified in a myriad of settings. The center of the room is designed for cooking with herbs and edible flowers in a kitchen complete with a vintage stove, sink, and cupboard full of cookbooks and tools. There are multiple locations for enjoying drinks and dinner in the garden as well as beautifully detailed recreations and imaginations of food made out of natural materials. This has to be one of the most labor-intensive spring shows the garden has done with hundreds of small-scale items created for decoration, dining and "eating" everywhere you look.

The addition of this Guy Wolff terra cotta rhubarb forcing pot from 2002 says to me that this display was created by gardeners who grow their own food and cook it! Such a telling detail. 

Pool party!!!

The flowers and greenery are sometimes grouped in contrasting color arrangements and in others, the flowers flow in tones from pale peach to corals and pinks fading into lavender. This particular display of flowers took my breath away until I saw the table they encircled.

Note the silverware and the "flourless chocolate cake."

Below is the dreamy dinning table that won my heart. I think Olbrich should sell raffle tickets as a fund-raising benefit with the prize being the staff recreating this magical willow structure in the winner's garden. 

 

This coming Sunday, March 26, is the last day to see Olbrich's Spring Flower Show. This is one you won't want to miss!

Milwaukee mini vac

Mark and I made a quick trip to Milwaukee late last week to see the Helen Levitt exhibit at the Milwaukee Art Museum. Subtitled "In the Street," it's a broad look at Levitt's career and even includes her early color slide images (via a slide projector). There's also a fabulous film Levitt made that is like looking at her prints come to life. The exhibit is on display until April 16 if you live in the area. That's Mark snapping his reflection in a work from MAM's permanent collection (below).

We stayed downtown at The Plaza Hotel and walked over to MAM. Despite the snow you see below, the sidewalks were mostly clear and dry, the sky was blue and there was no wind, making for a very pleasant walk to the museum.

Even a short walk in Milwaukee reminds us of what a small city Madison really is by comparison. 

No matter how many times we've been to MAM, we always spend time appreciating the building's dramatic exterior (below) before we go inside.

"Paper Play: Kindergarten to Contemporary Art," included a brief film showing the artist putting this work together.

We allowed time to see our favorite art works, the new shows and to check out the addition to the museum which we had not yet seen. There are now some great views out to Lake Michigan.

The next day the sky wasn't quite as blue but we managed to find lots of color everywhere we went. 

Getting a demo at Design Within Reach. I am hot for these lights and wanted to see them in person and for Mark to see them! They are are waterproof and can be removed from their charging base, be put out in the garden and remain glowing for quite a few hours. You can set them for a particular color or let them rotate through the spectrum. 

The vintage cafe in The Plaza Hotel is my favorite breakfast spot in the city, for the food and that classic deco decor. In the summer, you can dine outside in the courtyard that you can see through the windows at the rear. Even when we stay elsewhere, I demand breakfast at The Plaza Cafe.

We used to always try to fit in everything we wanted to do and see in Milwaukee into one day. Lately we've started turning it into a mini vacation by staying overnight. We get to enjoy everything at a slower pace. And since we were not driving we could have a drink before dinner at the yummy Zarletti Italian restaurant . . .

and a nightcap after dinner to celebrate St. Patrick's Day at Buckley's Restaurant and Bar. 

Then out into the dark for the walk back to The Plaza. Another great day in Milwaukee.

 

The Equinox is obvious

I don't need a calendar to tell me what time of year it is. The signs are everywhere I look. 

We've had just enough beautiful days this month to send the late season flowers into glorious good looks: Trycirtis 'Tojen' (above) and Cimicifuga (below).

And more than enough wind and rain to make many things look tired and tattered.

Seedheads are bursting open.

Honey locust pods are coming down everywhere, something they will continue to do until next Spring. They crash through Hosta leaves and crush the last ferns and even found a home on this rock whose glittering Mica flakes are disappearing under a coating of lichens.

The first colorful leaves are down.

And Arum italicum 'Ghost' is popping up as it does once the weather begins to cool. This will become a big clump and look beautiful until the snow buries it.

But the most reliable sign of the seasonal switch is that fact that all I feel like doing is cooking and eating. Bulbs and plants will be arriving in the mail any day but it's too wet to garden. Usually we're hoping for rain at this point in the year but we're above normal for rainfall and rain is forecast for 7 of the next 8 days. Hunkering down in the kitchen is the only thing to do. That's where you'll find me until the rain stops and the sun comes out again.

(Rice pudding with fresh grated ginger root). 

Sarah, Louis and Frank Lloyd Wright in Madison

Since my niece Sarah comes from a family of architecture buffs who particularly like Frank Lloyd Wright, visiting all the FLW buildings in Madison seemed like a natural. For those of you who are not local, I will just say that FLW is a native of Wisconsin and that Madison and the state are home to many of his landmark creations, including Taliesin, his home near Spring Green. So Sarah, Mark and I spent last Thursday visiting FLW shrines around town.

The Meeting House of Madison's First Unitarian Society was commissioned by the group in 1946. To help defray costs the congregation helped with the construction, including hauling the quarry stone, building furniture and doing interior finish work. As you can see here, the building is an excellent example of the soaring triangular shape that FLW used to great effect in a number of his projects. 

The Society now has an adjacent new building used for many events including public concerts. The FLW building is still used especially for weddings and memorial services. I've attended many of both over the years and can attest that the seats are a bit on the low side but moderately comfortable. It's a wonderful space and visiting it — like visiting any FLW site — is a bit of a religious experience.

FLW used a soaring triangle in a different manner in the Gilmore House, known more familiarly — in Madison at least — as the "airplane house". Wright placed this 1908 house just below the crown of the highest hill in the University Heights neighborhood, according to my 1987 Heggland/Rankin tour booklet. 

The main living rooms were on the second floor giving the Gilmores a spectacular view. The jutting triangle is a balcony. Still a great house on a wonderful site.

But I've always thought the entrance was overgrown and it never felt welcoming. I was in this house years ago and I admit I have no memory of the interior. I am guessing I was only on the lower floor because I can't imagine I would forget the view.

I love to imagine how the Buell family — who built the first home at the top of the hill in University Heights in 1894 — felt when the Gilmores and Wright put up the "airplane house" directly across the street and just above them. Perhaps Charles Buell had the last laugh since he was the first person to build so far from downtown. By the time he died in the late 1930s his house was surrounded by the homes of Madison's movers and shakers.

I have to say I've never been sure which house I'd rather live in: The Gilmore or the Buell. You can't tell it from the photo below but the land drops sharply away from the Buell house as the street turns tightly around their corner lot. Conover and Porter, architects.

If you're rambling around the Heights, you can't miss the Bradley house. My guide booklet says this massive Prairie style building from 1910 was one of the last works — and a rare residential design — of Louis H. Sullivan, Wright's mentor and one-time employer. The house was a wedding present to the Bradley's from the bride's father but they found it too large. They sold it to the Sigma Phi Fraternity in 1914. The house was "meticulously rebuilt" after a terrible fire in 1972.

The members of this house are known as "the gentlemen on the hill" according to their Rush Week signs. While we were debating walking up to the door and ringing the bell, one of the Fraternity members invited us inside and gave us a tour of the public rooms. From his presentation and answers to our questions, it seems these young men know the history and value and popularity of their house very well.

The detailing on this house — inside, outside and on the leaded glass windows — is gorgeous. The scale is so dramatic that you can stand on the curb and enjoy the design. I've been inside this house many times over the years and it's always a treat, though I'm not sure I could live with so much dark wood on a daily basis. Still, I'd be willing to give it a try.

When Mark and I went house hunting for our first home, we'd read the newspaper ads on Sunday morning and then I'd go look at the houses we noted during the afternoon while he was at work. I always remember the time I saw a little west side house that I thought was too cramped, too boring and too expensive. As I was driving down the block I saw the house below, pulled over and thought, "Now there's a great house." It took me a bit of drooling and dreaming to realize it was a FLW design.

This is the Jacobs House, built in 1937, for Katherine and Herb Jacobs. He was a newsman at The Capital Times so you know his salary was modest. The couple challenged Wright to build for less than $5,000. The house came in at about $5,550 and there are lots of stories about where Wright got some of the building materials to stay within that figure. 

The house is also known as the first "Usonian" house, a word FLW coined that means the building was designed to relate directly to nature. This house does it with its L-shape with windows facing an open area surrounded by trees, swaths of prairie grass and Midwestern plants. The side street view of the house is more accessible than I remember in past years so we were able to get a good look at it. And yes, I've been in this one as well. Mark and I once spent an afternoon there with Jim Dennis, the UW-Madison art history professor who lovingly restored the house over the course of many years. 

Being the home of someone who supports a progressive political agenda means there are always messages on display on the street corner where the house is located. (Not my best look ever but I love the sign!)

We ended our FLW tour with a triumvirate of Wisconsin icons: We went to Smokey's, a landmark supper club, where Sarah had her first Brandy Old-Fashioned Sweet (Wisconsin's unofficial state beverage) and deep-fried cheese curds. A perfect day no matter how you slice it.

 

In a vase on Tuesday: A summer table setting

Mark and I were invited to a dinner party at the end of last week on an absolutely beautiful evening. The table was equally beautiful; so much so that I made him grab a few pictures on his phone. There was seating for 14 guests which meant Mark had to take more than one photo to get the entire table. There were lap blankets and throws in case it turned chilly and we needed to cover up but the temperature never fell so much that anyone needed a wrap.

I particularly liked the look of those French park chairs all in a row, looking so pristine with their white enamel paint.

Mark and I brought easy hors d'oeuvres: olives and breadsticks. Gardeners, note that I used a vase to hold the breadsticks. I needed a tall plain container and I realized nothing fit that description as well as a vase! 

In case you are curious, the entree was Cioppino with cornbread. Dessert was a fabulous lemon poppyseed layer cake served with coffee and glasses of iced Limoncello. A wonderful way to welcome September. Thank you Jane and David for including us.

Another summer meal

I subscribe to food and recipe emails from The New York Times and Food 52. Usually I quickly glance at them and hit delete. But I try enough of them — and am happy with the results — to keep 'em coming. A few weeks ago Food 52 posted a recipe for Sriracha Lime Corn Salad which was fabulous. I've already made it twice.

It's another of those corn dishes that uses kernels sliced off the cob which is the most labor-intensive part of the recipe. Saute the corn, add sweet red peppers, finish with lime juice, parsley, Sriracha and Cojita cheese. Since it's available on-line I won't bother to reprint the complete directions here. I'll just tell you that you should give it a try. Spicy, summery, and good hot or at room temp.

We paired the Food 52 corn dish and another Caprese salad with a recipe from Martha Stewart's magazine. I tore out the page and it's been sitting around for a couple of years waiting for me to rediscover it. Her Swordfish with Watermelon and Lime-Ginger Citronette is another very summery entree and a great way to eat up watermelon. Mark likes to buy the bigger ones and I get tired of it quickly so this was a great solution.