Each Little World

We the people . . .

To get your day off to a positive start, enjoy this new song from Ben Sidran, a Madisonian whose literary and musical talents are known far beyond our town. 

Perfect end of September weekend

The weather has been less than perfect, but I had a busy and satisfying weekend. It began Friday afternoon when a friend and I went to the Back to School Alumni and Friends Event sponsored by the UW's School of Human Ecology (where I received my grad degree in textile design).

We saw two widely differing fiber exhibits in the galleries of Nancy Nicholas Hall, followed by a fascinating look at the history of reusing textiles by Prof. Marina Mosokwitz — just for starters. I managed to get to two mini lectures before Mark picked me up at 5 pm for an opening at our favorite local art gallery. 

My first stop Saturday morning was the Westside Farmers Market where this trio was performing. After watching all 8 episodes of Country Music on Wisconsin Public Television, they reminded me of all the country music stars who began at this age.

Then I spent two hours at a WHPS free workshop "An Accidental Arboretum," where one of the members talked about all the trees and shrubs in her garden. As we walked through her garden she point out various specimens as well as sharing information about pruning practices, tools, and sources for plants. She topped it all off with cookies, lemonade and a handout with every one of her trees and shrubs listed by their botanical name.

I came home all excited about possibilities in our garden but went to work in the kitchen instead. First I roasted a couple of pounds of Roma tomatoes and froze them for winter soups and bruchetta. Then I made a batch of ginger broth, one of our personal pantry mainstays. Next up is Daikon and red raddish pickles. 

I took the photo above during the morning garden workshop. This is a Korean fir that died unexpectedly and the gardener left it for a snag. I love the pattern the critters who are using it are making.

We spent a rainy Sunday reading, listening to music and dealing with paperwork. Then Mark went off to a new photography book club while I settled in with the last season of Poldark. 

Mark blew our roof and gutters clear of leaves on Thursday just in case the rain was one of those gushers that doesn't move. Luckily it was gentle for the most part. But what a wet month. According to our rain gauge we got 1.48" (3.75 cm.) from Friday through early this morning, bringing our total for the month of September to 8.95" (22.73 cm.). Don't know if this is the new normal or just an unusually wet September.

For whom the bell tolls

Alas, our beautiful Thai bell is not tolling for anyone at the moment. It usually hangs from a tree branch adjacent to the path into the Tea House garden. Visitors can easily strike it to announce their arrival. 

But someone chewed through the rope that suspended it from the tree. One more garden chore to add to the spring list. Make that two chores: buy new rope, then re-hang the bell. 

August Raitt and rain

We were sitting outside across the street from the Overture Center enjoying an espresso before Wednesday night's Bonnie Raitt concert when it became obvious that a storm was headed in. Mark managed to snap this photo of the rapidly darkening sky before we went inside. Alas, when we checked the rain gauge this morning the amount of rain that fell on our garden was negligible. The concert, however, was not.

Bonnie Raitt has never put on anything but a great show every time she's come to town whether at the Stock Pavilion, Headliners or the old Civic Center. Another ticket stub to add to the memory box.

And end of the month rain stats to note for my garden records. Alas, they're worth recording for the lack of moisture they denote. These are the amounts of the rainfalls we had this August:  .12", 2.30", .24" and .28". Three inches wouldn't be a bad total but those piddly amounts never made it through the mulch. And over two inches of rain at one time is worrisome from the other direction. I'm trying to get late summer planting done this weekend but I think a fair amount of time will need to be spent hauling hoses around the garden.

For those of you who always read the small print, note the ticket prices on the Bonnie Raitt poster from the mid-1980s: $8 and $9.00. Those were not cheap seats no matter what it looks like in retrospect.

Another sisterly birthday

Two of my three sisters have birthdays in January; one being my "baby" sister, Pat. I'm the oldest and Pat's the youngest. We were born ten years apart so it's easy for me to always remember her age. I will be celebrating one of those landmark birthdays this Spring which means she's celebrating one today. This is a picture of the two of us at my high school graduation. 

There are a couple of things about this picture worth pointing out. First I am wearing gloves! Hard to believe what another world and time those days were. I am also wearing another dress my mother made. It's pale pink gingham inset with a piece of antique eyelet embroidered with pink thread. If you click on the picture to enlarge it, you can just make out the fabric insert. Pat's dress is also pink, though a more dusky tone than mine. I believe hers is a hand-me-down from another one of our sisters — Meg or Nan — or maybe both of them wore it!

Pat and I are standing outside of Kleinhans Music Hall in Buffalo, NY, where both my high school and college graduations were held. This concert hall was "one of the first important American commissions on which Eliel Saarinen and his son Eero collaborated," according to my architecture guide to the city of Buffalo.  The guide goes on to say it was "one of the few such buildings erected during the Depression years," having been constructed 1938-1940.

Kleinhans Music Hall quickly gained fame for its excellent acoustics and became the inspiration and guide for many architects and acoustical engineers around the world. My book notes that many post-WWII concert halls showed its influcence, most notably Festival Hall in London, built in 1951. My father and his father both worked on the installation of the elevator that raised and lowed the orchestra pit.

Why Progressives are concerned . . .

A friend sent me this video yesterday. Until I watched it, I'd never heard of musician Radney Foster. Neither a name or a message I will forget again.

Those of us living in Wisconsin have experienced six years of all three branches of government being in the hands of one political party, Republicans in this case. We have seen our proud history of progressivism shredded so fast that I think it has many of us particularly fearful of what the results of the national election might bring.

We know how quickly and completely the world as one knows it can shift. Our state government seems to now function only to restrict our rights, denigrate and defund our great University, and sell off our public lands for profit rather than preserve them for the next generation.

This video is chilling, but what we've seen in our state has made me realize how fragile democracy is — and why thinking about the future this way may not be as paranoid as I once would have thought. 

 

Merry Christmas, babe!

Happy Birthday to my sister Meg who was born on this day. Yes, I do mean December 25.

During the heyday of New Wave and Punk she was in a well-known West Coast band, Los Microwaves. She's the female vocalist on the left in these monster blow-ups of the band (above). She also played bass guitar. 

She's the one in the pix on the far left and in the corner, though someone's head is hiding her face. The band did a reunion tour in 2014. Is she one cool sister or what?!!

Cathedral Square

Our first evening in Milwaukee we began the night on one side of Cathedral Square at the Whiskey Bar, had dinner at Louise's on the other side, and ended the night at the free "Jazz in the Park" concert that filled the Square with music and Milwaukeeans. Saturday morning we roamed Cathedral Square again to enjoy the sights and sounds of the farmers' market located there.

We brought home this dried gourd handpainted by artist/gardener/gourd geek Ramona Palzkill of Dodgeville. The design is a sunflower whose petals cascade down the sides of the gourd. The bottom has a piece of felt on it so it won't scratch your table and the dried seeds — which are still inside the gourd — rattle when you shake it.  

It may be Christmas . . .

but folks in Wisconsin don't take breaks from the serious business of getting our state back to its progressive roots. At noon today, almost 1,000 people defied Gov. Walker's unconstitutional attempt to stifle dissent and converged on the Capitol Rotunda to protest peacefully and sing holiday carols. You can read the details of today's event here in the Progressive Magazine. And you can get a glimpse of the action in the video below.

 

14 Senators

Our new Wisconsin anthem from local musician Ken Lonnquist!