Each Little World

It could always be worse

Saturday was a day of on-and-off freezing rain. Luckily it warmed up later and turned to rain which helped the trees, shrubs and power lines to shed their icy coatings. We woke yesterday morning to more snow and gusty winds. Snow is forecast — to varying degrees — every day this week. The weather is all anyone is talking about in person or on social media.

It is a frustrating winter but it is much more what a typical Wisconsin winter used to be like. Having grown up in Buffalo, New York — a city with a notorious reputation for wicked winters — I've always joked that Wisconsin doesn't really have snowy winters. I used to go home for the Christmas holidays until I ran into bad weather one too many times. One of the last times I went home in the winter was just before the record storm of 1977. The city had already broken snowfall records with about 100 inches before the big storm hit. You've never seen snow if you haven't experienced it coming across a Great Lake with winds gusting up to 70 miles per hour. Here are a few photos from the storm. 

. . .

These are Red Cross volunteers traveling by snowmobile to check for passengers trapped in vehicles. (News file photo)

Hundreds of cars were abandoned as people attempted to walk to safety and shelter. The Army Corps of Engineers and the National Guard were both called in to help deal with the situation.

People attempting to dig out their cars. 

The weather here in Madison this winter has been frustrating and at times a bit challenging, but these scenes put it all in perspective. 

Wednesday vignette from Cleveland

This small pond and waterfall were part of the exterior landscaping around the main building and fenced gardens at the Cleveland Botanical Gardens which we visited last summer. I thought they did a lovely job of landscaping the edges. Lots of texture and color. The plants draping over the water at the back are particularly effective.

I also thought this mini dry stream was a clever way to funnel rainwater away while providing an attractive design in dry weather. 

My last post about the Cleveland Botanical Garden is here; and my review of the nearby boutique hotel is here.

IVOM: Cape Fynbos Flowers

Given our recent killer cold weather, I obviously don't have anything from my garden to put in a vase this week. It's even been too cold to try to get flowers from the grocery store to the car to home without damaging them. But I've had this "vase" ready to pull out when I needed it and that time has come. 

One of our good friends accepted a job transfer from Madison to Cape Town, South Africa. He and his husband were home a few months ago for a friend's wedding and brought us this gift when we got together. We are all gin drinkers (mostly Martinis) and like to try different types. Fynbos, meaning fine-leaved plants, is a small belt of natural shrubland vegetation in the Western Cape and Eastern Cape provinces of South Africa. The area is described as mainly winter rainfall coastal and mountainous areas with a Mediterranean climate. 

According to the blog, Notes from a Cape Town Botanist (and Wikipedia), Fynbos is known for its enormous diversity of species from several families: Restionaceae (restiads and restios), Proteaceae (Protea, Banksia, Grevillea, and a few others), Ericaceae (heaths and heathers), Rutaceae (rue or citrus) and Iridaceae (freesias, gladioli and crocuses to name a few). Table Mountain alone — which overlooks Cape Town — has more plant species than the entire British Isles. The Fynbos Biome has more than 9,000 species of plants within an area the size of Portugal. Two thirds of them occur nowhere else on earth!

Cape Fynbos Gin has "elements from more than 30 indigenous botanicals, sustainably hand-harvested for their bark, roots, berries, flowers, stems, peels or leaves." It prides itself on being hand-crafted, small batch and copper distilled" as well.  

It's a lovely reminder of our absent friends, an excellent gin and it's in the most beautiful packaging I've ever seen for a bottle of booze. All those images of plants on the label, nicely named in Botanical Latin, are a magnet for a gardener. 

To see what other gardeners have found to put in a vase today, jump on over to Rambling in the Garden where Cathy hosts this weekly floriferous meme.

Beauty between the storms

Mark drove out to our monthly book club meeting yesterday while I stayed in town to go to the opening of the new textile exhibits on campus. He bundled up and allowed enough time to capture these scenes with his camera.

First stop was to fill up the gas tank of his truck. You never want to chance country travel in the winter without a full tank. We're the only members of the book group who live in Madison.

The big "barn" on the Epic Systems campus. 

I'm always amazed at how quickly one leaves the city behind and finds oneself surrounded by farmland.

Mark rarely passes this cemetery without stopping and taking a few shots. But the snow lumps indicating low gravestones were a new sight. 

The spillway in Blanchardville.

It's a balmy 20 degrees F. (-6.66 C.) and snowing as I write this on Monday morning at 10 am (Central time zone). The temperature will get down to single digits tonight and below zero temps overnight. Though it was cold yesterday, it was a sunny and beautiful day. 

The Glidden House

We discovered The Glidden House a few years ago when we checked the Cleveland Museum of Art's website to see if we could find lodging nearby. This boutique hotel, located in a historic building, is right in the midst of University Circle, the city's art and cultural area. We could see the botanic garden from our window as we ate breakfast and the art and natural history museums were within easy walking distance. 

The building was once the home of the Glidden family whose name was synonymous with paint. There are well-throught-out new additions to the original structure giving them room for conferences and weddings without detracting from the beautiful old house. 

Though the building feels spacious inside, it also manages to maintain a comfortable, almost homey feel. Well, a rather fancy home! There were a lot of cars around the entrance when I took this photo as there was some kind of business meeting in progress. But we have been able to park adjacent to the hotel on our visits and we've just left our car and walked everywhere. They even let us keep our car there after we'd checked out but wanted to go back to the museum for a while. 

We  snapped this photo for the beautiful construction materials and for the rocky solution to a problem area. We have a similar narrow, sloped space and are thinking about using the same solution. 

Opposite this painting is the check-in desk. On the coffee and side tables are the latest books about the exhibits at the art museum. This is the only hotel I've ever been in where I was so taken with the art and art books that I could hardly pay attention to registering!

We ate breakfast in the garden room adjacent to the original dining room on the other side of the brick wall. The Glidden House offers an absolutely fabulous breakfast buffet. 

You can also sit in the dining room with a fireplace and lighted built-in china cabinets around the room. The cabinets are full of china!

Isn't this a great spot to begin your morning!

I had to take a closer look at the beautiful woodcarving around the screen doors out to the patio. 

The dark wood just at the edge of the photo on the left below is the screen door whose carving I photographed above. 

This outdoor seating area is between the old garden room and one of the new event spaces.  

The glassed-in area (above) with the long white curtains is a small cocktail lounge (below). There is a small curved bar area with seating by the big windows. 

While Mark played on his laptop, I had to check out the artwork. There's nothing I like better than abstract mark-making. 

The view out the windows in the lounge. 

And the view towards the street. 

When I think of Wisconsin I picture huge old Oak trees and acres of evergreens. But there is something mesmerizing about the trees that I see every time we drive out East. 

On our walk over to the Cleveland Museum of Natural History, we unexpectedly came across this Frank Gehry building.  

It's the Peter B. Lewis Building of Case Western Reserve University whose buildings are spread throughout the area. As Mark was standing on the sidewalk across the street taking these pictures, someone called his name. We looked up and it was one of his Madison photo friends who was in Cleveland for a music conference on the lute! Small world. 

You are allowed to go inside and tour part of the main floor. It was well worth taking a look to see how all those swoops and curves played out in the interior. And we also got to see a ceramic sculpture by one of our favorite artists, Jun Kaneko. You can tell I'm going to the natural history museum and not the art museum by my casual clothes. 

I haven't a clue what this building was originally or how it is used today. But it was too lovely not to capture it with the camera. 

I've written many posts about restaurants and museums and art galleries, but I am not sure if I've ever shared my opinion on a hotel. But should you be in Cleveland, The Glidden House Hotel is a lovely place to stay. And to our surprise, we discovered it cost about the same as one of the big chain hotels we'd stopped at in Toledo on previous trips.

The drive from Madison to Cleveland is a bit longer than we'd prefer to do in one day, but knowing The Glidden House Hotel was at the end of our drive kept us focused. That, and the fact that I'd made reservations a while before we left Madison for dinner at L'Albatros Brasserie (photo from their website above), a wonderful restaurant just down the alley from the hotel. We ate outdoors on the patio our first night and went back the next night and enjoyed a cosy dinner inside by those big windows where we watched a rainstorm. 

Author's note: I am not receiving any remuneration for this post. We've had great service and experiences at all the places mentioned and wanted to share them. 

CBG: The view from the street

When we were in Cleveland three years ago we spent a day at the Cleveland Museum of art and squeezed in a visit to their botanical garden. When we were in Cleveland last summer, we again spent a day at the art gallery but this time added a short visit to the natural history museum.

Since I could see the garden from our breakfast table at the Glidden House hotel across the street, I dashed over to take a peek even thought the gardens had not yet opened for the day. These are all shots taken quickly with my iPad during a break in the rain. These areas are outside the main gardens and are adjacent to the entrance driveway and parking ramps. 

Cleveland's Botanical Garden is in the area known as University Circle which is a museum-rich arts area.

i thought this was a great way to hide this utility vehicle ramp from the main entrance drive on the other side of the greenery. 

You can enter from the sidewalk and I am sure many people walk through this area as a shortcut to work or the other museums. 

I took this photo last June for my Madison garden friends to show them that the botanic garden had lost a big Hibiscus just like many of them. Another result of the harsh winter along the Great Lakes. 

I am a big fan of "true" Geraniums and was impressed that the plant was being used as a little hedge here. 

I believe that is a Lemony Lace elderflower in the background. Or was it a Japanese maple with bright foliage? Too fascinated with the Geraniums to take note of the other plants!

Since this bench is right out in the open, it's bolted to the cement. But at least it is subtle and doesn't take away from this peaceful little scene. 

Note how you can see the street and some of the buildings of Case Western Reserve University right behind this tree. The view from that building must be lovely all year. When I visit botanic gardens I try to take a photo of a plant's label so I can identify it later. But it seems like I missed doing it with this gorgeous tree. If you recognize it, please let me know in the comments. 

A busy street on the other side of this planting. It's such a gift to residents that a large area of this garden is not behind fences and gates. I loved walking through and chatting with the folks already hard at work in these outer gardens. 

Since there is nothing green and growing around me at the moment, I will be showing some of my photos from last summer as a break from winter images. 

Left on the cutting room floor

When Mark and I were in Cleveland earlier this summer, we spent the better part of a day at the Cleveland Museum of Art. This is such a fabulous museum that we've made it our stop when drive out East to see my family. We even stay at a lovely boutique hotel that's only a block away so can walk over. CMA has stunning old and new buildings, an extraordinary art collection, two restaurants, an excellent shop and admission is free. What more could you want?

On our visit we were thrilled when we walked into the gallery of African art to discover two new large sculptures given pride of place in the center of the gallery. While we were discussing them and Mark was snapping photos, a photo crew and CMA staff members came into the museum. They were shooting a PR video and asked us to be in it. They told Mark to keep taking photos and for both of us to continue our lively discussion about the art.

When they finished shooting us, we signed releases from CMA and laughed because we were actually referred to as "the talent." Yesterday the museum sent us an email with a link to the finished video. Alas we were left on the cutting rom floor in this great one-minute movie. They said they have a longer three-minute version running at the museum. Maybe we made that one; we'll probably never know.

 

If you go to YouTube and search for the Cleveland Museum of Art you will find a number of terrific little videos about the museum that show off the buildings and their stunning collection.

 

Shadowlands

After a number of hot and sunny days, the temps are supposed to drop back into the 70s with some clouds. Nothing nicer than working in the garden when you can labor in cool shadowy spots. I think this shot is of the big dramatic handle of a medieval era sword. Mark thinks it is actually a cross. Too bad we didn't snap a photo of the label.

A fanciful railing on the Notre Dame campus.

If you plant it . . .

they will come and they did. Visit our garden, I mean. On Saturday we had back-to-back busloads of American Conifer Society members in town for the weekend at a gathering that included meetings/tours/speakers/and a conifer auction sponsored by the Central Region. Mark managed to snap a few photos while they were at our garden, but most of the time we were answering questions and socializing. We did have a few minutes to sit by the front door, have a cup of coffee and admire the pristine driveway while waiting for the first bus to arrive.

And suddenly, there it was — looking quite out of place on our street.

We had a chance to exchange names with the first folks off the bus . . .

But soon the trickle of visitors turned into a stream. Serious gardeners know how to properly treat a garden and where to walk and where not to go, which makes a group visit like this easy to handle. 

Luckily they dispersed all over the garden which helped with crowd control. In fact, I noted lots of folks went around the garden more than once looking at things. We had iced tea, a bowl of almonds and lots of before pictures and construction photos on the deck — all of which were a big hit. 

i managed to remember the names of most plants I was asked about, even running indoors a few times to check my records for specifics. With serious and knowledgeable gardeners like this group, I am always interested to see what plant or feature catches people's interest. Patterned foliage elicited lots of questions from Hepatica 'Silver Leaf' to Podophyllum 'Spotty Dotty.' 

Mark mentioned to one of our visitors that we are not members of the Conifer Society nor even what we would call conifer collectors. The gentleman touring our garden said the group was more interested in how people incorporate conifers into their overall garden. That is how we think about conifers and evergreens, so it was nice to think that our garden offered them what they were hoping to see.  

Dizzying dots

I have been aware of artist Yayoi Kusama for a number of years, though I've  never seen any of her work in person. And this month I missed another chance to see what promises to be an amazing exhibit of her work at the Cleveland Museum of Art.

Artists recognized the playful potential of dots as early as the 1960s, when painters like  Kusama, "begin embracing the abstract pattern as a visual object in its own right," according to an Artsy essay about the history of polka dots by Katy Kelleher. 

"For Kusama, the polka dot became a potent symbol and a reoccuring decorative motif, and while she does use figurative elements in her work, some of her most striking installations rely solely on outsized spots to create a sense of joyful displacement."

These first two images show how the Cleveland Museum of Art announced Kusama's exhibit in the area surrounding their building.

Inside the museum, the staff was just beginning to install Kusama's work so we got a sense of what visitors would see. 

Part of the museum was blocked off while the crew was working. 

But no matter where we went, we found ourselves engaging with Kusama's big polka-dotted spheres. 

The color and scale were dramatic . . . 

making those huge globes absolutely mesmerizing. 

Again and again we met up with them. 

In the Atrium or in the galleries, we could not stop staring at them. 

We weren't the only ones.