A Good Excuse to Stop Walking

I went to Parfrey's Glen after stopping to admire the Wisconsin River yesterday. I'm no longer sure where I took this photo as I had a misspent youth. I do remember a Prairie du Sac hippie saying that the tiger lilies were alive at Graff Park, which I found frightening. I also discovered that a short walk is now an arduous schlepp and that stopping near a flower to fuzt with the camera is a sly way to take a breather.

Praire du Sac and Sauk City also call themselves Bird City, btw, and a little digging uncovered this list of Wisconsin Bird Cities. Makes it a little less unique, n'est-ce pas?

My cousin Jackie tells me this is a Daylily.

Mary H. Meyer at the University of Minnesota Extension describes these perennials as vigorous with more than 35,000 officially registered.

Daylilies belong to the the genus Hemerocalli and typically bloom for one day. Some open in the evening and stay open through the following day. The night blooming vampires are "delightfully fragrant," according to the UM website.

Fit as a fiddle, just adjusting the aperture, you go on ahead I'll catch up

Quick Trip or Gas Costs How Much In Oconomowoc?

I went to Delafield and Lapham Peak today. The weather was gorrr geous but gas prices increased 10 cents every 20 miles east. (For optimists, it decreased 10 cents every 20 miles west.)

A Chocolate Factory! Ba bump ba bump, be still my heart that can't deal with the caffeine in chocolate.

Where do you want to eat? I don't know, we had pond scum yesterday.

I got a Narnia sans snow vibe from this bench.

Screw you guys, I'm going home.

Lactose Tolerant

Mostly foam is the best part. I think my Godfather and Handsome Bob aka Mr. French, aka Bob Barker, aka Roberto Clementi, aka Mr. Grumpy Pants agree.

No dogs were harmed (by dairy products) in the taking of this photo. Bob doesn't eat ice cream but he has left his nose print in the occasional sundae.

Daisy In A Dry Spell

I snapped this lone daisy on the Mountain Bay Trail at the end of June in 2012. It was one of the driest summers I remember. The first week of July broke all sorts of daily temperature records. According to the National Weather Service, temps ranged from the upper 90s to 106º Fahrenheit. In Wisconsin, 106 degrees, c'mon. Heat indices peaked at 115º F. (!)

The Marathon County section of the trail

Umm, Daisy, they belong to the daisy family of Compositae, aka, Asteraceae and apparently sneer at severe droughts cuz this little guy seemed pretty content surrounded by foliage ready for the campfire. That is if there hadn't been ongoing fire restrictions.

A Fitchburg watering truck fights a losing battle

I know nothing about flowers. I feel I've already said something stupid and people are laughing at me. 

A Big Little Thing

Mitzvah. A good deed. A kind or meritorious act.
Brews Your Daddy SC made commemorative bracelets to honor my youngest nephew, Andy. We lost him after Christmas this year and the world hasn't been the same.
Here's what they wrote on their Facebook page:

Andy was an intricate part of our undefeated title run in the leagues opening season, and the leagues first Golden Glove winner. As many of you know, Andy was taken from us too soon, we remember him every time we take the pitch and every time a shot seems to curve off target in our favor. In honor and remembrance of Andy, BYD SC will be sporting the below bracelets this season. We remind you to cherish the time you have with your friends, be there for them and love them. We miss you Andy.

Photo by Calvin Andres

Andy and his cuz testing out hot pepper suckers (Guatemalan Insanity Peppers)

Trying some nasty super sour thing

Up to something with the twins

Ha!

As a Bobcat (#14)

A boxer

A One Shoed Baseball Player

Father's Day With Mother

My mother will be 91 soon and didn't remember going to Devil's Lake before. I think she'll remember this day, it was a good one.

Dog Diving Pier by Tumbled Rocks

Gunner

Sadie and her dad who is going to fry

Franky's First Swim

Good Boy!

You paddle, I'll watch

I was very close to jumping in

Daddio

Happy Father's Day

Funny, Strong, Dedicated, My Dad

Flower Flashback

Lake Mills Farmers' Market

New Glaurs Cow

Getting Out

May always kicks me in the head with another birthday but it also kicks off car camera season. The warmer weather plays more nicely with a digital camera and I stash a cheaper one in the car. (Only the middle photo was shot with a Canon T3i.)
I drove to Kettle Morraine State Forest and the trip there was more fun than the destination. Mostly because I got a late start then dawdled. Let's hear it for dawdling, hip hip, oh look a daylilly, let me get my camera.
A farmer and his wife, Bonnie, came out to get the horses to pose for the photo below. 

Chaz posed for me, Paint did not (between Horicon and Mayville)

The Horicon Marsh Visitor and Education Center

The Mayville Dam

Pope Farm Conservancy

The best shade and picnic spot

I stopped by Pope Farm before it got so hot my glasses set things on fire. One of the friends of the Farm said they planted the sunflower crop earlier and further away this year. Sunflower Days is listed as July 23-31 in their event calendar, although you'd normally expect to see them in early August.

August 2015: My Perspective On Her Perspective

August 2014: As Many Photographers As Bugs

August 2014:  Sunflowers will be way back there this year. Oy.

Last Friday: Green Is The New Yellow

After and Before

Having fun with the Tough camera.

Sunflower Apocalypse

The sunflowers are going to be behind this field this summer

Then Don't Put Nihilistic Filters On My Camera

The place is always lousy with photographers

The Pasta Pig

The Pasta Pig by Evelyn Olson

Bitte, Babi

There was a little piggy
And his given name was Ray
He lived in Italy near the sea
Where waves danced on the bay

Now Ray was only happy
When he ate the whole day long
He soon became a big ol' pig
His slender days were gone

Ray loved to eat spaghetti
All of Italy loves it so
And pasta is the native name
For this most scrumptious dough

Each cook makes his spaghetti
With a special sauce you see
Each tries to make a better one
The way a sauce should be

Some use a bit of sugar
Others use a bit of spice
But in Naples, oh that Naples
The poor piggies pay a price

Ray loved to visit cities
Where he ate all that he could
He ate and ate the whole day long
More than a piggy should

"Señor, Señor, please tell me this
May I speak to your Grand Chef?
Indeed, indeed I want to know
Why is his sauce the best?"

The chef looked straight at piggy
He stroked his chin and cried,
"I use a very special sauce
Then add some pork inside."

"Oh no!" cried fatty Raymond
As he straightened out his tail
"My goodness and my gracious me
That's me in sheer detail."

Ray changed his way of eating
And would never, ever stop
In Naples where they all ate pork
He could end up in a pot

Piggy Raymond moved far away
Where the people all loved pigs
And they would never hurt a soul
Because their hearts where big.

Note: This is one of my mother's poems, she'll be 91 this July. Look for more of her poetry and recipes on Mondays.
Next week, Lorenzo's Neapolitan Pasta Sauce.

Macro In Mayville

With a little help from my Tough camera we'll see what we can see. Taken on my annual May birthday trip.

Near the damn in Mayville, WI

Catching Clouds

Some lazy snapshots from my porch and car. You can see the difference between my old reliable Canon T3i and Olympus Tough Camera.

Canon T3i from the porch

TG-3 from the car on Hwy M. It looks like a bird perched on the sun