These Go To Eleven

As the festival season slowly winds down I want to take another look at Arlo, a pitti mix we met at the Paoli Mill Terrace & Park. There were lots of sweet pups there but this guy turned the cute up to 11. No one knew exactly what he was, pitti, boxer, angel?

Dexter channeling Lady Olenna Tyrell before the GOT season finale

Corn No Not The Band Whatever Happened To Them Anyway

The Sun Prairie Corn Festival is mostly about people eating hot buttered corn garnished with salt hanging from an umbrella clothesline. There are other things going on too, like munching corn on a grassy hill and checking out the entertainment. This year there was a guy juggling knives while blindfolded (he had peepholes in the front but still). He also did something with golf clubs and a ball, but I was more interested in the corn munchers watching him.

Everyone is thinking, "Corn, corn, corn." ("Packers, corn.") Love the expression on the kid bottom row, to the left. Maybe he has corn stuck in his teeth.

These salt trees are what I remember most as a kid. Yes, it's been around that long.

Some day he'll carry the tote.

Would rather be eating corn

Cheat holes or not, would you want to be in the front row?

Ta da. The guy in the Packers shirt could care less. "Packers, corn, Packers, corn. Beer, curds, Packers. Corn."

Eclipse Bird

This critter was hanging out on the Monona Terrace during Monday's Late Starting Partly Cloudy Partial Eclipse. It seemed unconcerned about finding last minute glasses.

Because I Took These With A Cheap Old Phone During A Partial Eclipse

While those lucky enough to be in The Path waited for darkness, we waited for light. Here's what you get with a 2nd gen Moto E. I took a few shots through my solar glasses but didn't see a difference. I did notice a violet tint in the wide shots and brought it out in Elements.

I remain unimpressed

Blame It On The Moon

My cousin told me I've been low energy lately because the solar eclipse was sapping my chi like a Dementor. I should mention the site she read this on had an article about the world ending next month.
We weren't in the path of totality but were able to wait out the clouds under table umbrellas in close to proximity to hot food and cold drinks. The prospect of making the 6-and-a-half-hour drive to *Carbondale wasn't as appealing to me as the chance of nearby parking and the certainty of clean bathrooms (so the Monona Terrace it was).
The crowd cheered when the clouds parted and we saw the black moon push across the saffron sun. I can't imagine what it felt like to be engulfed in complete and sudden darkness because being on a rooftop overlooking the lake munching fries put me, wait for it, over the moon.

*Carbondale, IL, the closest place in the path of totality

Rainy Days and Bergman

The Bang Bang Bar music that lodged itself in my brain last weekend seems to have affected the cat who I found watching Bergman films and smoking filterless cigarettes.
Here he contemplates life, raindrops and that bird that keeps taunting him on the balcony.

"When shall the light find my eyes?"

Diaphanous Music and Beer Jelly

There was a typically cheery vendor event last weekend in Paoli, my favorite place for smoked brisket. Yet the music—according to my cousin Nanci—was straight out of the Bang Bang Bar in Twin Peaks.

All is lost while we drink coffee and munch our cherry pie, la la la.

"Why so cheerful?"  "Forgive me, I was thinking about death."

And on the other side of the Park

This is one of the more upbeat tunes to come out of the Bang Bang Bar (aka the Roadhouse). I've got to say, I love Rebekah Del Rio and although she's dressed in Black Lodge couture, at least she's not singing backwards. Gracias for that.

Marginally Lost

I got to do some of my favorite things yesterday, discover a new park, lounge around Paoli, and eat brisket. We (another cousin and I) sat by the smoker for awhile so the celestial smell is still on my clothes which I may never wash again.
We also did one of my least favorite things, get lost. But not seriously and not for long.

Mounds of smoked brisket and brats were handed down from the gods to a smoker in Paoli, WI

Funny, I never noticed this rock formation before

Horses crossing the highway, where are we, Montana?

I asked if she lost the rider and she was not amused

This barn was not here last week

Getting a Planet of the Apes vibe

We were only marginally lost this time and I always find my way back to The Hop Garden

It's What's For Dinner

I've been eating a lot of corn and sunflower seeds lately, although right now I'm full of ice cream and angel food cake.

In case anyone in the area is out there—"Check, check, is this thing on?"—if you don't want to pay top dollar for sweet corn at Stoneman's, the corn stand on Main St. in Sun Prairie comes highly recommended (by the manager of the Sun Prairie Dollar General who swears by putting sugar in the boil. This seems to be a thing but honestly, the sweet corn pictured here was so good I can't imagine). 

Another long Sunday drive brought us to this sweet corn stand in Lake Mills

I'm looking for someone to carry me around the sunflower field

Drones and Sunny Days

A visit to Pope Farm yesterday displayed a field of thriving sunflowers in varying degrees of growth. Peak bloom is anticipated on August 12, the first day of the nine-day Sunflower Days on Old Sauk Road.
The field was replanted this year and some of those flowers have been blooming despite being called failures (and asked what they were going to do with their lives do you have any idea what your father and I were doing at your age).

There was a drone there buzzing about looking for areas that needed to be sculpted and a friendly old dude more than willing to tell you all about it. I liked him and could see cracking open an ice cold sixer of Pabst with him under the only shady picnic bench there.

I thought it was kind of cool, especially since it wasn't hovering outside my apartment window. The drone, not the old guy...forget it.

A photographer named Cassius J. Callender took an intensely creative photo of the field four days ago. Not to be too technical, but he got four different space things in this dazzling shot.

Two bees for eyes and an open mouth