A Month of Orange: Wisconsin Hillsides

This is another photo from our weekend jaunt along the Mississippi River, and the driftless areas of western Wisconsin.  What is there to say that isn't already clear here?  We live in a state blessed with low key beauty which seems to peak on warm sunny days in October.  It is then that our trees, every bit as pretty as those in places like New England, change daily in shades of gold, russet, and flaming red, set off by fields alternating green and gold.

It's hard to see scenes like this, spotted from a wayside park on a county road, unless a person decides to abandon the four lane highways, and slow down.  Of course we have the luxury of being retired, and no longer in much of a hurry.

Fall Song

Another year gone, leaving everywhere
its rich spiced residues: vines, leaves,

the uneaten fruits crumbling damply
in the shadows, unmattering back

from the particular island
of this summer, this NOW, that now is nowhere

except underfoot, moldering
in that black subterranean castle

of unobservable mysteries – - -roots and sealed seeds
and the wanderings of water. This

I try to remember when time’s measure
painfully chafes, for instance when autumn

flares out at the last, boisterous and like us longing
to stay – - – how everything lives, shifting

from one bright vision to another, forever
in these momentary pastures.

- Mary Oliver

A Month of Orange: Great River Road

We have a personal tradition of every autumn heading out, in the convertible if weather allows, and driving much of the Great River Road along the Mississippi River - Wisconsin's West Coast.  Sunday was unseasonably warm and summer-like, so we filled up the cat bowl, threw some clothes in a gym bag, and took off.

 Our first stop was the Harbor View Cafe in Pepin - best known as the childhood home of Laura Ingalls Wilder.  Pepin a a very small town right on Lake Pepin, which was beautiful Sunday, filled with sailboats.  We didn't make it to Pepin until after one in the afternoon, but we still had a wait, so popular is this eatery.  I started with butternut squash soup, delicately seasoned with lime and cumin, and very good indeed.  The main course was fine too, though not orange, so not pictured here.  It was risotto balls filled with melted cheese with a side of roasted vegetables.  Too bad we live so far away from The Harbor View.

We didn't have any idea of how crowded the highways and little towns would be on Sunday.  Apparently everyone with either a convertible or a motorcycle was out, enjoying the blue skies and warm temperatures. It was something of a shock, although everyone was so happy that it was hard to even object to the roar of the Harleys.

After spending the night in Trempealeau, we headed to Lacrosse for some views from Granddad's Bluff.  I had seen the summer view several times, but never the colors of autumn.

After that we cut back across the state, sticking to the small county roads that twist through the hills and coulees of the driftless area of western Wisconsin. 

Our trip home took us to Peck's Farm Market near Spring Green, where I indulged in some time at the petting zoo (I have a weakness for the white deer and the goats), bought some apple butter for morning toast, and gawked at the pumpkins and squash.

It was a fine little jaunt.  Perfect, pretty much, with lots of shades of orange to discover.

A Month of Orange: Road Trip

Sometimes we take out our convertible for a drive on the back roads.  That's what we did yesterday afternoon.  Actual designated Rustic Roads are nice, but lots of ordinary rural roads are long on beauty and short on aggressive traffic.

I took this photo through the windshield of the car.  Do those field of picked corn count as orange?

How about this not-so-rustic roadside farm stand?

We both enjoy taking the Colsac III ferry at Merrimac.  It's free, and a grand way to see the Wisconsin River.  The life preserver is orange - and so is the trim on the railings.

We ended up in the town of Roxbury, at a supper club called the Dorf Haus Supper Club.  I suspect we were the only people there who didn't know everyone else.  The bartender made a fine old fashioned (a must for Wisconsin supper clubs), and the German fare was altogether satisfying.  I liked their decorated entrance, too.

Top-Down Road Trip: The Great River Road

This past week we took an overnight trip along Wisconsin's Great River Road.  We've been taking late summer or early fall drives along the Mississippi almost as long as we've been married, and the scenery never disappoints.  

One of our favorite places to eat on these trips is the Harbor View Cafe, in Pepin.  The place is always busy; I suspect it is a favorite of lots of Twin Cities folks as well.  The menu changes daily, and is posted on a tall chalk board behind the bar.  There are usually several seafood options, some red meat and chicken, and vegetarian choices.  My stuffed risotto fritters with roasted vegetables tasted as good as they look.

Another of my favorite places is the tiny village of Stockholm.  There are several galleries, a pub, and a nice park on Lake Pepin.  We stopped so I could poke around in a gallery/home furnishing place called Abode, and later I spotted this man working in his little garden between two shops.

We like to take little side trips, and explore out of the way places.  Alma, a charming river town with a lock and dam, is fine, but the view from Buena Vista Park, high on the bluffs over the Mississippi.  This photo captures the view fairly well.

We stayed one night in Trempealeau; this photo was taken from our balcony in a mom and pop motel with great views of the river, and of all the freight trains that follow it.  The trains are fun to watch, though once or twice they sounded like they were headed right into our room during the night.  Still, trains are part of the experience.  Their whistles echo weirdly between the coulees, and over the water.

We hadn't been to Grandad's Bluff Park overlooking LaCrosse, in years, but we heard that the park and visitor's center had been renovated, so we took a side trip to see.  The whole area is beautiful, and is now handicapped accessible, with good places to sit, and safe railings.  With views like this, it's no wonder that the spot has been popular for so long.

A few weeks ago I watched a Wisconsin Public Television documentary about the state's rustic roads.  That sent me to the internet to find maps, and to the library for a book about the rustic roads program.  It turns out that Wisconsin has 114 beautiful rural roads designated as rustic, covering over 600 miles.  These are roads that are preserved for their beauty, and many are narrow, hilly, filled with twists and turns, tree lined, and dotted with scenery that has not changed for many many years.  I took this photo on Rustic Road 70 in Grant County, through the windshield of our convertible, and even though there is some dash reflection, I think the beauty of the road shows clearly.   Sometimes the fun is mostly in the journey, isn't it?

New Painting - Celebrating Summer

11x4, oil on canvas

This week I finally finished a small oil painting based an a black and white snapshot one of my life drawing friends shared with me.  The original photo appealed to me right away, with the rocking boat, and determined girl, sucking on her Fudgesicle and pulling on the oars.  I asked for permission to tackle it as a painting, and he agreed.  Apparently the picture is of him and his sister at Camp Cleghorn, near Waupaca. I'm guessing this was in the 1940s.

There are all sorts of challenges working from an old photo.  Often details disappear into the dark passages, or are out of focus.  I had real concerns about figuring out where the girl's thumbs were, and where exactly her sun suit top was in the shadow under her arm. When the picture is of people who are friends or relatives, I have a feeling of obligation to create a reasonable likeness, although I tried to not let my shortcomings in that department bother me too much.  My first concern was an appealing picture, whether or not the children in my painting look exactly like the old photo or not.  Then there is color.  I have to invent colors, since the source photo has none.  I really don't know what color her hair or eyes were, or what color her sun suit was.  And since I am fairly new to oil painting, I struggle with creating reasonable skin tones.

But the painting is finished.  All I need to do now is sign it, and hope that people find it to be appealing.

Summertime, Summertime

Recently I took one of my annual summer driving trips north to visit my dear aunt, attend the opening of the yearly Miniature Show at the Paint Box Gallery, and hang out with my husband's sister and her husband.  I took an extra day and spent the night in Two Rivers so I could see sunrise over Lake Michigan, and thanks to a tremendous thunder storm was also treated to a rainbow out over the water.

These are just a few of the photos I took in an effort to bring home some of the beauty I saw during my rambles.

I do love summer in Wisconsin.

 

This was taken just before the storm hit the Manitowoc and Two Rivers area.  I wanted to see the old fishing village, but they were closing just as I arrived.  I was luckier with a lovely private garden, West of the Lake, which was rich in peonies, irises, and other perennial garden plants.

Every year I try to see something I've never seen before, so I took a short side trip to Mishicot, thinking to tour the schoolhouse historical museum, which turned out to be only open two days a week, and not the day I was there.  I also had my heart set on an antique shop/art gallery, but that was also closed when I rolled in town, and wouldn't open until a time I needed to be on the road.  The small town did have a covered bridge, closed to vehicular traffic, but open to bicycles and foot traffic, so the trip wasn't a total wash out.

I adore antique and resale shops, and couldn't resist the classic shape and delicious texture on this 1950s metal lawn chair in Kewaunee.

I've been visiting Algoma since I was a child, and find myself always drawn to the marina area where the fishing boats come and go all the time, though the old commercial fishing boats are mostly painted up and posed for the tourists to photograph.  The red lighthouse is a landmark I revisit every time I go through.

It had been decades since I visited Washington Island, back when my husband and I were first married.  And then we took over our bicycles and toured what I remember as mostly gravel roads.  This time I took the convertible, and covered lots more ground with much less physical effort.  I also visited Nelsens and joined the Bitters Club, something I had wanted to do for ages. This scene was shot at School House Beach, a lovely place with white stones instead of sand.

Luckily for me, I don't have any real schedules to adhere to, so I drive the most scenic routes I can.  This scene was taken at a wayside not far from Fond du Lac, and that's Lake Winnebago in the background.

The trip was fine, so fine I decided I'm returning later in the month for a workshop at The Clearing, in Ellison Bay, another place I have never been before.  I've been feeling guilty that the only art I've been doing is my weekly drive to  Whitewater for figure drawing, but I am hoping that the upcoming one day workshop on intuitive collage will get me going again. 

Catfish

5x7 inches, oil on paper

I still have quite a stack of 5x7 inch water color papers, all failed watercolors I decided to gesso over and use for acrylic or oil sketches.  

This one is of a street musician who has been playing his guitar on State Street in Madison since the 1960s.  He's a great musician, and he looks more and more craggy very year.  I drew his figure out on the gesso covered sheet, then did and under painting in yellow gold acrylic.  The oil was the last step, and went fairly quickly.  My biggest difficulty was making the decision to remove the background clutter, a lamp post, food cart, other people.  The thing was I wasn't interested in them, and in a very small painting they distracted from the figure.  At least that's what I finally decided.  I'm thinking that was a good call.

When I showed my husband the sketch he said, "Oh, that's Catfish."  I did the little internet searching and discovered that yes, he is Catfish Stephenson.  Next time I see him I'm going to stop and listen to a whole song, and drop some coin in his guitar case.

Great River Road Trip

The past couple days we took off on a spur-of-the-moment trip along the Great River Road of the upper Mississippi River. We usually drive some on both the Wisconsin and the Minnesota side; both are beautiful.  The weather here has been sunny and dry, and comfortable for doing almost anything.  We've been taking similar trips most of our marriage, often staying in bed and breakfast places or small inns.  I keep trying to capture the beauty of the area, and I never come close.  These shots were taken from Buena Vista Park, far above Alma.  We'd never visited this park before and were well pleased by the  scene below us, the town, railroad track with endless freight trains, and lock and dam.  In winter I've heard the town is a great place to watch bald eagles.

We stayed further north in Maiden Rock, in a restored school house, now turned bed and breakfast, called the Maiden Rock Inn.  It's off the main high a block or so, a little farther from the railroad tracks that run along the whole highway than we usually stay.  The owners saved the old brick school from demolition in the 1990s, and were happy to take us on a tour of the large building.  Our room was beautiful with high ceilings, tall windows like the ones in the two room country school I attended as a child, but with comfortable air conditioning and a jacuzzi.  This picture was taken in the hallway outside our room.  In the evening we shared wine with the owner before we headed off to the Harbor View Cafe in Pepin (a favorite place for supper).  In the morning we were treated to a late breakfast of organic chicken paprika and spaetzle. It was all very decadent.

Nearby on the River Road is the little town of Stockholm.   We always stop here for something cold to drink, and a wander through the galleries and antique shops.  These mannikin heads caught my eye this time. There's an art tour coming up in October and I am tempted to go back and tour around all the galleries and pottery places.

We drove home slowly, stopping at scenic overlooks whenever we felt like a stretch.  We took a little side trip at Cochrane to revisit a favorite folk art site called Prairie Moon.  Its several acres of cement sculptures created in the late 1950's and 1960's by a farmer and fiddler named Herman Rusch.  There's a building that apparently has photographs and more information, but we have never found it open, and in fact have never seen anyone else at the site, though it is nicely mowed and planted with flowers.

There are all sorts of constructions here - planters, a 250 foot arched fence, life sized sculptures, painted or decorated with bits of broken glass or seashells.  I like this tableau of a Norwegian pioneer battling with a brown bear.  There's a life size polar bear too, and a huge snake. All of it is kept by local volunteers and by the Kohler Foundation.

I didn't take any photo of the historic Trempealeau Hotel, when we stopped for a late lunch, but that is another favorite place for us, nothing fancy, but always with friendly service and excellent food along the Mississippi River.  We sat and watched a grain barge while we ate.

Our last stop was at Peck's farm market outside of Spring Green.  I wanted some early Macintosh apples for eating and baking, and I am a sucker for the animals they have for the kids.  The lady who checked us out modeled her new weiner hat for us, and I am sharing the photo with her permission.  Too fun!

We're back home again, and while it was very pleasant to revisit the river, it's good to be back. 

Just Ducky

The days recently have been glorious here in southern Wisconsin, pleasantly warm, sunny, and not too humid.  So yesterday we took off for a day trip to the Wollersheim Wintery, rode the Merrimac ferry, and saw a wonderfully entertaining flick (8 MM) at Budget Cinema in Madison.  I took lots of pretty pictures of the vineyard and the Wisconsin River, but this was the most surprising and fun sight of the day.  Parked at a strip mall on Odana Road I was this older Toyota, covered all over, fore and aft,  with rubber ducks.  I convinced my husband to slow down and cruise by so I could capture this duck-mobile.  Someday I will have my camera with me when I see the car here in town covered with livestock.  One never knows what shape creativity will take!