Neighborhood architecture award

I hereby bestow my own architectural award for a new building in our neighborhood. It's a new Little Free Library that neighbors have put up in front of their house. (I've blogged before about these little libraries where you can leave a book and take another one in exchange.) This is the cutest little library I have seen, and given the competition in the cuteness category, that is saying a lot.

The attention to detail is wonderful. Someone cut little shingles and put bricks around the base below the to-scale siding. It has a dormer and well trimmed windows. However, the cutest thing about it is that it matches the owners' house, which is in the Marquette Bungalows Historic District. I also appreciate the added touch of a bench for library browsers. 

I've already become a regular patron of this library, which always seems to have at least one book I want to read.  

Except bikes

  When we traveled by bicycle in Italy, I loved the many signs indicating where bikes could go where cars couldn't. A wonderful thing has been happening in Madison recently. Signs like these are popping up all over.

It's getting much easier to get where one needs to go in the city. I like to see people using bikes as transportation as well as a healthy sport.

Some neighborhoods limit direction of car traffic but let bikes move freely so they can stay off busier streets.

Bikes are quiet and relieve traffic congestion—so shouldn't their riders be given respect and an occasional special perk? I wish that I could remind the less patient drivers that every bike represents a car that isn't in their way. At least the local traffic engineers are catching on.

Libraries popping up everywhere

  A man named Todd Bol in the small town of Hudson in northern Wisconsin had a great idea in the fall of 2009—to put a small book exchange in his front yard to honor the memory of his mother. Since then, little free libraries have been spreading all over the U.S. and to several continents. There are many in Wisconsin, and an amazing concentration in my neighborhood on the near east side of Madison. We are quite literary—and it seems we like to share our love of books.

There is an organization to encourage the proliferation of these free libraries. Their web site has lots of information including building plans and suggestions. (Remember that libraries must keep out the rain and snow to protect their books.) Libraries can be registered and appear on a map so people in search of libraries can find them. I'm guessing that Madison with about 60 registered little libraries—and probably some freelance ones—is one of the country's leaders in this movement.

The other morning a friend and I took a few books with us and spent a pleasant hour cycling around our neighborhood looking for free libraries. We found ten. They are all cute and each unique. Many are made with recycled materials. I found some good books to trade for.

Most little libraries are in people's front yards but we also found one next to a community center, and a couple at businesses. Anyone who wants to found a little free library can do so.

Librarians everywhere, I salute you!

Being festive

   In Costa Rica, we flee the neighborhood festival that is days and nights of over-amplified recorded music simultaneously booming over incredibly loud commentary on the bull riding. One memorable year it lasted 10 days, usually to midnight. Most of my tico neighbors join me in disliking the torture by sound that the festival brings us. Why don't they unite to do something about it? When I understand that, I will really understand Costa Rican culture.
   Contrast that to the Marquette Waterfront Festival that is very close to our Madison home. It's two days and it has amplified music too, but you can't actually feel the bass beat from inside our house. Music ends at the civilized hour of 8:30 and it's all live. True, there's lots of beer but there are lots of activities for kids too. Many of our neighbors have porch parties to share the music with friends. One of the coolest things about the festival is that most people walk or bike to get there. (Maybe that's because parking in our neighborhood is very challenging.) Here's just a portion of the bike parking.

   This year the highlight for me was the Portland-based  Marchfourth Marching Band. It's like no marching band I've ever seen before. It plays much more danceable music and the performers wear much more interesting costumes.

The stilt dancers were really tall. The crowd gets moving—and amazingly for Madison, many of the upraised arms are free of tattoos. Our beautiful lake and giant cottonwood trees make a wonderful setting for this joyful celebration.

 

Falling (back) in love with red

  Autumn is a particularly good season to appreciate red. I used to adore the color red. When I was a student, it was my signature color—I had a favorite red shirt and a terrific red felt hat that I wore a lot.

More recently, I have had a problem with red because of its increased pervasiveness in Madison. On any given day a significant percentage of Madisonians dress in Badger red, the UW's official team color. It's a very specific red (PMS 200) and there are official guidelines on how to use it. On football game days, there can be over 80,000 people in the stadium dressed in red—if the opposing team is Ohio State, which also has red as their color. That's just way too many people to be wearing the same color, especially the identical shade of one color.
   And yet...red is a lovely color that can light up the scene.

 Let's not forget that red comes in many varieties.

I can't stay mad at a color forever, so I just knit some red socks. They remind me of raspberry jam, not just because of the color but also the nubbly texture of the lace when not on the foot.

 I'm not ready to buy a bunch of Badger gear, but I do love my new red socks.

Knitty-gritty: I knit my socks with Cadmium Red Inspire yarn by Blissful Knits and Dyeworks of Portland, Oregon. The socks were knit on size 0/2mm needles in my standard toe up pattern, using a 4 row/6 stitch lace pattern sometimes called Stem Stitch. You can find instructions in

More Sensational Knitted Socks by Charlene Schurch.

A parade that is its own audience

A few years ago we discovered that there is an annual Halloween parade in front of our house. How we lived here for over twenty years before finding out about a annual parade with hundreds people in it is sort of mysterious.

Also mysterious is who organizes the parade and where they go afterwards. Here's what we know: there are a few signs around the neighborhood announcing when it will happen. It has nothing to do with trick or treating. They walk the length of the park we live on and then they go somewhere else. We don't know where.
   There is virtually no gathering of an audience. How can we gather if there is no publicity? I guess that's not the point: it's for the fun of getting dressed up and walking in a big group. Somewhere. Some year I will find out when it is, get in costume, and walk along to see what happens. There are a lot of very small children with parents but there are some unaccompanied adults as well.
   Again this year we happened to see the parade just by accident. I liked the accordianistas that had a Day of the Dead vibe going. (For the most part, the parade is very quiet.)

 Here's a family of bees attended by their bee keeper. I'm not sure why he has maracas.

In Memoriam

For Memorial Day, a group of veterans in Madison put up a display of markers, each one for a U.S. soldier killed in Afghanistan or Iraq. With over 6,000 it stretched for a long way along our bike route. Here's a view of some of them.

They also had this reminder.

Current estimates are over 100,000 for civilian casualties.

I rode with Lance (and 50,000 others)

Today was Madison's third Ride the Drive event.  Six miles (10 km.) of major downtown city streets were closed to all motorized vehicles from 10 to 4.  Lance Armstrong came to ride. I didn't actually see him, but we were out on the route at the same time.

A few places were so crowded riding was slow but it was great to be in such a huge group of cyclists. For fun, it sure beats being in a traffic jam of cars.

The police and volunteers did a fabulous job of keeping things running smoothly and most of the route was wide enough to ride at a good rate.

We stopped for lunch and got a nice 10% discount for showing our Bicycle Benefits helmet sticker. Ah, if only summer could last longer...

Caught: a big one!

A couple of days ago a neighbor called to tell us with great excitement that a Great Blue Heron had just flown in and landed in the park in front of our house.

 The Great Blue is the largest North American heron, standing up to 4 feet tall (120 cm). They are also common and widespread so we've seen them often—but never standing around right in front of our house! The city park is on a lake, so we've seen a few fly past over the years. A nearby gaggle of middle school kids learning to canoe and banging paddles against their aluminum boats weren't enough to scare it off. Even some people that were unaware of it and walked along the path a few feet away only caused it to fly to the other side of the river. There, fortuitously, it was out in the open so Mr. Rududu could get some excellent photos of it.

We understood the bird's reluctance to leave when we saw the fish it had caught. I think it's a catfish—or maybe a carp—if anyone knows please let me know.  I'm a lot better at identifying birds than fish. One thing for sure, relative to the size of the bird it was BIG and not easy to eat.  These birds swallow small fish whole but this one needed some dissection first.
   By the way, Mr. Rududu digiscopes. He uses a small point and shoot digital camera to take pictures through a small telescope. It's easier to carry the gear around than a full sized camera with big lenses and we can also use the scope to look at birds. Our rule: look at the bird first and then take a picture. How great that his best ever photo of this species could be taken right by our city house.
Edited to add: probably a yellow bullhead, which is a type of catfish.

Oooh—pretty lights!

Like many in the US, I watched a lot of fireworks this holiday weekend. Madison claims to have the best fireworks display in the Midwest: Rhythm and Booms. I, for one, believe them. The fireworks are electronically set off to go with music that is broadcast over the radio. I love these colorful explosions whose only purpose is to be beautiful.

They shot off over 15,000 shells and the display lasted over 30 minutes. It was spectacular!  I only wish that our Independence Day celebrations could be a celebration of peace—with less military presence, in this case including a flyover by some military jets before the show.

A friend lives near Warner park and after the show we wait at her house while some of the 250,000 attendees try to leave simultaneously. It goes pretty smoothly, considering that that is more people than live in Madison. There are also many people watching from all around the nearby lake; there's even a traffic jam of boats going home.

Six lanes of bliss

Today was Ride the Drive in Madison. Six miles (10 km.) of downtown city streets were closed to motorized traffic from 10 to 4.

It's a wonderful alternate reality being out among tens of thousands of people cavorting on bicycles. Bikes ranged from high-end racing bikes to cruisers with fat tires.

There were high wheel bicycles, there were people with massive tattoos peaking out from Harley Davidson clothing, there were dogs in wire baskets, there were children of all ages. What joy and freedom to ride down the middle of a six lane road while enjoying the absence of droning car noise.
  I loved the Lake Line installation by Bird Ross and Brenda Baker. It consisted of a very long clothesline strung along the lake shore with clothing grouped according to the colors of spectrum. Here's part of the blues.

The next Ride the Drive will be Sunday, August 29.

Farmers' markets both grand and intimate

Madison has 8 farmers' markets throughout the week in various locations. I usually go to the market right in my neighborhood, held on Tuesdays afternoons. There are no crowds and I can get all the veggies I need plus butter and cheese in about 10 minutes. That includes having time to chat with my favorite vendors or friends I bump into. It isn't crowded, but still has extras like a musician.

Madison also has the largest producer-only farmers' market in the US. (That means the people who grew the food are selling it.) It's Saturday mornings around the Capitol Square. There are crowds.

It's big! It's an event and a tourist destination and if you go all the way around, it's about a mile. A mile of farm vendors—so it has everything imaginable that grows in Wisconsin. This week we got wild hickory nuts, all shelled and ready to put into pancakes. (They are to very difficult to shell but delicious.) And, as a special treat, we spotted these wood sprites.