Campus Blossoms

Yesterday I went for a walk in the Allen Centennial Gardens, and I saw this lovely tulip.

Today was cold and blustery, so I went to the Botany greenhouse, where I used to work in my student days. The orchid room was full of blooms.

I thought this succulent had such an interesting bloom.

Look at all the fuchsias in bloom!
 

And this lovely orange lily.

The pitcher plants were also in bloom.

And plenty of plants were blooming in the desert area!

Then, just for fun, I strolled over to the Horticulture greenhouse. Lots was blooming there too!

There is also a magnolia tree blooming outside of a lab building.

This has nothing to do with flowers (although there are some visible in this picture), but I just thought this display for Divine Mercy Sunday at our church was so lovely.

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Beer and Beer and Beer and Chocolate

I hope my readers had a good weekend. Friday I had a very bad day, but in the evening Travalon and I went to Hi-Way Harry’s in Johnson Creek to meet his nephew (the best man at our wedding), and wow is that place ever swanky! It is totally worth the drive, with a waterfall inside and really good food at a reasonable price.

Saturday Travalon and I dove into Craft Beer Week, which is more like ten days long. We went to lunch at Athens Gyros with Rich Bonomo, and they are participating so I got a stamp in my beer passport. Travalon and I went to Bierock and tried several very tasty beers, as well as getting stamps in our passports. Tiffy was going to come up, but she had a cold, and it snowed, though not as hard as we had feared, so she stayed home. Travalon and Rich had colds too – I don’t know how I have managed to avoid one so far! Travalon dropped me off at a baroque concert featuring music of Telemann, Boismortier, Purcell’s kid brother Daniel, and a bunch of composers I had never heard of. (On Wednesday there was another free Just Bach concert, and when I saw the Orchestral Suite in B Minor on the program, I could immediately hear the ecstatic flute line of the second movement in my head.) Both the Just Bach concert and the one on Saturday night featured flutes. After the concert, I walked over to the Blue Moon to join Travalon for Sour Beer Night and another stamp. We got into a conversation with a couple of guys at the bar, so that was fun.

Yesterday Travalon went to the church close by for Mass, but I had to go to our usual parish to see the Married B-Boy’s and Mo-Girl’s daughter receive her first communion, and then some of us went to brunch at Rockhound because – you guessed it – I could get another stamp. In the early afternoon there was a party for the little girl, then Travalon and I went to Funk Factory for a five-course chocolate and beer pairing, and that was so delicious! We had a beer that tasted like jasmine, one that tasted like a Riesling, one that tasted like a fudgesicle, one that tasted like a gin and tonic, and one that tasted like a peach cobbler. It was a ticketed event, and I had thought it would be sold out, but during intermission of the concert the night before, I got a notice that tickets were still available. In fact, they only sold half as many as they had available, so I hope they don’t consider the event a failure. I thought it was a great success!

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Yet More Photos of Havana, Nassau, and Homosassa Springs

Here are some more pictures from our trip. First is a beautiful courtyard in Havana, where we encountered the little lizard featured previously on this blog.

Here is a royal palm, which is the national tree of Cuba:

This was, I believe, a famous poet. This building was right near the one that featured Che Guevara.

Here are some beautiful monuments from the Christopher Columbus Cemetery:

And really, who can get enough of those Cuban classic cars?

Moving on to Nassau, here is a shot of the waterfront at night:

The N on our ship's name had burned out, so we were on the "ORWEGIAN SKY."

There were lots of beautiful lights in Nassau. This is the bar where we had a Kalik beer with the natives.

This is a shot of the Atlantis resort.

And a shot of some beautifully colored buildings on our harbor tour.

Travalon in Nassau! This is near the Queen's Stairs.

This was a church we saw on the bus tour of Nassau. I think it's Presbyterian.

Now onto Homosassa Springs, and a shot of the manatees eating lettuce.

This is a really good shot of the tail of one of the manatees. Maybe I already posted this...?

And some beautiful birds at Homosassa Springs.

 egret

 white pelican

 spoonbills

 flamingos

And a gray fox! I don't really see those here in Madison, but we have plenty of red foxes.

This was a really intriguing building we could see in Birmingham from the Vulcan statue.

And here is a shot of the whole downtown all lit up, with the colorful building on the left.

Here is my cell phone's version of the same scene.

And finally, a shot of Ferne Clyff State Park in Illinois.

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Our Lives Post-Vacation, In Pictures

I have finally gotten all the photos off our real cameras and will post some more soon, but meanwhile here are some photos since we returned from the trip. This first one is the six-foot parlor palm Hardingfele told me about, which is now back in the corner.

Here are some photos from when Travalon and I went to Milwaukee. In front of City Hall there is a sculpture that looks like a big booger to me - and at night they light it up!

Then there were some koi on the sidewalk.

 Here is Travalon with a giant bobble-head of his childhood hero, Kareem Abdul-Jabbar.

And here is the view from our 14th row seats at the Bucks game.

This cool narwhal piñata is in a store on State Street, but it costs $150!

Here are some shots of the Tibetan monks performing sacred music and dance. The first is the Snow Lion dance.

This is the Rainbow Dance, with five dancers in different colors, only one couldn't get a visa so this rainbow only had four colors.

And I just thought this was a cool shot where you could see the monks' big hats, the giant drum that looks like a lollipop, and the things like alphorns.

Here Kathbert, Rich, and I are drowning underwater! This was before the show we went to, "Mr. B's Underwater Bubble Adventure." The photographer said Rich is the happiest-looking person he ever saw drowning.

Here is a photo of me holding my poem with the artwork that will accompany it on a bus someday.

Saturday was 4/20, so all the potheads were out celebrating. Check out this 420 balloon.

This little flower at Olbrich Gardens is so pretty.

And Travalon pointed out you could see the reflection of the Thai pavilion in the pool in front of it.

Today the Adoration Chapel was so full of flowers that I felt like I was in a greenhouse!

And finally, here is a short movie of the loud frogs at Holy Wisdom Monastery.

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