Orchids at Olbrich Gardens

 

Today the snow was not nearly as bad as advertised, so Travalon and I did make it all the way downtown to our usual parish for Mass. Afterwards we took a walk outside, and here are some photos, including the tree I keep featuring on here.

I had Travalon take a picture of me so you could see my new hat better, since my selfie game is so weak.

Then we went to Olbrich Gardens, and I turned in my membership renewal info to the guy sitting behind the desk marked "Membership." I showed my membership card to the woman letting people into the conservatory, and to my surprise she took it and was looking up info. She asked for my address, which annoyed me - they never ask for that when I go into the conservatory - but I gave it to her, and my phone number and email address too. Finally she asked how I was paying for my membership renewal, and I was like, "What?? I gave that info to the other guy!! I just want to get into the conservatory!!" and she apologized for misunderstanding. I said, "I was wondering why you were asking me for all that info!" Methinks someone is a bit too eager to re-up members.

Some of the plants in the conservatory appeared to be singing. Here are the boys in the chorus.

And this one sure appears to be the soloist.

They were having an orchid show, so Travalon and I took photos of the most interesting orchids. They even had orchids hanging from the ceiling! This orchid looks like it has eyes.

The next two orchids make me hungry - they look like they are caramel and chocolate!

There were other interesting flowers too.

And there were moss "creatures," shaped like fish and birds.

There were real birds too. This is a common quail.

When we got home, we took another walk, because we are both trying to get so many steps every day. Then I had Irish class, and I'm starting to get whiplash, just like when I took Portuguese in college. My first semester, a grad student from Portugal taught us. Second semester, a grad student from Brazil taught us, and his accent was totally different. Third semester yet another grad student from Portugal taught us, and I didn't take fourth semester because he was teaching it again and I didn't like him. Now that I'm studying Irish, it seems like every teacher speaks a different dialect. For example, the word for "place" is "ait," which I was taught was pronounced "oich," but my current teacher keeps telling me I'm saying it wrong, it's like ash but with a "ch" at the end, like "atch." I tell you what, if I ever get back to Ireland I'll be able to read the signs, but I won't have any idea how to pronounce them!

Famous Hat

Levee Walk, Eagles, Plush Sushi, and New Hat

 

Today Travalon and I had a very active day, since tomorrow we will probably be snowed in all day. We started off going to Lodi, hoping to walk in the park, but the paths were not cleared. Instead, we went to a little resale shop we had not noticed before, and I bought two shell necklaces and a little stuffed turtle.

And... I bought some rosaries. (The one on the left is from the Valley of Our Lady Monastery.)

Yeah, I know, I thought 2020 was the year I went crazy buying rosaries, and that I'd gotten it all out of my system, but we're still under quarantine so this is like 2020: The Sequel. 

Our next stop was Portage, because the coffeehouse there keeps emailing me 10% off coupons. And today they had the Earl Grey scones with lavender frosting. So delicious! Afterwards we took a walk on the top of the levee. Here are some shots of the Wisconsin River that Travalon took with his cell phone.

In this one, you can see the steam from the power plant by Columbia Lake on the lower left side of the photo.

This motel has color TVs?!? Welp, looks like we've found our next romantic anniversary destination!

Our next stop was Baraboo, to check out the antiques mall. It was crazy busy today. I found a cute little glass sailboat, as you can see in this picture, but I couldn't find a rosary until giving up and sitting by a stuffed beaver by the entrance... and then I spotted the necklace rosary. You can't really tell in this photo, but the beads alternate white gold, yellow gold, and rose gold, or more likely some metal that looks like that, judging by the price. (If it's real gold, then I got a steal!) Anyway, it's beautiful.

Then we drove to Sauk, stopping at the Valley of Our Lady Monastery to leave a donation and take a rosary. Travalon took these photos of the bluff with his cell phone.

Here I am with my new rosary!

We drove into Sauk and stopped at the dam, where we saw an eagle.

We took a walk at the VFW Park, where we saw an eagle in a tree, and several flying overhead.

Then we stopped at the spot overlooking an island where eagles like to hang out. Sure enough, we saw a pair of eagles in a tree on the island.

We also saw buffleheads. The ones with more white on them are the males.

And we saw a female merganser. Travalon managed to get some good photos of her, even though she kept diving under the water.

Then we headed home, and my plush sushi had arrived! My longtime readers may remember that I once had the wasabi and ginger, but I haven't seen them in years, so I must have gotten rid of them in my stuffy-purging spree. I looked online to see if they still sell them, and you can't order new ones, but someone was selling the entire set for a reasonable price, so I got them all!

And there was one more surprise when I got home! Ma Hat had knitted me a new hat!

This is a terrible photo of me, but I am generally untalented at taking selfies, and in this case I was focused on showing enough of the hat so that you could see the houndstooth pattern. This hat arrived at a perfect moment, because earlier today, at the VFW Park in Sauk, I felt like the eagles were kind of eying me up, and it might be the pompom on my more tan-colored hat. They might think my head is a rabbit, and that could lead to some really awkward misunderstandings.

Famous Hat