This morning Travalon watched the Wolverhampton game, and they lost because one of their goals was called offsides on a very controversial call. Even the announcers were puzzled by it. Also they have a player whose name sounds like Tomato, so it sounded like the announcers were talking about passes to Tomato (pronounced the British way), among the many incomprehensible (to me) things that they say.
After the game, we headed to Spring Green with my beloved mandolin, because my band was playing its more-or-less annual gig at the General Store there, and I got a free beverage for playing. We had lunch there (the chipotle chicken sandwich is so good!), and they even gave Travalon a free beverage, since he's like our roadie. The Dairyman's Daughter came out to hear us, and she took this photo of the band that makes me laugh because I am mostly hidden.
She also requested to take a photo of just me with my mandolin.
The gig seemed to go really well, and we each got a whopping $6.50 in tips, which probably doesn't even cover the gas to get there from Madison. Travalon made videos of our last three songs, so I might try to post those at some point. We played from one to three, and for the first hour there were tons of people because the cafe was open. Then we took a very brief break, and one of the people who worked there told me to remind the others to order their free drinks before things got shut down, so I told them, but they didn't seem interested. Then everyone left when the cafe closed, except for people who knew us like the Dairyman's Daughter and our leader's sister and her neighbor, so for the second half we had a very intimate audience. I am always surprised by how good I sound in people's videos, but after all I have been a semiprofessional mandolin player for virtually my entire adulthood, so that's a few years now. I do need to replace my strings... they sound very dead.
It was a gorgeous day in the 50's, so safe to leave the mandolin in the car for a short hike. Prairie Man had mentioned there was a place near Mazomanie called Walking Iron where you can see pasque flowers, and we pass right through Mazomanie on our way back from Spring Green, so it seemed like an ideal time to go there. It's kind of a big place, as we discovered when we looked at the map, so I wondered how we would find where the pasque flowers were. We followed the trail past an unpromising patch that had recently been burned, but then we turned a corner and found a vague hint we were in the right spot.
And there were plenty of pasque flowers in bloom!
We got home in time for Travalon to watch a Final Four game, but I went back outside because it was so beautiful out. I didn't see any ducks down by the dock (last weekend I saw a pair of northern shovelers, besides lots of mallards), but a flock of about twenty pelicans flew gracefully overhead. If you've never seen pelicans flying, it's a beautiful sight. They are totally silent and look like white angels in the sky, and their movements are so elegant. You would never guess what goofy-looking birds they are up close.
In the evening we went to Mariner's for dinner because we had a free gift card that was going to expire soon, so that was a lovely way to end the day. We could see the sunset from our table. Soon it will be outdoor dining weather - I can't wait!
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