Drums, Fiddling, and Photos of the Blackhawk Segment

 

Today we had the Care for Creation meeting after Mass, which is usually the second Sunday, but thankfully it was very short because I really wanted to get outside. First Travalon and I went to Culver's to get the salted caramel pumpkin concrete mixers we hadn't been able to get last night, and I was delighted to find they have a "mini" size, which is just the right amount for me. Then we took a walk on Governor's Island before my drumming class.

Today the teacher said to use the drum you used last week, but I said I hadn't been there last week. I had been playing the very biggest drum, but someone had already claimed that, and all the surdos were claimed, so I grabbed a caixa, which is basically a snare drum. The teacher stopped me and told me to play a repique, so I did, and it was fine but I still prefer the surdos. We grooved for an hour and a half, and when Travalon picked me up, I was too tired to do anything, so we watched the rail yard, but nothing ever happens there on a Sunday. He dropped me off early for the Slow Irish Session, which the Flute Player led today so it was like Moldy Jam - no projected notes (but people could use music if they wanted to), and we went around the room and each chose a tune or two. My regular readers will be stunned to learn that I called "Kid on the Mountain" with "Butterfly." Can't beat slipjigs in E Dorian, am I right? Two of my bandmates came too, since I was going to be there, and Hardingfele had a concert this afternoon and didn't want to go to band practice afterwards. I thought I would be too rusty and too braindead after drumming to succeed at fiddling, but it comes right back. We all had a really good time.

My FitBit recorded all this music playing as exercise, so it thought I got almost 14K steps today, while my phone said I barely got 5K. I don't know, phone - that drumming sure felt like exercising to me!

As promised, here are some photos from our hike on the Blackhawk Segment of the Ice Age Trail yesterday. But first, a photo of a tree in our neighborhood that also looks like a one-eyed monster, but one that's a cheerleader:

And now, photos from the Ice Age Trail:

Stay tuned for lots of great photos of China Lights!

Famous Hat

Whitewater, China Lights, and the Halloween House

 

This morning I snuggled under my quillow in its quilt form and did DuoLingo as Travalon watched the Wolves win at home 3-0 over Cardiff City. Falstaff had a relaxed day too!

And this is actually from the 20th, but I hit another milestone:

Then we went to Whitewater for some Trail Magic. First we went to the Vinery, where for free we made little pendants like what we've done at Fired Up. Here is mine.

Can you tell what it is? It's a sunset over the Ice Age Trail! See the yellow marker? And here is Travalon's:

Then we tried to go to a cafe where we could get Trail Magic (10% off), but we had a lot of trouble finding it... and when we did, it was unexpectedly closed today, with a sign saying they'd be open tomorrow. Yeah, great, but there's no Trail Magic in November. So we headed to the Blackhawk Segment of the Ice Age Trail, which goes along a lake and is very scenic. Travalon took lots of photos, but I will have too many photos on this post, so I'll post them later. I will just post this one because it's perfect for Halloween - I am wearing my monster hat, and the tree looks like a one-eyed monster with a gaping mouth.

Then we drove to Hales Corner, stopping in East Troy to get a snack and a drink at Starbucks. Wow, is their pumpkin cream chai latte good! Our ticket for China Lights was at 5:30, but when we got there a bit after 5:00, the parking lot was blocked off, so we joined the line of cars waiting. Finally just before 5:30 someone came to open the parking lot.

China Lights was fantastic this year. Some people were giving out good chocolate, and some people wore costumes. Surprisingly few people were there compared to other years, enough to make it lively, but not as crowded as we're used to, so it was perfect. To our delight, the Uyghur couple who make lamb kebabs were there, so we got those, and then we set off to see the lights. Travalon's favorite was Kittylandia, with a whole bunch of cats in the trees. I sent a photo to Hardingfele, because come on, she has to be told about something called Kittylandia. (She asked where I was and then said, "Oh.") Travalon and I took photos and videos, but again I will post these later. Some fun things were the return of the parakeets that repeat what you say and a cannon that shot smoke at you, as well as bubbles full of smoke so they looked like pearls floating through the air and then released a puff of smoke when they popped. 

Close to home there is a very impressive Halloween House which I noticed last year, but we didn't have time to check it out until the day after Halloween, and then it was completely undone. Tonight we went to check it out, and it did not disappoint. Here are my photos.

Travalon took a lot more photos.

The only thing that kept today from being the perfect Halloween is that we then stopped by Culver's, and they were out of vanilla custard so they couldn't make pumpkin salted caramel concrete mixers. We left without getting anything and saw two maybe anticlimactic houses on the way home.

In case this post was too spooky, let me end on a totes adorbs note: as we were leaving China Lights, they gave us clear tote bags and then said we could get these little things (I think they're keychains?) if we would do a quick survey. It's for the Year of the Horse.

Notice on the label (which is all in Chinese) that the little horse is looking in the mirror (?) and seeing its opposite. Travalon got the opposite one, yellow with red highlights, so maybe at some point I will post a photo of that one. Watch for that, along with photos of the Blackhawk Segment of the IAT and China Lights. Something to look forward to now that the second-best month in Wisconsin (after May) is over.

Famous Hat