Sad News about the White-Headed Goose

 

I forgot to post this previously, but Travalon bought me another miniature backpack at the Mid-Continental Railway Museum. Niko fits into this one easily, but it's a bit large for him to carry on his back. However, I have other stuffed animals that could use this backpack, and I love the cheery colors of the train pattern.

This morning Jilly Moose picked me up, and we drove to Columbus to meet Anna Banana II at Julie's Cafe, since we had enjoyed it so much yesterday. Today Anna Banana II and I split a chocolate croissant and a piece of pistachio cake, and we decided we like the treats there so much because they are not overly sweet. Then the three of us hopped into Anna Banana II's rental car and drove to Horicon Marsh. The first thing we saw when we parked near the boardwalk is that we were parked next to a twin car!

We walked on the boardwalk and saw several egrets. Jilly Moose took some photos with her phone.

Here you can see why the blue-winged teal is so aptly named:

This mallard drake was shaking his booty at us:

And we saw some turtles too.

We saw a woman with a very long camera lens looking at something, so we went over and talked to her. She had just taken a photo of a sora, and she showed it to us. Soras are very elusive, and I have never seen one, but I hear their laughing call all the time in the marsh. Then we went into the woods and saw lots of forest flowers. Here you can see an older trillium bloom that has turned pink with a newer, fresher, white one behind it.

And the May apples were in bloom!

This is one I noticed several weeks ago, where something had eaten off the two leaves. It seems to be just fine - you can see that it grew two new leaves, and the flower is open.

We continued on the auto tour and saw a gallinule. I tried to take a picture of it with Jilly Moose's phone, but it didn't look like much since it had its back to us. We also saw pelicans in the first pond along the auto tour, but they were too far away to get a good photo with a cell phone. And we saw some goose families, but the babies are getting bigger now - they are not the tiny fuzzy things we saw a couple of weeks ago.

We drove along Highway 49 but didn't see any yellow-headed blackbirds this time. We did stop to admire the two trees full of cormorants, and we stopped at the visitors' center that looks like a pagoda, where they told us today people had seen a whooping crane along the auto tour, and that some yellow-headed blackbirds were nesting near the historical marker on Highway 49. Since we had looked very carefully for both things in those exact locations, we concluded they just weren't making an appearance at that moment. We stopped for lunch at the Subway in Mayville and then went to the other visitor center, where I bought a hoodie. The woman working there said the white-headed goose was shot by a hunter ("harvested," she said), and she seemed happy about it - "He was a hybrid of a farm goose and a Canada goose and didn't belong in the marsh," she said. "He had a mate, but he was infertile and wasn't producing any offspring." I suppose from a conservation standpoint he was an abomination, but he was a living thing and a lot of fun to see. At least he had a relatively long, happy life in the marsh.

On the way back to Columbus, we stopped at Schultz's Cheese Haus, then Jilly Moose dropped me off at home and I went to Adoration before joining a lot of people at Rich's house for dinner. He made lasagna and Anna Banana II made shepherd's pie, and people brought sides. The guy who usually makes fabulous desserts made a delicious semolina cake. For some reason there was a bottle of peppermint schnapps on the table, and when I asked Rich why, he looked thoughtful for a moment and then said, "If I ever buy a new house, I'll have a train running along the table to bring things to the people at the other end." So I'm guessing he hadn't heard my question, since his answer made no sense. I felt tired and turned into a pumpkin at nine. It's been a very social few weeks, and I just ran out of steam. Tomorrow I should be back to wanting to see people.

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Antiques Shopping with Anna Banana II and Jilly Moose

 

This morning I drove out to Anna Banana II's family cottage on the shores of Lake Ripley and arrived at exactly the same moment as Jilly Moose. Anna Banana II's husband was there too, and he told us about his job at the post office before we all piled into their rental car with California plates to go to the St. Vincent de Paul in Lake Mills. I got some really practical stuff there: a tie-dyed teddy bear and a tie-dyed football.

I thought Travalon would be more enthusiastic about the football, but when he saw it, he said, "What are we going to do with that?" I said, "Play football?" I fondly remember playing tackle football in the yard as a kid, but maybe we are too old for that nonsense, and I should have left it for a kid. Still, we could toss it around sometime. We have a big green space in front of the tennis court.

Next we met Anna Banana II's mother at the Highway 19 Diner, but we went into the diner and she arrived just after us and waited outside, so we were wondering what was taking her so long while she was wondering the same thing about us. Our next stop was the Columbus antiques mall, but when I asked to see a ring that had a palm tree on it, the woman who helped me was very snippy. I did set it aside and shopped some more, finding a stuffed kiwi bird and flamingo and an opalescent cross necklace. There was a one-decade plastic rosary they wanted too much for, but I did want to see it. It was in a locked case, so after a guy asked the snippy woman a question and she answered it, I asked if I could get into the case, but she yelled at me that she was still helping the guy. At that, I decided all the stuff I had collected really was just junk that I didn't need, so we ladies went to Julie's Cafe for drinks and snacks while Anna Banana II's husband continued to shop. He didn't buy anything either, so we were terrible customers. I have never been the person who gets a cartful of stuff and then says I don't want it, but there's a first time for everything.

Tonight I went to Moldy Jam, and it was an even smaller group than usual because a bunch of people had gone to a concert. At least the feisty woman who plays the mandolin was there - I really like her. I brought the violin because she needed some loving after I played Mandy for hours yesterday, and a guy who is a much better fiddler than I am told me I need to get my bow rehaired, but that it's a decent bow, and also that I need a new bridge and new strings. I don't feel talented enough to waste a ton of money on this project, but I am getting more serious about my fiddling, and it's time to get the old gut strings from my early music days off of there. The problem is that the guy who used to fix my instruments is dead now, so I don't know where to go. Maybe the local music shop can help me. Anyway, that delayed me, and then I heard and saw a train coming, but I didn't stop to watch it because the pharmacy was closing at ten and I had a prescription ready to pick up. So of course I got there just at ten, so I should have just watched the train. I heard two in Columbus while at the antiques mall, but I didn't see them either. Today was kind of a vaguely frustrating day, so it's fitting that the trains would have been frustrating too.

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Star Train, Tornado Church, and Too Much Music Making

 

Yesterday evening we went to the Sauk Dam and saw lots of pelicans.

Then we went to the Little Village Cafe in Baraboo for dinner and sat outside. I had fish tacos (but I could only eat one) and Travalon had mac and cheese with jerk chicken, and we split a white chocolate lime mousse for dessert. (I thought I didn't need dessert, but it turned out I hadn't eaten many calories, so at least that mousse kept My Fitness Pal from yelling at me.) The waitress was so nice - she gave us a bag of ice to put in the cooler with my leftover taco. We went to the spring in Rock Spring and filled our water bottles, and Travalon took photos of the nearby bluff.

We drove to the Mid-Continent Railway Museum in North Freedom, where we had some time to check out the gift shop and explore the old railcars.

The museum is on the bank of the Baraboo River.

We saw a muskrat swimming in it, but when Travalon tried to make a video, it dove below the surface. Then we boarded the train. They let us go into the caboose and even sit in the cupola for a photo, but we had to sit in one of the passenger cars for the ride.

Sorry this photo is kind of dim, but in the one where the flash went off, I look like a demon spawn.

We took a brief train ride to a spot in the middle of nowhere (the stop was called Sauk Junction), where the guy from Space Place and some other astronomy buffs set up telescopes. It was quite cloudy, and Venus was mostly covered up. Every time she broke free, I ran over to the telescope and waited behind three other people, but the clouds would cover her again before I got there. Finally both Travalon and I got to look at her through the telescope. He also took some photos with his good camera.

We saw the International Space Station go by, and he took a photo of that too, but it just looks like a line. Fortunately there was a Porta-Potty right near the tracks, because after standing there for an hour peering at stars between the clouds, I really had to go. It was dark, but I could make out where things were. However, someone else used it after me and figured out how to turn on the light. Wish I'd known there was a light! 

Finally we heard the train horn, and Travalon made a video of it returning, which I might edit and put on YouTube at some point. I have made a movie of the train we saw on Friday. Enjoy!

After we got back to the museum, I had to powder my nose again and found a new friend on the outside of the women's bathroom door.

Here are some shots of the train we were on, after we got off of it.

And an old engine that is on display.

We got home at exactly midnight, and this morning I slept pretty late, but we did get to Mass only a few minutes late, during the Gloria. During the Mass I could hear the wind outside, and lots of thunder, so when people's weather alert alarms started going off, I wasn't surprised. I looked at my own phone, and there was no alert, but then it did go off to say there was a tornado warning. The priest seemed unfazed; he was in the middle of giving five little kids their First Communion, and we finished the Mass and then he told us we should all go to the Gathering Space, since it was the safest place in the building. I sat around talking to a woman I know from Nicaragua, Hardingfele's coworker, and a teacher who wanted to know all about DuoLingo because she has a lot of Spanish-language students. 

Travalon left to see his grade school buddy, so I drove myself to my Brazilian drum lesson. Was it ever a workout today! My drumming buddy asked me to record the lesson, since she always does so herself but her phone was dead. Then I grabbed a snack at the co-op (kefir and two falafel balls that turned out to be cold, ugh) before going to the first half of the Slow Irish session. There were a lot of people there, plus four audience members. I had to leave to get to band practice, since we have a gig in two weeks. Maybe that was too much playing, because my left wrist was starting to get sore. When I got home, Travalon asked me which music event I liked best, and I said they were kind of like food: Brazilian drumming is an exotic cuisine I haven't tried before but I kind of like it as I'm getting used to it; Irish tunes are like my favorite food I could eat every day; and band practice is like comfort food that isn't the best flavor but is easy to whip up when I'm hungry, because I've played the tunes for so long that I know them all. He said that was a good analogy. Also, after drumming, one teacher said, "I heard you're killing it at the choro sessions!" and during the Irish session, the red-headed flute player was impressed by how quickly I was learning tunes by ear. Music is the one thing I've got such a knack for that it often shocks people. Imagine how good I'd be if I actually practiced!

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Watchin' the Train A-Comin'

 

Yesterday I worked from home, and Travalon and I took a walk down to the dock before he went off to the wood duck ponds. There is construction going on along our road, and Thursday they apparently cut the cable so there was no internet access, but I was working on campus and didn't know until the neighbors texted me. (They also gave me a gift certificate to my favorite plant store because of my dad - isn't that so thoughtful?) I was afraid I'd lose access and wouldn't be able to work remotely, but yesterday everything was fine. More than fine, down at the ponds. Check out Travalon's photos. (The first one is Tux Duck, off our dock.) The male and female wood ducks, great blue heron, and green heron were all there - a real bird party!

Here is the island in Cherokee Marsh.

Then Travalon went to the new parking lot I will be using in the fall, which has an excellent view of the railyard. He saw a thing like that thing in Ixonia that looks like it has eyes and arms.

He also saw lots of beautiful train graffiti.

Train graffiti is becoming my favorite genre of art. Speaking of trains, I've been on a kick to see a train come from the south on the tracks near our house, while I'm standing at the crossing on Highway M. I've been doing a rosary walk down to the crossing and back, but no luck, and the same again yesterday evening. However, after Travalon had come home and started dinner, I heard the train whistle in the distance. I was writing to Mariah, who has been long-neglected (OK, maybe ten days instead of a week), and I could have finished before talking to Tiffy, but I said, "Let's go to the crossing!" Travalon left the fish and tater tots to cook, and we hopped in his car and looked down the track. Under the bridge, you can see the old Oscar Mayer factory smokestack like a lighthouse in the distance.

And here are the tracks going north, on the other side of Highway M:

And here is the crossing:

We waited five minutes and were about to leave so the food didn't burn when we heard the train horn again. Travalon zoomed in with his camera and said, "It's coming!"

We both made videos that need some editing, but I hope to make an excellent movie out of them sometime soon. I was so excited - my dream had come true! The train was moving a bit slowly, but we had to watch it pass us, so we were afraid the food would be burned, but when we got home, it was perfectly cooked. How amazing is that?

Today we had a slow morning, because I needed to finish writing to Mariah, and of course I needed to do DuoLingo. Then we went to the Mini Greek Fest at the local Orthodox Church, but they didn't have either the Greek iced coffee or "galactic burritos," the two things we really wanted. I had spanakopita and Travalon had souvlaki, and when we went to sit, we saw my bus buddy who is about four feet tall. She is as fond of Dear Leader as we are, so we had a great conversation. I was all decked out in Travalon's Greece shirt and my Nazar and Hamsa jewelry (with my cuddly Nazar, Niko), and a woman noticed and asked if I was Greek. I sheepishly said No, but she said, "Everyone's a little bit Greek today!" It occurs to me that there isn't a big stereotype of Greeks, so the fact that I was wearing nazars, rather than making me look like a cultural appropriator, showed I actually was aware of Greek culture, so there's that. Today is Cecil Markovitch's birthday, and I texted him to say Happy Birthday and I was surprised he wasn't there, but he somehow hadn't known about it. True story: as a teenager, I planned to run away to some random place, maybe Tennessee, and dye my hair red, change my name to Katie, and tell everyone my birthday was May 16th. This is probably because in Minnesota things bloom a little later, so that must be the date the crabapples bloom there. I can't remember anymore, since I've lived here so long, where they tend to bloom the week before. Anyway, I'm sure that's why I picked that date.

Then Travalon and I took a walk in Cherokee Marsh and saw wildflowers. A couple of Jacks in the Pulpit:

Shooting stars that are white, not magenta like the ones in Allen Centennial Gardens:

Wild geraniums:

And a May apple:

Quick fact: my favorite tune that my band plays is called Metsakukkia, which is Finnish for "Forest Flower." I love the song (a minor-key waltz) on its own merits, and I've made up a harmony and play tremolo on it like I'm a balalaika, but the name is great too. Nothing like a forest flower!

I'm blogging so early today because tonight Travalon and I will be out quite late. We're taking a train ride to go stargazing, and it's way out of town.

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