Autumn 2018 Photos

I hope my readers are staying warm. The university is closed today, and Travalon and I have not left the house. We got exercise by dancing around to Steely Dan and Peter Tosh, and also by moving my plants around. A couple of them had damage from getting too cold - and of course the cold came up from the bottom, so they had root damage - so I put blankets under them. I think the damaged ones might survive, but it's too early to say.

Here are some autumn pictures I never posted. First is a pig made of ground pork that was in a local deli.

These are the hamburger cookies I made for our department picnic.

Here is a better photo of "Spare Time," the artwork on top of a building downtown.

This is one of the red pandas at our zoo here in town.

These next shots are from a trip we made to the Wisconsin Maritime Museum for National Museum Day. You could choose from a bunch of museums to attend for free that day, and that was what we chose. This first shot is Travalon in front of a sailboat in the museum.

This is the lighthouse in Two Rivers.

And here is a shot of the town from the lighthouse.

These next photos are from the Milwaukee Zoo. First is the springhaas, an adorable creature like a cross between a rabbit and a wallaby.

Beautiful Mandarin ducks, like the one I heard showed up in Central Park a few months ago.

This fish was so cool. I can't remember what it was called - some kind of wrasse, I think.

And of course the hornbill, who is behind some hardcore fencing.

One day there was a rainbow over the North Transfer Point!

Here are some photos from Olbrich Garden:

And a shot from inside the Cave of the Mounds:

Here is a beautiful sunrise over the North Transfer Point:

This is a shot of the autumn foliage from my old office window, when I was overlooking the lake.

On Halloween there were a bunch of people dressed as beefeaters on Bascom Hill:

And in the building next to mine, there was this gorgeous Day of the Dead altar:

It was so cold in early November that the water spraying the tree branches froze into graceful configurations.

Here are some instruments from the concert we went to put on by the group from Crete:

And finally, some Irish swag I bought at the Celtic Christmas Fair: two mugs and a pillow.

This is a video of class change time at the University, as seen from my 8th story window:

This is a video of Port Washington at night, as seen from their lighthouse:

This is the fennec fox at the Milwaukee Zoo. The lighting is red because he is in the nocturnal section.

This is a penguin at the Milwaukee Zoo swimming and then leaping out of the water:

And finally, these are a bunch of really cool birds at the Milwaukee Zoo:

Famous Hat

The Illustrated Post

Here are some more pictures for your viewing pleasure.  First is a hat I bought at Cornish Fest and forgot to post with the other photos of my Cornish Fest schwag, probably because it was warm out then.  Now that it is cold, I am loving my genuine mohair tam from Scotland.  And what is mohair?  Hair from a genuine mo?  You got me, but it's soft and warm.

This is a little towel a friend brought back from Singapore.  She gave it to Luxuli, who gave it to me.  It's very cute, like a little girl's dress.

But then explain this inscription:  "clover wine"???  Is this appropriate for a CHILD??

If anyone can read the label from the towel, let me know.  I believe it's in Mandarin...

Then here are some things I ordered online.  Here is an Irish rosary (yes, it was actually made in Ireland) that I got to pray what Hardingfele calls our "Rosary to Score."  Truthfully, Luxuli, OK Cap, Jilly Moose, Anna Banana II, and I are praying the rosary to find husbands.  (Since Luxuli already has a perfectly good husband, and Kathbert would like one but refuses to pray the rosary just because she is Lutheran, she has decided Luxuli is praying for her by proxy.)

Here is a hoodie I ordered from the same website, Leaflet Missal.  We looked up the Gaelic online, and it really is a translation of the English phrase; it doesn't say "death to Protestants" or anything like that.

That hoodie was on back order for weeks, so I got impatient and ordered this one from Cafe Press:

On the back is the prayer which I believe is called "The Breastplate of St. Patrick":

Here are the plants at Rich's house.  I neglected to put them on my post about Plant World.  First is a photo of Jolly Bob, The Professor, Greg, Dr. Cheung, and Rich's poinsettia hanging out in the dinette.  The Mothership LOVED these plants - she said they made her feel like she was at the Bronx Botanical Gardens.  They must have loved her right back, because I have never seen them look so happy.

And here are my desert cacti hanging out in the south-facing windows of Rich's loft:

Here are on the ones on the left side.  The little one has "spines" that seem to be made of paper.

And here are the ones on the right, including a living stone and one that looks like a bunny.

In one office in a building I walk by on my way to the bus every evening, someone has a parlor palm, a ponytail palm, AND a sago palm.  I am so jealous because my parlor palms are not nearly as bushy, my sago palm never recovered after I brought it home from work and now appears to be dead, and my ponytail palm was killed by mealy bugs.  (I bought some medicine for it, but it was too late.)  But I'll tell you what that person does not have that I do:  a Christmas cactus in full bloom!

I realize that I already posted photos of these a couple of posts ago, but who really gets tired of looking at Christmas cacti in full bloom?

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Cornish Fest Schwag

Sorry for the lack of blogging lately.  I am suffering from Cold #6473 this year, or at least that's how it feels.  To make up for my remissness (I guess that is a word - spell check isn't hating on it), I will tell you a little story:

Once there was a woman who lived in a crazy country.  How crazy?  They only had TWO political parties!  Can you believe that?  The woman did not know who to vote for, because she hated both parties:  the Democraps were in favor of killing unborn children, and the Repooplicans were trying like crazy to steal workers' wages.  Since both the shedding of innocent blood and withholding the laborer's wages are sins that cry to God for vengeance, the woman did not know who to vote for.  Then suddenly on the horizon appeared a third party, one that cared about The People, both born and preborn.... and then she woke up.

Anyway, here are some pictures I took while home sick today of the schwag I acquired at Cornish Fest a few weekends back.  The first thing, my prayer journal, is not particularly Celtic; it is a copy of the Lindau Gospel, which was made in Germany.  But I thought it was pretty, and for some reason they were selling it at one of the Celtocrap booths.

Here are some more things I bought, which actually have Celtic designs:

Necklace

Scarf

Shell-style top

T-shirt

Paperweight..?

It's cool and it's bronze

This last picture is of two little creatures I actually got at the art museum store just before going to see Wicked (because I hadn't spent enough money on the ticket or anything) - I couldn't decide which was cuter, the little monster or the crab, so I just got them both.  They were made by a local artist, and they don't have names yet so feel free to suggest names for one or both of them in the comments section.  And in case you were wondering, Wicked the musical is excellent but very different than the book.

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