Chicago Botanical Gardens

 

Yesterday I had a leisurely morning, then I went to the all-women pagode practice. It was so much fun, and I had everyone laughing, which is good because when it comes to drumming, I'm definitely the weak link. Most of the women are a lot younger than I am, but one was close to my age, and we kind of hit it off. Then I drove right from there to Tiffy's house in Racine, and we went to Sooshi Bay in Kenosha, the restaurant with the conveyer belt bringing sushi around to your table. We just love that place! For dessert I had a lychee yogurt crepe cake that was so so good. Then we went back to Tiffy's place and hung out on her balcony talking until quite late.

This morning I got up and drove to the nearby church for Mass, and when I got there, I heard a train - God telling me I'm on the right track again? Then Tiffy and I had pretzel bagels and coffee before heading to the Chicago Botanical Gardens. We stopped for lunch at Sooshi Bay again, and the same guy was working there, so he said, "Welcome back!" Here are a couple of photos from Sooshi Bay.

Tiffy gets free admission and parking through her job, and she can get one guest in free, so I didn't have to pay either. At first there was rain and lightning, so we checked out the indoor greenhouses. Here are some photos from our favorite, the Desert Greenhouse.

When the weather cleared up, we went out into the gardens and walked for miles exploring them. This is a decorative awning reflected in a pool.

This is a bonsai plum tree.

These are three shots of an island nobody (but workers) could go to, in the Japanese garden. I couldn't decide which shot I liked best, so enjoy all three. This symbolizes Heaven, because no mortal can set foot there, we can only gaze at it from a distance.

This is an art installation that symbolizes the ephemeral quality of life because it looks like bubbles.

Here we are reflected in the art.

Here is another part of the art installation having an off day.

This little butterfly contrasted so nicely with the flower it was sitting on.

The flowers in the Sensory Garden were so colorful.

There were many colorful lotuses and water lilies in the water gardens.

This great blue heron landed on an arbor vitae and posed so nicely for us.

On the way back to Tiffy's place, we went to a Thai restaurant for dinner where they have deep-fried flat noodles. Oh man, was that delicious! Then I drove home.

I did do DuoLingo this weekend.

And this morning while I was out of town, a train came through our neighborhood. Here are some screenshots from the video that one guy always makes of our neighborhood train.

I have so much more train graffiti to post! Stay tuned!

Famous Hat

In Memoriam: Pa Hat - The Rainbow over the Railyard

 

This morning I got to work just as Ma Hat called to tell me that Pa Hat had died at 4:30 this morning. I tried to get some work done but gave up and went home, and then Travalon, Kathbert (who is also now Kayhu), and I had lunch at Silk Road. Kayhu's falafal was so visually appealing:

All the food was delicious; I had a chicken kebab, and Travalon had lamb chops. Then the three of us took a walk in the Arboretum, where the magnolias, crabapples, and lilacs are all blooming, so fragrance is coming at you from every direction. Kayhu said my description of it as a "scent cathedral" is pretty apt. Here are some photos. The first one is from my phone, and the others are from Travalon's good camera.

We walked back to the boardwalk where Travalon had proposed to me, but we only saw one trillium and a couple of large yellow flowers that Kayhu thought might be invasive. We couldn't find the Teal Pond, where maybe there were teals, but as you can see, Travalon got some shots of turkeys. Also, earlier today he went back to the ponds on Wheeler Road and got some shots of wood ducks and a great blue heron.

After we brought Kayhu home, Travalon and I drove down to Janesville to see the roundhouse. We stopped at a park so we could take a bio-break, and while it hadn't been raining when I went into the restroom, it was raining very hard when I emerged, so I got soaked running to the car. Then it seemed to stop, so we got out and explored the roundhouse, which had lots of tracks running by it (but we never saw a train moving on any of them). Here are some photos.

It began to rain again, but the sun was still shining, so (you can see where this is going) we looked to the east and saw a vibrant rainbow! At one point there was a second rainbow over it, and then that went away but the main rainbow had a mirror image underneath it. The first three are from my phone, and the rest are from Travalon's good camera.

Here's a video:

Then we hurried back to Madison so I could go to Moldy Jam tonight. I brought the mandolin and found a good way to learn new tunes was to play the chords the first time through, then after I'd heard the others playing the melody, I could play it. The fiddler next to me did put the music up for a few tunes, but that was only marginally helpful because they didn't necessarily play exactly what was written. I told them Pa Hat had died this morning, and they said, "Tell us about him." I said he was proud of his Scottish heritage, so we played "Flowers of Edinburgh." Boy, I thought I knew that tune, but not their version! I also had an insight that hadn't occurred to me before: you can easily tell a tune is in the Dorian mode if the opening chord is a minor key but the key signature is the major key before that, so an A Dorian mode starts with a A minor chord but the key signature is G major, or E Dorian mode starts with an E minor chord, but the key signature looks like D major. Wow! So simple! I think it might be the same for Mixolydian but with major keys, like the opening chord is A major but the key signature is G major. I'll have to look into this more. My drumming buddy was intrigued by my talk of modes and said, "We need to discuss this over a beer sometime." Good idea - I still owe her a beer.

Famous Hat