Quisling Terrace



On Gorham Street, this modest apartment building catches the eye, especially on a clear, sunny day like this.

Looking northwest across Gorham Street from the parking lot at Bethel Lutheran Church. The retro look is popular now; I wonder if the Quisling is popular by inference, or because the rents are low?

The Quisling comes from the Jetson-ish era when architecture featured fins, and lots of them.

The office entrance features this wrap-around concrete hood, punched through with futuristic holes. Steel grilles trim the windows and match the rail by the door.

The AT&T Building



From the visually creative Quisling, we shift to the blank and massive AT&T building on West Mifflin Street, four towering stories of oppressively drab, undressed concrete squatting like a Jawa sandcrawler on the south corner across Henry Street from the library.

For Sale At Auction

We've just returned from an estate sale. I believe there is almost nothing you can't find at these auctions. Case in point: Can you imagine anyone having this in the front hall? We have found all the typical Americana on sale, from beer signs to quilts to smut collections and every kind of furniture, but this five-foot-tall religious icon cast in plaster is a first.

Le Penseur ponders his muse.

We all have our price. What is The Thinker worth? I didn't stick around to find out.

A bit of Madison ephemera — a crate, sadly empty, from the Fauerbach brewery. Jim guessed it would go for quite a bit of cash, so I didn't stick around to find out. I had other fish to fry.

Jackpot! Five different treatments of the poker-playing dogs (the fifth was cropped out of the shot). They were only glossies clipped from the pages of a magazine, so I had high hopes of snagging the entire set for five or six bucks, but someone more exhuberant than I ran the bid up to eight dollars apiece. I'm pretty sure the frames weren't worth that much.

I've no idea what the strange mechanisms in this box were. If I had been strapped to a chair in a tiny cell with bright lights all around me and a grinning man in a lab coat opened this box in front of me, I would have been scared enough to sign any papers or tell him anything he wanted to know.

The dovetailed wooden box was very, very cool, though; I wanted it badly enough to stick around until it went on the block. They sold it and its weird contents for sixty-five dollars, much more than we had budgeted for that day.

Somebody liked owls.

A lot.

Quivey's Grove



A small, some would even say 'intimate' setting to enjoy a simple lunch. The venue was an old stone outbuilding in times past, but with the proper attention and this lovely addition they've added it's quite a cozy place.

Quivey's grove again, looking across the same room in the other direction. The weather-worn timbers, no doubt salvaged from a nearby dairy barn gone derilect, are all just for effect, but it's a very pleasant effect indeed.
The original stone outbuilding, seen in the background, is finished in the same way.

There was music playing but not too loudly to drown conversation, thank you.

The food's delicious, by the way. Simple, as the ketchup bottle on the table will testify, but tasty. I had the ruben. There just aren't enough dishes on anybody's lunchtime menu with sauerkraut, so I take it when I can get it (what the hell, it's a harmless passion and the only woman who'll kiss me doesn't seem to mind). Unfortunately, their ruben wasn't dressed with sauerkraut, but a pickled substitute. I liked it anyway.

Nothing soaks up the sun's rays like a cat

Rarely so discomposed, Boo sprawled in a sunny patch at my feet and purred with abandon, begging for a pet. How could I say no? Moments later, her ears scratched to perfection and tummy rubbed smooth, she burrowed her way into a folded blanket and disappeared, where she would stay until she needed another pat down or a sunny recharge. O, to be a cat.

This is why we have cats.



Tom asked us, "Why do you have them?" Because a nap in a comfy chair is a thousand times better when you have a warm cat purring softly on your tummy.

The early morning sunrise on the capitol.



There must be an optical illusion in effect here, because the capitol appears to tower over me even when I'm taking these photos from the seventh floor window of the building where I work. On reviewing these photos, it seems rather much smaller.

The sitting man casts a long shadow in the afternoon hours.

A New Window Arrangement at Taylor's



They usually have some kind of theme ...

... if I could only put my finger on it.

It'll come to me if I study it long enough.

Hmmm ...

Hands-Down Winner: Ugliest Building in Madison



The United States Court House, behind the Overture Center.

Nothing says 'federal bureaucracy' like a megalithic purple building sporting a Doctor Evil laser beam in the forecourt and knobby, fire-engine red railings as big as elephant turds. If there's an uglier building in Madison, I haven't run across it yet.

State Street's World-Famous Triangle Market

"Tours Daily - Free Admission."

You've heard about it - well, here it is!

Lion's head lamp stands flank the entrance doors of the state capitol.

Field Trip!



School children file into the Overture Center in downtown Madison.

Downtown Madison's Triangle Buildings are too cool!



The Jackman Building on the corner of Carroll and Hamilton Streets.

The Baskerville Building is right next door.

Main entrance to the Jackman Building.

Transom window of the Jackman Building from inside the lobby.

Riding the storm out ...




The stick man sits out rush-hour flurries Friday evening on the roof in capitol square.

Home again, home again, jiggedy-jog



Halted at the intersection of Williamson and Baldwin Streets, in traffic-stopping citywide flurries.

Who are those guys?




The south wing of the state capitol on a gray day.

Overcast brings cold, gray days back to Madison.




A barren oak tree on the lawn of the capitol. Grace Episcopal in the background.

Derelect pump house and vaneless windmill, Cottage Grove, Wisconsin.

Genna's bar in the early morning hours




... still decorated for Christmas.

"He said the sun rose ... he said it sang to him."



Madison sees sunlight two days in a row.

I haven't blogged all week because the sun's been gone for almost three weeks now, giving me no fresh opportunities to look for new outdoor shots worth publishing. I piddle around with indoor shots, but this is the best I've come up with.

There's nobody to play with and nothing to eat, so Boo curls up in her nest on the quilt for an afternoon's nap.

Front entrance to the Baskerville building on Hamilton St.

(This is a hand-held shot, although I had to take about a half-dozen snaps to get it, and hold my breath each time. I've learned a new setting on my digital camera that lets me take photos at night. )

The Lamb building on the 100 block of State Street, home to Michelangelo's, the finest coffee shop in downtown Madison.

Wouldn't it be heaven to live in an apartent over a great coffee shop? Especially an apartment with leaded, stained-glass bay windows.

Maybe someday...

(The back entrance to the same building.)

A Merry Christmas and Happy New Year from the Madison O-Folk!

There is nobody more content than a cat in a lap.

Time to share a few more photos of the interior of Taylor's antique store, on Carroll Street in capital square (next to Shakespeare's book store). I wandered in today to see the newly-arranged selection of trinkets and baubles. The assortment is dizzying.

The shop resembles nothing so much as your very rich aunt's eclectic collection of mementos and knick-knacks, spanning 180 years and overflowing from every showcase, dresser-drawer and shelf in her thirteen-room Victorian mansion. You can visit the shop every day of the week and find something new each day.

Their specialty is maps, which explains the globes and framed prints on the walls.

Taylor's on North Carroll Street in downtown Madison has decorated their front window with a dizzying display of old-time toys. It's more than I can do justice to in a few snapshots, but perhaps I can capture a tiny bit of the fun to be had looking in the window.

A close-up of a few of the items in the window: clowns on top of the merry-go-round, marionettes hanging in the background, the detail from a carnival bench ...

... a shooting gallery, a marble-in-the-cups game, a pinball table, and a wonderful assortment of circus posters.

The seal of the state of Wisconsin, embossed in brass on the doors of the capital building; a special treat for a loyal viewer of our page.

Snow falling on capital square, at about three o'clock this afternoon.

I went for a walk through the 'mansion district' once again. Most of the old piles have fallen on hard times, their rooms now parceled out as flats to students. The landlords certainly aren't much interested in preserving the character of the buildings, as evidenced by the cartoonish color of this lost mansion. Pink?

If you're on your way to the periodicals section of Madision Central Public Library and you happen to glance up the stairway ...

More about this display.