You should see what's inside!

A late-stage infestation of ceramic cartoon characters.

Almost like flying!

Riding the Ferris wheel at the Sun Prairie Corn Fest with B

It's the hat that makes the man

Yours truly at the Sun Prairie Corn Fest

(see more at Barb's Blog)

High Above the Midway

Barb and I went to the Corn Fest in Sun Prairie last weekend. I talked her into riding the Ferris wheel with me as dusk fell over the Midway.

Stolling along the Midway at the Sun Prairie Corn Fest as dusk settled over the scene

The things some people have to go through to get to work in the morning ...

Soviet Jesus

A frieze on the wall of the Bethel Lutheran Church along Johnson Street.

The flattened perspective of the figures and their rather stern expressions reminded me of Soviet statuary.

A detail shot of two of the Soviet children.

Lunar Window, Dane County Courthouse

I had this image of the building's architect hunched over his drafting table, trying to figure out what to do with this impossibly thin sliver of land. And then it hit him: Cheese! It's a wedge of Swiss cheese!

The New Dane County Courthouse

It's a flatiron building all over, but this end, on the corner of Hamilton and Wilson Streets, is the tallest of all the corners.

B and I went to a consignment auction last weekend.

We certainly didn't need more stuff in our house. It was more an opportunity to get out, have a look around and relax all day doing virtually nothing.

Even so, I did come back with a nice mantle clock, and B found a chair she liked.

We might have brought home one or two other bits and trinkets, too.

It's a disease.

Odds and ends abounded. I've never seen so much blue enamel and so many kerosene lanterns in one place.

There's something for everyone to collect.

Not only did they sell this ... somebody bought it!

It's a Crock and None May Abide It

One thing they had plenty of at the auction ... crock after crock. Highly collectable. If I could manage to find about a hundred of these in a derelict dairy out in the boonies, it'd be more lucrative than winning the Powerball.

Little Birdie With a Bill

When searching through the flotsam on the tables, one must remember to glance down at the floor from time to time, else you'll miss surprises like this one.

Creepiest Child's Toy Ever

Instead of reselling at auction, some things should be taken to the woodpile and recycled into a million little pieces with a very large axe.

It's the Dane County Farmer's Market on capital square! We planned to get there bright and early, but instead arrived at the usual time – about nine-thirty, maybe tennish. The sidewalk is normally packed shoulder-to-shoulder by that time with people moving in the usual counter-clockwise direction around the square.

One day, owing to a fluke in our weekend timetable, we arrived at six-thirty or quarter to seven and found we were one of about two or three dozen people who had the whole place to ourselves. We vowed to try doing that again, but it was a pretty empty promise. One of us doesn't get out of bed on the weekends before eight o'clock. Ever.



Barb loves peppers!

I think she's got some heirloom onions in her mitts there, too.

She hardly made it down one street on the square before she'd gone through nearly every dollar of the double sawbuck she set aside for the farmer's market this weekend. She just can't pass up a table covered with herbs and spices, and there were plenty of those.

Although there are quite a few vendors selling cheese, eggs and meats, the stalls along each street on the square are normally dominated by small farmers selling their fruits and vegetables at the market.

Barb is a big fan of the peppers and is easily drawn in by something new. She seems to be big into the heirloom veggies right now.





A few brightly-colored chilis on display.

Honey Bears

The bee keeper who sells these at the market also came to our house this spring to rid us of an infestation of carpenter ants.

Clearly, this is a woman who knows a thing or two about bugs.

Gladiolas!

The flower that looks and sounds like a fiesta.