Dane County Farmer's Market!

The view north up Mifflin Street as we did our weekly shopping this morning.

Most of the buskers at the Dane County Farmer's Market play guitars. A few of them bring violins (or fiddles, depending on how they're played) and every so often a flautist shows up.

I think this is the first time I've seen a guy playing a vibraphone for tips, though.

We threw a couple bucks in his case (yes, he brought it in a case) partly because he was good and we enjoyed listening, and partly because it takes a lot of moxie to get up early and lug your vibraphone all the way to cap square.

[Later: It's been pointed out to me that this is a marimba, which prompted me to look up the difference. According to Wikipedia - and what could be more definitive than Wikipedia? - a vibraphone has aluminum bars and a pedal. A marimba has rosewood bars, and the far row of keys are above and overlap the near row. Now I know.]

Rubber Duckies Galore!

At The Soap Opera on State Street

Dusty Clock

Always the Trend-Setter

My Darling B in her newest summer outfit, which she specially tailored her own self for a day's gardening in the hot sun.

You might be driving a piece of junk if ...

... it is more rust than rust-colored.

A Philosophical Battle

I'd put money on the guy riding the dragon.

Piepalooza!

Time for another Piepalooza at the Fork & Spoon Cafe.

Restaurants from around the city donate pies to the event, which benefits the REAP Food Group.

A ticket lets you try two slices of pie. I had a slice of breakfast pie, which is pretty much what it sounds like: it's got some eggs, some bacon, some cheese and I don't know what else. And for dessert I had raspberry rhubarb. My Darling B tried a slice of cheese pie and a slice of something loaded with chocolate and caramel and all kinds of whipped cream.

Duct tape fixes everything

Seen at the art fair yesterday.

Art Fair On The Square!

Come gawk at the trinkets with me!

If I could afford to buy just one piece at the Art Fair On The Square, I'd want to take home one of these amazing little cigar boxes.

The guy who makes spooky-looking people cast in resin was back again this year.

This all-white cast was even spookier for not being painted to look real.

Sounds Dirty But Isn't

Or maybe it is. Depends on what people do with it, I guess.

Contentment II

Bonkers finishes up an afternoon nap.

Purty Car

This gorgeous Mustang was hanging out on the street in front of the Inn on the Square. Consensus among the folks who stopped to drool over it while I was snapping photos was that it was a '67. I nodded like I knew.

Epitaph on a post office drop box

... just outside the Walgreen's on cap square.

[Later] A story in the Chicago Trib explains that
"Solve" was the nom de plume of graffiti artist Brendan Scanlon, murdered in Chicago in June.

Wildlife

Although the Chain O' Lakes is, in this man's opinion, overdeveloped, there is still quite a bit of wildlife haunting the edges of the forest.

Top to bottom: These Sandhill cranes were picking through the rushes here every morning as we paddled by; we scared these Canadian geese and their goslings into the water as we made our way down to the dock; a doe made her way through the yard in the mornings looking for food; a heron fishing in the shallows; a wild turkey that scratched in the dirt under the bird feeder outside the cabin.

The Family Angler

My Darling B went fishing every day we were on vacation last week. Try as she might, she found it hard to get any of the fish to bite at her bait.









I, on the other hand, could get hoards of bluegills to fight for the privilege of pecking at my feet.











In the end, though, our family angler got her fish!

Hitching a ride

He rode on my knee from Marl Lake across Pope Lake to Manomin Lake as we paddled home after a day's fishing.

The classic shoreline tippy tree

Every small lake in Wisconsin has one.