Bike the Barns 2007

I volunteered to wash dishes at the Vermont Valley farm, the lunch stop on this year's Bike the Barns bicycle benefit. 350 cyclist signed up to ride 30 kilometers across the countryside west of Madison in support of CSAs, or community-supported agriculture ("local farmers" in other words). It's been a long, long time since I've washed that many dishes.

I pass this East Wilson Street building every morning on the way to work,
and every day I've wondered why there's a sign that says "toast" on the door.

I tried googling it, but all I could find were restaurants.

So I simply barged in yesterday and asked the guy behind the desk inside.
He said the sign is the logo of Square Toast, a computer system sales company.
When I apologized for interrupting with my stupid question,
they said they get quite a few people dropping in to ask.

And now we know.

The Marina's one of the newest condos in downtown Madison.
Hugely swank, just off the shore of Lake Monona,
an apartment there sells for gazillions.

I admit, it's got some Jetson-esque qualities I like...

... but overall, it's a box, and I don't like boxes.
I like the corrugated siding even less.

Once again, it's that tree:

Oddly, this is the only tree on our street to so gloriously burst into autumn colors.
Odd, because there are a lot of maples in our neighborhood.

The cathedral rectory of St. Raphael's has stood empty for as long as I've lived here
... since July '05, anyway.

The design is clearly meant to evoke a cathedral's wide apse flanked by narrow galleries.

The brassy screen across the front keeps the entrance shady and cool
without blocking out light.

I don't know what this architectural style is called,
but the American 1960's was lousy with clerestory windows and these plain, clean lines,
particularly public buildings and institutions like this.

Slender columns soar over the entrance.

A heap of rubble at the back door betrays
the rectory's either undergoing renovation
or not long for this world.

This crowd of about 100 students
marched up State Street to the steps of the capital
during the noon hour to protest the treatment of the Jena 6.

The Suhr Building's distinctive prow marks it as one of the city's "flatirons"
a term that gets overused. I like "wedgie" myself.

As unusual as its shape may be,
the old wedgies are getting lost in the growing skyline of our fair city.

Even with its sandstone flanks glowingly lit by the noonday sun,
the Suhr tends to shrink under the towering Tenney building.

But on her own, she still stands out as obviously very special.

As usual, it's the details that make all the difference.
This little sprout is shooting up from the cornice,
barely visible in the photo above.

It's that tree again ...

Click on the keyword "autum" below
to see the tree go from mostly green
to red & gold

When you think of Wisconsin cheese ...

... you should think of this house. Adolph Marschall built this house in 1912 for his family after he got his business, the Marschall Dairy Laboratory, up and running just six years before. Marschall was a Danish chemist whose business extracted and purified rennet, the stuff that curdles milk. An awful lot of rennet, as it turned out. He must have been pretty comfortably well-off by the time he commissioned Claude & Starck to design this Prairie-style mansion on Pinckney Street. I love the staggered roof out front and the set-back entrance to the right, behind the porch. The condition of the place is just a bit rough around the edges but still, considering the condition of other Madison landmarks, not bad at all. I'd move in tomorrow, if I had a million dollars. *sigh*

Java delivery bike

Stenciled on the sidewalk
along Jenifer Street

I never get tired of looking at this old bank on cap square. Everything about it is pleasing to the eye: The proportion and number of the windows, the gentle weathering of the sandstone facade, the colors they've added to the cornice. Whoever the goddess of old buildings is, she's worth every hozannah if she can keep more places like this around.

At The Farmer's Market

When the sun came out at the farmer's market this morning,
the produce was positively glowing.

Every single person who stopped at this stand said,
"Oh, what cute little peppers!"

Hm. Me Cow.

This is exactly the kind of thing I'd decorate my dorm room with, if I still lived in a dorm room, and thank dog I don't any more.

... those fall colors are becoming more bright.

Can you see it?

That touch of red and orange
at the fringes of the maple tree?
And they had the squash and pumpkins out
at the farmer's market yesterday, too.
Fall is just around the corner.

A Few Photos from the Dane County Farmer's Market

The Iron Man's in town.
That means Madison's filled with hundreds of mind-bogglingly fit and trim athletes this weekend. Even Mister Pepper was ready for action.

I couldn't tell if she was part of the act,
or if she was dancing only because she liked the music so much.

There's a rumor going around that the UW is no longer the drinkingest school in the nation.
At least one student would beg to disagree with that.

Must be a pilot

Main Street is open to foot traffic

The excavators move on to Carroll Street...

fini

Le Penseur

Pondering the immutable inscrutable.