back off

I guess I got a little too close for comfort for this duck. I was trying to take some photos of the lakefront when I spotted her & she gave me a very stern warning. Point taken.

orpheum

A very hot & humid day - all those grey clouds held the promise of rain but didn't deliver. I took this photo on State Street yesterday - this is the Orpheum Theatre, a beautifully restored old cinema. The lobby houses an excellent restaurant, the cinema shows a good mix of films (mostly independent) and they also host a lot of music and community events. If you enlarge the photo you can see the billboard says "Divorce Your Car" - 5 people ceremoniously dumped their cars at the Orpheum this week and resolved to use public transportation (gasp!) and the Community Car service which I postedhttp://madisondailyphoto.blogspot.com/2007/04/earth-day-preview.html about a couple of months ago.

summer bounty

A scene from the Farmers' Market - so much to choose from right now & it's all delicious. This is what I wait for all winter long...

lakeside sculpture

I don't know anything about the story behind this sculpture but I've always liked it. The scale is hard to see in the photo but it's rather big & is right next to the boat launch.

mad city ski team

Last night we went down to Lake Monona to watch the Mad City Ski Team - a local group of waterskiers who put on a show for free every Sunday evening in the summer. It's pretty amazing. I like the ducks in the foreground of the top photo - they were completely unpeturbed by all the action going on in their lake.

capitol view

The dome of the capitol viewed through the fountain on the rooftop of Monona Terrace.

lazy morning

Bruce the cat takes a break from his exhausting routine of eating and sleeping to take a nap on the back of the couch in the sunshine.
Perfect photo for a lazy weekend.

monona terrace

I've been remiss in not posting a photo of Monona Terrace in my two months of Madison Daily Photo. A Frank Lloyd Wright designed building on the shores of Lake Monona, it's a big part of the Madison landscape. However, you probably need a boat to get a really good view from the middle of the lake so I just went up to the rooftop and got a nice pic of the walkway.
If I ever run into a friendly boat owner I'll get the lake view.

the longest day

Today is the summer solstice. Even though it has been hot & humid in these parts for a few weeks now, today we slide into summer while our friends in the southern hemisphere welcome winter.
I went out last night to get a photo of one of the most beautiful sunsets in recent memory - the last sunset of spring.

monty's blue plate diner

A Madison institution, here's Monty's - a local diner that serves up the most amazing dessert case, comfort food & breakfast all day. Take a look at the menu & revel in the glory. They make an amazing vegetarian meatloaf that hits all the spots as far as comfort food goes.

What do you look for in comfort food?

blue lantern tripod

If you were to take a walk in my neighborhood on the eastside, it wouldn't take too long before you ran into a Sid Boyum sculpture. Sid was a local artist who could also best be described as a local eccentric. When he died in the 90's a lot of his sculptures, which had been living in his front & back gardens, were placed around the eastside. An original, to be sure.

sitting pretty

An innovative way to display your flower arrangement, wouldn't you say?

cloud invaders

We were driving home along the Monona lakefront last night looking for a sinking sailboat that had made the local news (DP research, you know.) No sign of the sailboat, but this massive cloud formation was hard to miss. It was a relatively clear, blue sky except for this behemoth.

Happy Father's Day to all the dads out there, especially to my husband, Alex, who is the best papa in the world to our two little boys. We love you!

bike path

Sorry it took so long to post today. I had a rare night out last night & things are moving rather slowly today, aided in part by lots of tea and naps.

Madison has miles & miles of bike paths throughout the city & out into the country, all of which are superbly maintained and even snow ploughed in the winter for the hardy souls who bike all year round. We're also home to Trek Bikes, the company that made Lance Armstrong's bikes for the Tour de France.
Speaking of Trek, that's my sweet Trek in the foreground :)

heatwave

It's hot! Really, really hot - in the 80's, getting into the 90's. There are some good beaches in Madison (although they are sometimes closed due to too much bacteria in the lakes) and a great public swimming pool but in my neighborhood we head over to the east side YMCA to the JackSplash. I think it's just meant for children but in this heatwave you see plenty of grown ups running through the sprinklers, and why not??

farmer's market

Yesterday's photo was taken at the eastside farmer's market - here's a scene of that market from across the street. The main market in Madison is held every Saturday from April through November on the capital square, but smaller neighborhood markets like this one are also thriving. I'm glad I live in a town that supports this kind of community.

p.s. this is also the site of Madison's future 'Central Park' - try enlarging the photo to read the signs.

'tis the season...

...strawberry season, that is. There is possibly nothing finer right now than fresh summer strawberries. This was taken at the Tuesday Eastside Farmer's Market, one of the many smaller markets that has sprung up over the last few years.

I love making strawberry shortcake this time of year - what's your favourite way to prepare fresh strawberries?

into the rose garden

At the botanical gardens again. This is the view from the top of the tower in the rose gardens.

I need to get outside with my camera again in the next few days so if anyone has any requests for photos of Madison leave me a comment & I'll do my best to oblige!

bridge #3

There are many small treasures to be found at the botanical gardens - I really enjoy seeing the small details that go together to form the complete picture of this amazing place. All of the railings & most of the bridges are made of wrought iron which is not very common here. This is the bridge that leads to the Thai garden. I'll post more photos from there soon.

weekend at the beach

This is the south shore of Lake Mendota, taken from the Tenney Park locks. The Yahara River flows between the two big lakes in Madison (Mendota & Monona) and the locks here are the gateway to Mendota.

from the caboose

Last weekend we took our train-obsessed 3 year old to the Mid-Continent Railway Museum to take a train ride through the countryside - quite the rarity in this country. This railway has been preserved by some very dedicated volunteers & it was quite an eye-opener to see the old railway carriages still in operation. A grand time was had by all.

satchmo

This is the side of New Orleans Take-Out a local cafe that serves up some excellent Creole food. Having never been to New Orleans I can't vouch for it's authenticity, but they do make some great po boy sandwiches.

If I remember this story correctly, the owner was getting tired of his building being 'tagged' by graffiti all the time, so he got one of the kids to spray-paint a mural of Louis Armstrong. It worked - no more graffiti.

a walk in the woods

A lovely winding trail that led quite unexpectedly to a pet cemetery.

stormy weather

We've been having non-stop rain, dark skies & chilly evenings as of late. Looking at some of the other DP sites in the midwest I can see we're not alone. Madison received more rain in the first 3 days of June than we did in the entire month of May! It's all good for the garden, but not so good for the cabin fever...

Many thanks to everyone who posted comments yesterday about my dog - I appreciate your kind words & thoughts so much.

charlie

Yesterday we had to say a tearful goodbye to our dog Charlie. A red heeler/Australian cattle dog, she has been part of our family for many years, but the light in her eyes had gone out in the last few days and we knew it was time for her to go. She was truly unique, a feisty redhead full of personality & a worthy nemesis to Bruce the cat. A cattle dog with no cattle to herd, she made do with making sure the cat stayed in line & chased the occasional coyote in her youth. We will miss her so much.

guess the object

I'll send a postcard to anyone who can identify this piece of equipment.

oh i wish i were an oscar mayer wiener...

American viewers might recognize the song title, might even recognize this vehicle - - this is an actual moving working vehicle called the Wienermobile. Shaped like a hotdog (Oscar Mayer is the company that makes hot dogs, bologna & various other 'meat' products), you often see this driving around Madison. Local superstition says bad luck falls upon anyone driving next to it...

stuck on you

I'm pretty sure this is a dragonfly - someone please correct me if I'm wrong. I read that a massive outbreak of cicadas was about to happen in the midwest, but I don't think I could tell a cicada from a dragonfly. Either way, this winged creature was on my screen window early one morning & didn't even twitch as I snapped a few photos.

june 1st - theme day

The first day of every month is a theme day - this month's theme is "The view from your room."

This was taken a couple of nights ago when I was woken up by my dog scratching to be let out. I'm not normally awake at 1:00AM but in this case I'm kind of glad I was. When I saw the moon nestled between the trees I knew this was my theme day photo! It's kind of fuzzy, but I still like it.

Now go & look out some other windows around the world - here are the other Daily Photo blogs participating in this month's theme day:

Seattle (WA), USA - Manila, Philippines - Albuquerque (NM), USA - Singapore, Singapore - Toruń, Poland - Baton Rouge (LA), USA - Seoul, Korea - Saint Paul (MN), USA - Vantaa, Finland - Madison (WI), USA - Saarbrücken, Germany - Cleveland (OH), USA - Chicago (IL), USA - http://www.twincitiesdailyphoto.com" target="_new">Cottage Grove (MN), USA - Omaha (NE), USA - Bellefonte (PA), USA - Melbourne, Australia - Stockholm, Sweden - Grenoble, France - Lubbock (TX), USA - Boston (MA), USA - Arradon, France - Hyde, UK - Joplin (MO), USA - Kyoto, Japan - Tokyo, Japan - Kansas City (MO), USA - Naples (FL), USA - Tuzla, Bosnia and Herzegovina - Manila, Philippines - Sydney, Australia - Stavanger, Norway - Bucaramanga (Santander), Colombia - London, UK - Chandler (AZ), USA - Nelson, New Zealand - Singapore, Singapore - Hamburg, Germany - Sydney, Australia - Tenerife, Spain - Moscow, Russia - Lyon, France - Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia - Villigen, Switzerland - Anderson (SC), USA - Oslo, Norway - Evry, France - Hayle, UK - Mumbai, India - Kitakami, Japan - Wassenaar (ZH), Netherlands - Menton, France - Monte Carlo, Monaco - Los Angeles (CA), USA - Cypress (TX), USA - La Antigua, Guatemala - Paderborn, Germany - San Diego (CA), USA - Ampang (Selangor), Malaysia - Madrid, Spain - Lyon, France - Selma (AL), USA - Shanghai, China - Baziège, France - Cologne (NRW), Germany - North Bay (ON), Canada - Rotterdam, Netherlands - Stayton (OR), USA - Sharon (CT), USA - Austin (TX), USA - Hong Kong, China - Trier, Germany - Joensuu, Finland - Paris, France - Greenville (SC), USA - Wailea (HI), USA - Budapest, Hungary - Cork, Ireland - Bastia, France - Vancouver, Canada - Brookville (OH), USA - Jakarta, Indonesia - Mainz, Germany - Minneapolis (MN), USA - Zurich, Switzerland - Torino, Italy - Montréal (QC), Canada