Thursday, July 26, 2007

going up to the northwoods


"I went to the woods because I wished to live deliberately, to front only the essential facts of life, and see if I could not learn what it had to teach..." - Henry David Thoreau

This will be my deck view for the next week or so - we're off to the great northwoods of Wisconsin for a few days of doing nothing much besides swimming in the lake, reading, napping, eating and drinking. What could be better? I'll start posting again on August 6th 'see' you then!










Wednesday, July 25, 2007

forward!

Scene of a billion tourist photos at the capitol square, here is the Forward statue which is meant to represent a female figure standing upon the prow of a boat (which I didn't know until I researched the history of the statue.) This was built in 1893 by a female sculptor, Jean Pond Miner, an unusual honor for a woman in those days.

Tuesday, July 24, 2007

maxwell street

This past weekend was Maxwell Street Days; all the stores on State Street pile all of their sales onto the sidewalk for the whole 6 block stretch of State Street for 3 days. This is a pretty sedate view from the capitol - further down towards the University end of State Street it gets quite boisterous, with vendors yelling through bullhorns and a lot of the ethnic restaurants bring their grills outside. It's an event - you shouldn't go here if you have an aversion to crowds and/or shopping!


Monday, July 23, 2007

gates of heaven



A beautiful little temple right on the shores of Lake Mendota. It has quite a colourful history, which is detailed in the second photo. And what a great name for a house of worship...

Sunday, July 22, 2007

paddle & portage (and the 100th post!)

Now, this event is about as 'Madison' as Madison can get - a quick canoe around Lake Mendota (well, it seems quick when you're sitting on the grass watching the action in comfort) - then...




...they run up the hill to the capitol with the canoes on their heads...




...where a huge crowd wait waiting for them, clapping and cheering them on. Around the capitol square, then down the hill into Lake Monona and a quick paddle around there. Phew! I'm exhausted just writing about it. My husband did the paddle & portage a few years ago and had a blast.
My own little achievement isn't nearly quite so arduous or sweat inducing, but today marks the 100th post of Madison Daily Photo, so I give myself a little pat on the back and thank you all for your visits & comments!

Saturday, July 21, 2007

madison skyline


..one from the archives as it has been a long & busy day...

Here's the Madison skyline as taken from Lake Monona - my first attempt at using the infinity mode on my camera.
In the foreground you can see the Frank Lloyd Wright designed Monona Terrace (which celebrated it's 10 anniversary yesterday with a big party for the city on the rooftop.) Most of the buildings behind that are state government offices & of course, the big dome on the right is the State Capitol building. Lots of lush green trees all around there too.

Friday, July 20, 2007

sailing

There have been a lot of posts on other Daily Photo websites of sailing & boats - it's the height of summer (for most of us) and it seems a lot of us live near water, so I'm throwing my hat in the ring too. This boat, of course, has a Wisconsin flavor to it - this is the Dairy State after all - and has been decorated as a cow.
This was taken at the Union Terrace where you can rent boats & canoes to take out on the lake. It's a busy place this time of year.


Thursday, July 19, 2007

sister city

I saw this planted in a garden close to city hall. Madison is twinned with 10 sister cities all over the world: Ainaro, East Timor; Arcatao, El Salvador; Bac Giang, Vietnam; Camaguey, Cuba; Cusco, Peru; Freiberg, Germany; Managua, Nicaragua; Obihiro, Japan; Mantova, Italy and Vilnius, Lithuania. There was a plan a while ago to twin Madison with Rafah in the Palestinian Territories, but I believe it was shelved. Too political.

Do you know your sister cities?

Wednesday, July 18, 2007

courthouse

This is the old Dane County courthouse - a fancy new one has been built on the other side of the capitol. This one looks quite dated in comparison - what do you think the spiral red neon dagger means??

Tuesday, July 17, 2007

downtown library

This is the central branch of Madison Public Library, just one block away from the capitol square & next door to the Overture Center. This was built during the cold war & has a nuclear fallout shelter in the basement. I am a huge fan of Madison's library system - for a city this size (250,000+) it has a remarkably thorough collection & commonly has wait lists for books & movies in the hundreds (the new Harry Potter book has over 1,000 people waiting for 150 copies!)

Monday, July 16, 2007

la fete de marquette





Never one to miss an opportunity to throw a party, Madison hosted La Fete de Marquette this past weekend to celebrate Bastille Day. All the bands playing over three days come from various French speaking parts of the world, from New Orleans to Africa, France to Montreal. The performer in the middle is Tani Diakite and the Malian Blues Band - amazing drumming band that really had the crowd moving. Lots of good food, cold beer & hot weather made for a classic Madison summertime festival.
Do you see the mini Eiffel Tower in the top photo?
I'm down & out with a cold and totally forgot to post yesterday so I'm putting up 3 photos today to make up for it :)


Saturday, July 14, 2007

driving up east washington

I went up to the annual Art Fair on the Square this morning - over 500 artists from all over the US displaying their work for sale all around the capitol square - hoping to get some good photos for Madison Daily Photo. Instead I sat in heavy traffic for about 20 minutes, so - never one to look a gift horse in the mouth - I got a good photo from my traffic jam of the State Capitol building seen as you drive into Madison up East Washington Avenue. The glass building on the left houses a bank and a few other companies. I love the yellow Mini in front of me - the car I would love to have with an unlimited budget!

Friday, July 13, 2007

overture center

This is the Overture Center for the Arts in the heart of Madison's downtown. A Cesar Pelli designed building, this replaced the old Civic Center and, as you can see, the original facade was kept intact while the rest of the building was basically built around it. Overture changed the face of this part of downtown Madison - an entire city block was razed to make way for it.
I've only been to a couple of events here - for the most part tickets are not cheap and Overture is still fighting it's 'elitist' reputation. Despite being billed as a community arts center I think it's still out of reach for a good many people. On the bright side, there are some good free art galleries in there.

Thursday, July 12, 2007

cool house

I was visting a friend on the west side of town yesterday & couldn't help but notice this house when we were out on a walk. It's not a very 'Wisconsin' type house - I think it's almost Mediterranean in influence, which you don't see too often in Madison. Lots of good detail when you enlarge the photo & you can have a good look at the garden too.

Wednesday, July 11, 2007

coneflowers

My garden is full of purple coneflowers right now, a natural butterfly attractor. I tried to be like Abe and get some beautiful shots of monarchs resting gently on the coneflower leaves, but no luck and almost got myself stung by a bee in the process.

Tuesday, July 10, 2007

hitching a ride

I came out of the house the other morning ready to run some errands when who do I see on top of my car? It's my early morning visitor again, one of the hawks who lives in the tree three doors down. This time he -or she? The female hawks are usually bigger than the males - wasn't nearly so shy and I had to open up a door and slam it shut so she'd fly away.
It would have been cool to have her along for the ride though...

Monday, July 9, 2007

the old lady & the shoe

A slide at Vilas Park modelled after the Old Lady & The Shoe children's nursery rhyme.

Sunday, July 8, 2007

flowers at the market

Snapdragons & lilies in full bloom. We got all of our wedding flowers from the Farmers' Market 6 years ago & I still remember them when we go to the market today. How could you beat those for beauty?

Saturday, July 7, 2007

raging grannies for peace

Easily the best photo title of my blog...here's the raging grannies for peace. They gather at the Saturday Farmer's Market downtown and sing war protest songs. Every voice counts.

Friday, July 6, 2007

polar bear

Here's one of the polar bears at the Henry Vilas zoo. It was a hot, hot day and he was just trying to stay in the shade. There's a swimming pool below & occasionally he'd take a dip, then back up to the shade.

Thursday, July 5, 2007

a surprise on a country walk

Not something you see every day - a horse on the path below. It was quite a surprise.

Wednesday, July 4, 2007

independence day

Happy 4th of July!

I posted a picture of this cow back in April when she was all ready for Easter. Now she's a picture of cow patriotism on this most American of holidays.

Tuesday, July 3, 2007

patriotic rooster

Tomorrow is the 4th of July - America's Independence Day & the flags are flying. Here's a preview of some red, white & blue before tomorrow's post.

Monday, July 2, 2007

rural life

We spent this past weekend at the cabin of some good friends of ours about 2 hours west of Madison. This is the view from the top of the hill that the cabin sits on...the farm below is an Amish farm as nearly all of the farms in that area are. It's like stepping out of normal life for a few days, seeing the Amish families riding along the gravel roads in their horse drawn carts and the massive work horses pulling the ploughs through their fields. Life has a different rhythm there.

Sunday, July 1, 2007

july 1st - theme day

As always, the first day of the month is Theme Day for City Daily Photo blogs. This month's theme is the colour red & I have photographed a classic Wisconsin scene - the red barn. I think originally barns were painted red because that was the cheapest colour but now they're red because...well, they just are.

There are 100 other Daily Photo blogs participating in this month's theme day - please take a moment to visit at least a couple of them
Shanghai, China - Mumbai, India - New York City (NY), USA - Manila, Philippines - Albuquerque (NM), USA - Hamburg, Germany - Stayton (OR), USA - Los Angeles (CA), USA - Hyde, UK - Oslo, Norway - Brookville (OH), USA - Melbourne, Australia - Stavanger, Norway - Bellefonte (PA), USA - Bucaramanga (Santander), Colombia - Joplin (MO), USA - Singapore, Singapore - Selma (AL), USA - Cleveland (OH), USA - Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia - Chandler (AZ), USA - Stockholm, Sweden - Seattle (WA), USA - Boston (MA), USA - Arradon, France - Evry, France - Baton Rouge (LA), USA - Maple Ridge (BC), Canada - Boston (MA), USA - Grenoble, France - http://www.twincitiesdailyphoto.com" target="_new">Cottage Grove (MN), USA Greenville (SC), USA - Hilo (HI), USA - Nelson, New Zealand - La Antigua, Guatemala - Brisbane (QLD), Australia - Singapore, Singapore - Tel Aviv, Israel - Hong Kong, China - Sequim (WA), USA - Paderborn, Germany - Saarbrücken, Germany - Rotterdam, Netherlands - Tenerife, Spain - Kyoto, Japan - Tokyo, Japan - Sydney, Australia - Naples (FL), USA - Cologne (NRW), Germany - Wassenaar (ZH), Netherlands - Saint Louis (MO), USA - Cypress (TX), USA - Ocean Township (NJ), USA - Mainz, Germany - Toruń, Poland - Menton, France - Monte Carlo, Monaco - Singapore, Singapore - North Bay (ON), Canada - Jakarta, Indonesia - Montréal (QC), Canada - Tuzla, Bosnia and Herzegovina - Minneapolis (MN), USA - Baziège, France - San Diego (CA), USA - Prague, Czech Republic - Ampang (Selangor), Malaysia - New York (NY), USA - Kajang (Selangor), Malaysia - Sharon (CT), USA - Newcastle (NSW), Australia - Port Angeles (WA), USA - Nottingham, UK - Villigen, Switzerland - Chicago (IL), USA - Torquay, UK - Brussels, Belgium - San Diego (CA), USA - Mexico (DF), Mexico - Saint Paul (MN), USA - Cape Town, South Africa - Paris, France - Seoul, Korea - Manila, Philippines - Milano, Italy - Austin (TX), USA - Chennai, India - Madrid, Spain - Seoul, South Korea - Wailea (HI), USA - Toronto (ON), Canada - Ajaccio, France - Buenos Aires, Argentina - Silver Spring (MD), USA - Zurich, Switzerland - Sydney, Australia - Budapest, Hungary - Moscow, Russia - Auckland, New Zealand - Torino, Italy