Gray Skies, But There's Still Gold in the Grasses
“I saw old Autumn in the misty morn
Stand shadow less like silence, listening
To silence.”
- Thomas Hood, Ode: Autumn, 1827
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From the monthly archives:
November 2009
… a show and a web store.
Arboretum View
I am exhibiting my photography products at the first ever “Close to Home: Arboretum Local Products Expo” at the University of Wisconsin-Madison Arboretum. The show will be emphasizing products that promote sustainability, recycling and locally produced goods. If you are in the Madison area, come visit and check out my display of photo art cards, prints, and posters on Sunday November 29 from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. at the Visitor Center, 1207 Seminole Highway. Directions to the Arboretum.
Today is also the official opening of Seeded Earth Studio’s new storefront. You can find a link to the store in the menu at the top of this page or go to Seeded Earth’s shopping site. Check back frequently as I have just begun stocking my virtual shelves and will be adding new items weekly.
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Stove Top
After the kitchen quieted, after the food was prepared, the busy stove got a few minutes of respite. While everyone else entertained themselves with trivia games and after dinner walks, I took photographs of the star of the kitchen. The star of the kitchen after the chef, that is.
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November Continues
Pheasant Branch Conservancy, in Middleton, the city just north of Madison, contains a marsh with open water, springs, prairies, meadows, lowland forest, and wooded hills. These various habitats sustain a wide variety of plants and animals, including some that are threatened or endangered. Although surrounded on three sides by urban development, the conservancy provides a quiet refuge for bird-watchers, nature enthusiasts, and wayward photographers – lost in a fog!
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Lake Mendota
Madison was fogged in today, but it wasn’t my best day for photography. Early this morning, with the fog swirling around the second story window of my studio, I removed the screen from the window. Then I preset my camera and set it up on the tripod for a skyward shot. Hundreds of Canada Geese have been flying past my window several times a day, and with the fog as a background, I thought I’d take advantage of this photo op. When I heard the honking, I sprang into action, but in my hurry to get the window cranked open, I forgot -sigh! -to remove the lens cover. By the time I realized my error, I missed the moment of the flyover.
The day doesn’t get much better. I went to Lake Mendota and shot a few photographs of the fogged-in lake, then drove to a prairie about a half hour from my home. The fog had settled into a crevice, and hovered magically over the gap. I walked in to get some shots. I had only taken four photos when my battery, without warning, died. No problem. I always carry a second battery, but when I searched my camera bagg – no battery. By this time, my hands were cold, and I was gettting a bit cranky, so I chalked the day up to bad karma, and headed home.
Once home, I again searched for the missing battery – and found it right where it was supposed to be. IN my camera bag!
Yep, one of THOSE days!
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On the Shore of Lake Mendota in Madison
The Pew House, designed by Frank Lloyd Wright and built in 1938-40, is seldom available for public tours, so it was with great enthusiasm that I explored this home, inside and outside, during the Wright and Like Tour held last June. Even dodging rain drops for most of the day didn’t dampen the spirit of the day. It was a good day for photographs – no bright mid-day sun – but the home is positioned neatly over a ravine on the shores of Lake Mendota, and taking any kind of photos requires gymnastics and compromises. To get a lake view, I hiked down the path towards the dock, but could never really take a photograph that truly captures the lines and beauty of this structure. There simply wasn’t enough space to get a photo of the entire home, even with my wide angle lens, and vegetation partly hides the part of the home I was able to shoot.
Hidden from View, Lake Side
Not much of a view from the dock, or from Lake Mendota. The view from a boat would give you no clue that a Wright home was tucked into this hillside.
The home is a two-story Usonian design, unusual but delightfully compact and full of Wright’s built-ins. In one of the small bedrooms, tiny in size, the room worked well because everything was built into the room – bed, desk, storage. No photos were allowed of the interior of the house, but it is full of charm typical of Wright’s style.
I read a delightful story about an interview with Ruth Pew who voiced unhappiness with the home for the first two years she lived there. It seems she felt that Mr. Wright did not take her wants and needs into consideration when he designed the home, and she was nearly ready to put the home on the market. Instead, she decided she would “give the house a year without struggling with it.” And in that year, she discovered that the home had been built not for the woman she was, but for “the woman I could become.” Talk about self-discovery!
View from Deck into Living Room
The Pew House is referred to as a “poor man’s Fallingwater,” because it was built straddling a ravine (instead of Fallingwater’s stream) and on a tight budget with salvaged materials. According to a docent on the tour, one of the windows in the living room had to be replaced because the faint logo of a local establishment became evident after the house was inhabited.
The Wright and Like Tours are held annually, in a different Midwest city, each June. 2010′s tour will be in Racine, Wisconsin. If you are a Wright fan, it’s a great opportunity to see a half dozen or so buildings designed by Wright and his contemporaries.
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Browns and Blue
Though I’m not quite ready for the snows to come, I’m wearying of brown in all its many variations. It’s nice enough with a dose of sunshine and blue skies, but already I am missing the bright colors that were in the gardens only a few weeks ago. And now snow is predicted for Wednesday, just in time to cause Thanksgiving travel woes.
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Final Bit of Fall Color
I was out exploring the local Arboretum, simply to see what I could see. In all the many layers of November browns, there was this bit of color – one last stand of Purple Asters still sporting a few blossoms of bright purples and yellows.
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Gone to Seed
November has been a very brown month in Wisconsin. Though it’s not unusual to get a good snow or two, it’s been a rather mild November and I’ve only seen a few snow flurries. After a disappointing October which seemed rather like November, it’s only fair to have a November that is rather like October. Indeed!
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Bumblebee at Work
Though the common thistle is often regarded as a noxious weed, especially by those who prefer pasture to prairie, not all thistles are Eurasian invasives. A large percentage are in the prairies near Madison are true Wisconsin natives. They produce good nectar and so are especially attractive to butterflies, hummingbirds, and bumblebees.
I’ve been going through my summer photos, and found this busy bee. It is spectacularly a November day outside – breezy, chilly, partly cloudy – and the bee brought back pleasant memories of the many prairie strolls I took last summer.
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