a walk in the woods, macro-style

Small details of a late July afternoon walk in the Wisconsin woods, captured courtesy of my macro lens. Looking down (and up) at the small details gives you a different view of things. 

Click on any picture to see the photo larger.

wild raspberry (macro lens)

leaf patterns

golden light
(I did alter the coloring a bit in this photo)

lichens and moss (macro lens)

Lichens #1 (macro lens)
--reminds me of something out of a Dr. Seuss book

Lichens #2 (macro lens)

lichens and tree bark (macro lens)

forest renewal...

thistle (macro lens)

unknown forest plant (macro lens)

late afternoon sun

I hope you enjoyed my trip through the woods! 

A honey of a museum-- ha ha!! (just a BIT of a pun, there...)

Okay, it's not really MY pun, it's the museum's pun... When we were back in IL and WI, I spent the afternoon with my older sister Judy, who lives in southwestern Wisconsin... we had a really nice lunch out, and visited a local museum she knew about in the town of Neosho, Wisconsin, about 1 hour from Milwaukee and 1 hour from Madison.  Who knew that honey had its own museum? It's associated with Honey Acres, a family-owned business that's been around since 1852 (the Honey Acres website is here).

notice the bee boxes in the background, there??

It was a gorgeous day for a drive through the country... it looked to me like the museum might be in the same building as their corporate offices? There was also a small sales area where we (of course) bought a couple items...

my sister Judy in front of the first exhibit, about bee-keeping in ancient Egypt.
I love the sort of retro honeycomb glass wall that's part of the doorway to the museum!

As far as museums go, it was typical of small quirky museums (in that it was a bit dusty and a bit 'aged' and 'kitchy') but it was also pretty neat, in my opinion. It showed bee-keeping in different periods of history and in different countries, and then went into the history of the family who founded the Honey Acres company.

This is a painted wooden bee-box used in Yugoslavia during the 1800s.

According to the literature, the painted murals 'helped the bees return to the correct hive.' Not sure whether I believe that or not (can bees really see those kind of details? Or, do they really have that poor a sense of direction?) but the decorations on it were folk art in their own right.

a close-up of one of the bee-box murals...
not sure whether this bear is going to win, or lose!

(Like usual, I took a ton of photos, and am only showing a few of them here in this post.) 

One of the exhibits that caught my eye was a display of postage stamps from all over the world featuring bees and honey... (they'd look good on a scrapbook or art journaling page, wouldn't they?? lol!)

a small selection of the bee and honey related postage stamps
(you can click to make any of the photos larger, of course!)

I confess, I don't remember exactly what I thought was so neat here to take a photo of it--
possibly I liked the different shapes of the woven bee skeps? Or possibly the fact
that bee-keeping is done all over the world, even in Japan?

In looking through my photos, I apparently didn't take as many photos as I thought-- or my memory is worse than I thought-- because I don't remember all that much of the information about the museum exhibits.  I do remember the exhibits explained the life cycle of the bees, how much work they have to do in order to produce honey, and that they produce an enzyme that changes the flower nectar into honey in the hive. 

 A few bee and honey facts (from their website): one bee typically visits between 50 and 1,000 flowers per day but it can visit up to several thousand; to produce 2 lbs of honey bees fly a distance equal to 4 times around the earth; bees do not sleep but they sometimes will rest in an empty cell inside the hive; microbes can't live in honey, so it has been used as a topical dressing for wounds; bees are the only insect to produce food for humans.

One of the displays is a window that opens into an actual bee-hive, where you can watch bees coming in and out, and working inside the hive... it was tough to get any good photos, partly because there was so much activity in one area-- perhaps the queen was underneath that pile of bees? (no idea.)

this is neat- seeing the shape of the honeycomb as they build it

a kind of bad photo, but this is the doorway into and out of their hive to the outside.

There was also a thermometer in there-- the bees generate a lot of heat with all their industry and working, because their website says the average temperature inside a hive is 93.5 degrees. (just like home in AZ, lol!!)

a gorgeous stained-glass window displayed in their sales area

one of the bee-keeping history displays showing some antique equipment

The American Bee Journal publication, from 1873
(I can't imagine it had a large readership, but maybe it did...??)

Close up of the upper section of the window-- gorgeous designs!

A number of the exhibits showed honey-extracting equipment, patents, and improvements made to the honey-making process that were made through the years by the the company, starting with C.F. Dienholt who came from Germany to Wisconsin, and his son August, who also worked in the business. Today, the company is run by 5th generation family members, and they distribute their products all over the world.

close-up of the bottom of the stained-glass window

I never really thought I liked the taste of honey, but their sales room had tasting jars of different varieties, and a couple of them were really tasty! I had to buy some, of course-- I bought a honey-dill mustard, and a couple other varieties, including some dark chocolate coins with orange-flavored honey inside-- yum.

bee boxes outside the building-- I'm thinking there are a lot more somewhere else...
This can't possibly be enough to sustain their whole operation, lol!

one lone clover flower I found outside the front of the building--
alas, there were no honeybees visiting it when we were there.

I think there was also a nature walk outside the building for even more bee-keeping and honey-making information, but we didn't have enough time to do that; we had to get going so I could get back to Wisconsin Dells by dinnertime.

I did manage to get a couple honeybee photos, though:

busy as a... a honeybee stopping at Judy's Russian sage plant

it makes me tired just thinking of all the work they go through to make that honey!

As small as bees are, and as fast as they flit around, I will still keep trying to get good photos of them when they visit the flowers, because I'm fascinated by them. (unless there's, like, 10 or more of them buzzing around one of our night-blooming cereus flowers-- then I just step away slowly and leave them be... lol! no pun intended!)

It was a really interesting (if somewhat dorky and nerd-ish) museum, and I would love to go back when we had more time... maybe on the next trip! 

But then again, there's also the Circus World Museum in Baraboo, WI... and the Lead Mine museum and tour in Shullsburg, WI that I went on years ago but would like to see again... and Frank Lloyd Wright's house and studio at Taliesen... and the Historic Cheesemaking Center in Monroe, WI... and the narrow-gauge funicular railway in Dubuque, IA... 

whew-- I think I need to make a to-do list! :D

the golden hour: light and shadow (and spots)

a couple weeks ago we were back in WI and IL to visit our families. One day, I drove from the WI Dells area to spend the afternoon with my sister. Driving back from my sister's house to the Dells late in the afternoon cross-country, I drove around a corner and came upon this beauty... I grabbed my camera and opened the passenger side window to snap a couple quick shots. (As always, click on any of them to make them larger!)

on the edge of sunlight and shadow--

zoomed in-- turns out it's one of this year's fawns
(fyi, according to the internet, fawns have an average of 300 spots)

gone! (two white tails-- can you see both of them?)

zoomed in-- they run in leaps and bounds!! 

It's too bad this time of day lasts for such a very short period of time... from looking at these pictures, it's clear to see why photographers call it the 'the golden hour' for the golden quality of the light it brings to the scene.

recent random photos-

some random photos from the last week or so:

a grate (or drain?) in the sidewalk that caught my eye- 

this pattern would make a neat stencil!

election season humor- Salmon Roe, hahaha!!
 Someone named Salmon running for Congress, 

and someone else named Roe running for city council. 

(Somehow I don't think their signs were put next to 

each other by the candidates!)  

amber waves of grain (fields of corn, almost ready to harvest) 

and purple mountains majesty (the Estrella Mountains)... 

on my afternoon commute home from work. 

 doodled details on a journal page- 

paint pens and black permanent ink

more doodles on the same page- 

white and black pen details on gray acrylic paint

(I've been into these 'pod' shapes lately)

an 'Olympic' soda display at the local grocery 

store- these kinds of displays are so neat! 

(I imagine the delivery guys who have to create 

them don't like them quite so much, though...)

I sense a theme... and some recent weather.

Not really a purposeful theme, but I do have some similar colors, designs, and images that I find myself using in my journals. These pages aren't right next to each other, but in flipping thru my 9x12 journal, these all jumped out at me since they all have similar imagery. 

During my recuperation from the second surgery, I started taking an online journaling class by Kelly Kilmer: Memories and Reflections. It includes collage templates, journaling prompts, printable collage elements, and instructions for making two different handmade books. I haven't made the books yet, but have used some of the templates and collage images. 

everything will work out

This page started with one of Kelly's layout templates, and includes vintage sheet music, painted newsprint, handmade paper, watercolor crayons, and gel pens. The image was out of an antiques magazine. (again, I don't like how my writing turned out, here-- but the page is done, and I like the finished page more than I dislike my handwriting, so it's all good.)

graffiti Buddha

This page didn't start out with any sort of a template; instead, it used one of Michelle Ward's 'Street Team Crusades', which were weekly challenges that could be used as a jumping-off point for a journal page or piece of artwork. This particular challenge was 'Strip Ease' (using strips of paper or fabric and attach to your page). The entire background is strips of all sorts of paper, along with decorative tape. The image is one of Kelly's collage images, a graffiti art Buddha. 

graffiti Buddha close up- penwork detailing

all those strips gave me plenty of room for drawing patterns, doodling, and coloring in the various patterns on the paper and tape.

now, to the weather: yesterday afternoon I got stuck in my car for a while in the WalMart parking lot, waiting for the rain to let up long enough so I could run inside the store. Once I got in, it poured hard for most of the time I was inside (I could hear it on the roof of the store!) Monsoon season is interesting in that it can be pouring rain one place and be perfectly clear somewhere else just a mile or two away. And when it does rain, it can pour so hard that the rain just can't soak in, leading to flooding. This was the scene on the highway on my way home from WalMart:

Four out of the 6 lanes on the highway were flooded right at an underpass, leading to a bit of a traffic jam, as we worked our way past the water. So far, this monsoon season is shaping up to be a good one! (except for the mosquitoes- they're horrible!)

any place worth going

another journal page, except this one is unfinished: the overall page layout is loosely the same as the first page in this post, but once I finish it, that probably won't be so easily seen since the style / colors of the papers are so different. 

and now, I'm off to try out some new supplies I got yesterday while I was out doing errands!! 

July 4th rain

a few photos of the wonderful gray, drizzly Independence Day we had on Wednesday! It was really nice to wake up to the sound of rain on the roof and to enjoy the gray, overcast skies all morning long. (overcast, rainy days are truly a rarity here, so even though I never thought much about them back in Illinois, they are now a very pleasant event.)

we relaxed out on the patio most of the morning; Tom smoked a cigar while I read a book, and the dogs hung out and kept us company. (They don't like getting their feet wet, but I like to think they appreciated being outside in the fresh air!)

Above, Prescott and Bisbee appear enjoy a doggie air-kiss moment... (actually, I think he was trying to get her to play and she didn't want to!)

a bit later, they both went inside... Krista didn't quite know if she wanted to jump up onto the patio chair (it wobbles a bit), so I lifted her up onto it. She stayed there a while, but eventually she wanted down... again, it was wobbly, so she wasn't sure about it. (it took her a while, but she finally figured out how to do it!)

This is the aftermath of those 4+ inches of rain, the next afternoon-- these pictures aren't the greatest (if you click on them, they'll get larger), but they do show a bit of the mess in the wash that runs through our neighborhood-- the road was still technically blocked at this point, but it didn't stop this Jeep driver from blasting right through the water. (it wasn't that high, but the water was above the roadway, and it was still moving at a pretty good clip.)

this photo is a view north from the sidewalk... even though it's receded now, the water must have been pretty high, because it looks like the mud and muck had covered pretty much the entire wash from one side to the other. 

and I took this photo just because it was cool-looking, and I knew it wouldn't last. The thin coating of mud across the sidewalk had dried into something that looks like chocolate curls! (not quite as tasty as chocolate, though, I'm sure.)

7/18/11: haboob, the sequel... (also known as haboob lite)

So, we had another dust-storm blow through on Monday, and I thought I'd share a bit of it with you. This is what I saw on Monday when I was driving home from work: yup, another dust storm. Not as impressive looking as the first one was, but kinda cool, nonetheless. I say "haboob lite" because the wind gusts were only reported as high as 50 mph, not the as-high-as 70 mph gusts the last one contained. Thank goodness, too, because I had to drive home in it, this time!

The wind really wasn't too, too bad, really- we had to slow down a little, but you could still see okay to drive. The dust is just so fine, with not much vegetation to hold it down, so a lot of it gets tossed really high up into the air in one of these storms. (Which does make me wonder: where does it all end up, anyway??) It reminded me of driving through snow or fog, both of which I'm used to, so it didn't phase me. And thank goodness for automatic window controls, right?! (I had my A/C on anyway, so mine were shut, but can you imagine driving into this with an open window? No, thank you! I would definitely be pulling over to take care of them, for sure.)

For comparison's sake, this is what it looked like on Tuesday when I drove home. Quite a difference, huh?? (there was still some residual dust in the air, but this pic is pretty clear overall.)

This is looking off the the west along the same stretch of highway. It looks like there's just nothing out there past that mountain, doesn't it?? This is actually kinda creepy to me, knowing how far (miles and miles) you can usually see out here in the desert.

Here's the view looking west on Tuesday (not the same mountain, I don't think, but you get the idea). This photo isn't much to look at scenery-wise, but it gives you a good idea of the wide-open expanses out here in the desert. You can see mountain ranges upon mountain ranges behind each other out there in the distance- I don't know how far away you can actually see, to tell the truth, but probably at least 40 or 50 miles?? This wide-open expansiveness is definitely one of the things I love most about Arizona; I'm so used to it now that going back to the Midwest feels a bit "closed-in" and claustrophobic to me now! (and I won't even talk about the Midwestern humidity; ick!! although the whole "dry-heat" thing really does make a difference, I swear!! LOL!!)