Floating Flowers

Flowering Shrub

I’ve been more than a little pre-occupied with an extended visit from family, but all my company is leaving tomorrow. Tonight, while they are busy packing, I’m finally getting back to my camera and my computer. I missed my photography, definitely a habit by now, so I don’t think it will take me long to get back in the groove.

This photo is from one of my favorite places, the Olbrich Botanical Garden in Madison. I love to visit this place in every season of the year, but I think summer is hard to beat. There are flowers blooming along every path, but green is still the predominate color. Lawns, bushes, and trees are all lusciously green, evidence of the more than adequate rainfall we have had this spring.

If anyone has an ID on this flowering shrub, I’d love to know. I know I haven’t given you much to go on, just a few white flowers, and those seemingly floating in space. The bush is only 3 to 4 feet in height, full of clusters of tiny flowers and these flat petaled flowers.

Cloisters Chapel

in Metropolitan Museum of Art

The Cloisters, located in upper Manhattan, is part of the Metropolitan Museum of Art. It is devoted to the medieval arts and has nearly five thousand pieces of art dating from the 12th to the 15th centuries.

A Craftsman Bungalow

in Wingra Park National Register Historic District

There is a cluster of bungalow homes near Vilas Park, a near-westside neighborhood in Madison, Wisconsin. These bungalows, built in the Craftsman Style tradition, were the work of one of the early female architects, Cora Cadwallader Tuttle. Tuttle learned carpentry from her father, design from her mother, and drafting in college. Though she grew up in rural Dane County, Cora moved to Texas with her husband, children and nephew in 1904. Following an unsuccessful business venture on a rice plantation and the death of her husband, she and her three sons joined her sister’s family who had settled in Prescott, Arizona. There she was introduced to the craftsman-style homes under construction in the Prescott area. She returned to Madison in 1908 when her son began studies at UW.

Cora bought a lot in the new Vilas Park area, and designed and built a home patterned after the Prescott Craftsmans. She attracted a favorable following and eventually designed a total of 5 homes in the area. Cora Tuttle was the only woman architect to design and build in the Madison area prior to WWI.

A Cora Tuttle Bungalow, Updated

This home, the Eugene C. Smith House, was built in 1911. A one and a half story home, it shares many characteristics with the other Tuttle bungalows. Small details were changed in each house to give the feeling of individuality, but the basic parts of the homes are quite similar. The Smith home has a side entrance into the living room. The dining room opens from the living room, and has an entrance to the kitchen. Upstairs, there are three bedrooms and a bathroom. The recent owners have updated the rear of the home, adding a large deck for outdoor living space, but maintaining the architectural style.

The Tuttle bungalows are a part of the Wingra Park National Register Historic District.

Flax in All its Glory

Common Flax

We saw this field of flax in bloom last year in early June, and so when we passed it this year on our way to the campground, I was a bit surprised to see them in heavy bloom again. The bright blue doesn’t last long and so I photographed the field early Saturday morning. When we were leaving Door County on Sunday afternoon, the field had taken on a decided gray cast. The blue flax bloom was nearly at its end.

linum usitatissimum Latin for "most useful fiber"

Flax is one of the first plants known to have been used by mankind. Traces of fiber woven from flax have been found in sites dating over 10,000 years ago. Linens spun from flax have also been found in Egyptian tombs. Linen thread is actually spun from the stem of the flax once it has been dried and processed. The cloth made from flax is extremely strong.

Flax oil, commonly known as linseed oil, is also utilitarian. It is used as a component of oilcloth, linoleum, and varnish.

Glass Bottles

in Monochrome

I’ve spent the better part of the week going through my photo library. My computer has been groaning about the Aperture Library load ever since we’ve been home from NYC, and the best way for me to get space quickly, without paying for it, is to cull my photographs.

Why is this such a hard job?

Well, partly, it is darn time consuming. No one needs 4 views of anything, but to narrow the choices, it takes time to look at each photo and compare. Then to tag with keywords, to check the meta-data. All time I could spend . . . taking MORE photos!

But the weather has given me a great opportunity to stay inside, huddled in a corner with my Mac. I know it’s summer, and this year it seemed I had to wait months and months for summer to arrive. And I know it’s Wisconsin, all that temperate weather and those cool breezes, but the last days have been darn hot by upper Midwest standards. 95˚F and 65% humidity is enough to slow anyone down to a slow crawl.

I looked at the entire weather map of the US a couple of days ago, and there were two areas of the country with bright yellow weather warnings for heat advisories-the middle of Arizona in the Sonoran desert and the upper Midwest-Minnesota, Wisconsin, Iowa, and Illinois. Our heat doesn’t get compared to desert weather too often!

As for the above photo, I found it buried in my archives, where I found way too many photos that I once considered posting, and then ran out of time and space. Considering I shoot 4 to 5 days a week, a few hours in the morning, and then back again for the evening light, it is way too easy to collect a huge number of photos. At least when I shot film, my wallet always stopped me from taking too many photos. It seems that no controls like that exist any longer, though I know my camera does have a limit. Just like the Ever-Ready Rabbit, I just keep shooting, and shooting, and shooting.

If nothing else, it keeps me out of trouble. (Usually.)

Harbor Reflection

Gills Rock, Wisconsin

There is a reason why photographers get up at five in the morning for photo shoots. It’s all in the lighting. Love this early morning light.