Wisconsin-Past, Present and Future

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RodMelotte@photo.net

Also - I'd like to really thank you guys for submitting information on Art Fairs, Spring Green, Milwaukee and the few others.  the one problem I'm having is many shows are juried  and the organizers want a photo of my canopy all set up to make sure I'm worthy plus images of my work. Seriously, Im not sure what I shoud send??? And since I don't have a canopy yet it makes it tough.  This will be a learning year for this adventure.

I'd like to thank koobaddog  our loco expert on the Capitol for posting this in teh comments yesterday and I thought it deserved it's only place for more to see.

I plan on getting some very close up's of this work so you can see the amazing details 

Click on images to increase there size.

The title of the work is "Wisconsin-Past, Present and Future" completed by Edwin Blashfield in 1909.

It spans the entire front wall of the Assembly Chamber and measures around 37" x 18 (could be way off on that) . The piece reads from right to left. The past is respresented by Native Americans shielding their eyes from the future -it's looking pretty bleak for them -and the various soldiers from wars in which Wisconsin had troops (Civil War, Spanish American).

In the center there is a seated figure whose name is, "Wisconsin" - of course. She is surrounded by the original explorers of the land (Marquette, et.al.) and 3 women who symbolize the 3 bodies of water that surround our state: Lakes MI, Superior, and the Baltic Sea.... Ok, the Mississippi River. (I use this tactic during my tours to see if the kids are paying attention. 8 times out of 10, they have no reaction.) Note from Rod - because they are looking at the naked women!

The woman standing in front of WI and pointing over to her left is "Today" - she is showing WI how her state is growing and becoming industrialized (on the far left horizon between the trees there is a dome, and more to the right, smokestacks). The people behind her are those of the day - families, farmers, miners.

At the far left stands "Future" in the pink blouse. Beside her is "Conservation" pointing to the tree and telling Future, that if she wants her state to grow and be prosperous, then she should watch out for her natural resources. Which, in 1909, was pretty profound on the artist's part.

That's a big nutshell. Sorry, I get carried away.

Note - I am finding it very hard not to insert myself in there somewhere in my beer costume, SO FAR I have managed to stay respectful!  
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The snow streak ended at 93 days tied for a 6th place finish on the all time consecutive snow on the ground list and tied with 1971.  We had six inches of snow on Saturday, two inches on Tuesday and a trace on Wednesday.

With spring here I think I'll plant my garden this weekend, you don't think it's too early do you?

Seriously though looking ahead I don't see anything cold at all for the next 10 days. Canada is pretty warm and the only cold air north is in Alaska so I'll be watching for movement there but . . . nothing is happening yet.

So with spring here I have been looking at my garden photos.  As you may or may not know I was not a gardener until I moved to Columbus and I had a clean slate for a yard (not even grass).  So I started obsessing about perennials and gardens.

I did not even consider my gardens as a photographic opportunity when I started, hell I was just happy ANYTHING grew.

The below is of Garden #3.  I call it the butterfly garden with the clay garden behind it.  My buddy and I built the retaining wall and so far no one has been injured. The plan is to extend it this spring by about three feet.

The funny thing is how many golf balls I find inside the garden from Kestrel Ridge ( we saw a Kestrel Hawk this morning flying by) . This will be the 3rd year for this garden.

This next shot is one of DJ's moms Day lilies that I brought from the old house with purple cone flowers and Threadleaf Coreopsis (Coreopsis verticillata) which are one of my favorite. The clay garden is 3 years old and I'll have to show you the Coreopsis canal sometime. Since it's on the bottom of the hill it gets drenched with a ton of water in heavy rain.  So I built a canal that channels the water safely through the Coreopsis like a little river. 

This macro shot is from a random Annual.  As I continue to terraform our yard I took a few packets of random wildflower seeds and sprinkled them where I'll plant Jolly Bee Geraniums this year (I wanted to get the soil going and reduce run off). It turned out a little more "wild" then expected but there were some pretty pretty flowers.

Sierra got out one day and she has only been caught once (DJ).  When my buddy comes up he ALWAYS leaves a door open or she has learned that when Blake goes out she can hide UNDERNEATH him and scoot out.

Here she is acting like a Tiger.

And while I was looking through my multiple harddrives I came across this photo.  This was another one of those places I saw and stored away the location for a future photo.  The first time I saw this field I was driving home from golf and as I drove past it I knew there was a photo there at some point in time !

So last summer on the hottest day of the year (near 100) I saw a cloud and since we were in the area we drove a few extra miles and I took this.  It's actually a High Dynamic Range photo but had some processing flaws I could not overcome so I added some MORE processing and I like it. 

I hope everyone has a great weekend and you have a chance to pick up all the dog poop that is now appearing in your yard.

And for anybody that see's me on the street - no I'm not joining the Marines. Just a short hair cut

Do you remember the days when there were ad's on TV reminding you that you should know where your kids were?

DO YOU KNOW WHERE YOUR CHILDREN ARE?  They were always on at 9:00.

Rod