Hosted by Cecily and MamaGeek

Yes, the ground is now white in my neck of the woods and will remain so for many months, but I just discovered a folder of photos I never got around to sharing so I will be throwing some from warmer days in for a while.

So, there I was waiting for the boat to come to shore and take me out and I thought the sky was really pretty.

It didn’t take long for the sun to start setting. These two photos were taken 13 minutes apart. Amazing!

And 9 minutes later it was still beautiful! It was chilly out there, but I imagine now that lake is frozen, and unboatable.  So here’s to remembering warmer days and reminding myself they will come again.

For the first time this year I got to see some Indian Pipe Flowers (aka ghost flower, corpse plant), scientific name, Monotropa uniflora.

The plants are small, growing to 4-10“ tall with flowers that are about ¾“ long. The entire plant is white and turns black when damaged. A gel-like sap is said to have been used medicinally by Native Americans for treating eye problems.

Once pollinated, the flowers turn upright and the plants turn brown. Hopefully next time I see them they will be fresher.

As you know, this summer the chipmunks drove me nuts. This one was hilarious! He kept using this branch to access the birdfeeder, then I moved the birdfeeder. Too funny to watch him keep going to the end of the branch, just to turn around and go back. He did is many times, guess he’s a slow learner.

Another chipmunk decided to explore this little birdhouse as a possible home.

They started preparing for winter, stuffing cheeks as full as possible.

These were taken last month (before I got sick), and I haven’t seen a chipmunk in a while, believe it or not, I kinda miss them.

Good thing I have my chipmunk statue.

Angel on My Shoulder, along with Golden Eagle Log Homes, hosted a wine event and there were so many details to capture and share.

A couple of raccoons carved into the railings.

A version of the house carved into its own mantle.

Plenty of beer.

And pretzels.

Wine for all.

Magnificent views!

Amazing surprises sculpted into the walls.

Silly seductive celebrities. Stephanie Klett, with Discover Wisconsin, is such a hoot!

Now, what would you make with a whole bunch of corks?  No seriously, an ideas?

Book Giveaways are here!

It took us 5 years of living in Wisconsin to finally stop by High Cliff State Park, but it was worth the stop. There’s still a lot of area to explore but for now I want to show you the old quarry and kiln ruins.

I wish the area wasn’t fenced off so we could have examined the structures up close. But I’m sure they are fenced for safety.

I’m just glad it hasn’t been demolished, and we can stand and ponder on days gone past.

History of the Area:
The Niagara Escarpment, often called “the ledge,” was formed by the settling and hardening of limy ooze at the bottom of the Silurian Sea, which covered much of Wisconsin nearly 400 million years ago. Later, the flat-lying dolomite was tilted downward to the southeast by earth forces, leaving its higher western edge exposed at the earth’s surface.

Between 1,000 and 1,500 years ago, nomadic Siouan Indians built effigy mounds in what is now the park. There are four panther-shaped mounds, two buffalo-shaped mounds, conical mounds, and a linear mound.

As long ago as the 1880s, this area was noted for its breathtaking views of Lake Winnebago.

From 1895 to 1956, a limestone quarry and a kiln to extract the lime from the stone operated here. Workers drilled holes in the stone and used dynamite to blast it loose. The lime extracted in the kiln was sent throughout the Midwest for use in plaster and cement and to apply to soil to reduce acidity. Other limestone from the quarry was used for brick mortar and crushed into gravel. Horses pulled dump wagons of limestone to an area above the kiln until 1946, when they were replaced by a dump truck.

As many as 40 people worked at the operation, including drillers, a blasting specialist, stone crushers, teamsters, barrel makers, laborers, and a blacksmith. Many were recent immigrants from Hungary. In its heyday, the lime industry supported a small “company town” consisting of 16 houses for workers, a store (including a post office, telegraph office, and company office), and a tavern, all owned by the Western Lime and Cement Co.

(Taken from StateParks.com)

I love all the arches and the vines growing all over the place.

There’s a tree growing out of one of the towers.

Check out my giveaways.

Would you believe this is art? Yes, it’s Forest Art and this is a continuation of the post on Tuesday.

Before we long we came up a turtle big enough to eat us.

Luckily, this is his tail end.

I think he’d make a good house, don’t you?

Near the tail of the wooden turtle there’s a Worldwide Letterbox Rubber Stamp Circle Poem (worldwideletterboxrubberstampcirclepoem). Of course, I had no paper so I stamped my leg, then promptly forgot about it and washed it off unknowingly in the tub. Let’s go inside the tortoise.

See, he would make a nice home, there’s a front door, back door, and skylights.

Here’s the nose. To the left is a river for us to fetch water from for our new home.

After I quit walking backwards and turned back around I discovered another art piece up ahead. The last on our walk.

This is the Tornado.

Beautiful and impressive, no?

Dennis is on his knees, but still, look how massive!

Forest Art Wisconsin Native/Invasive (FAW) is a place we have been wanting to get to for quite some time. Well, we finally made there last month and we walked the 1.5 mile Raven Trail to see what displays were left. If you’re interested in where in the Northwoods it’s located, here’s a map. The artists are from USA, Germany, Scotland, and Finland, if you would like to know the thoughts behind their creations you can find all that on the artists’ page.

Since there are no signs pointing to the correct place for the art we looked at a couple of different parking lots and a couple of different trail maps before we decided on a place to park. Yes, we had looked at the map I linked to above, but we didn’t print it to take with.

Luckily, we did remember the name of the trail was Raven, but the lack of signage really had us wondering if it would be a wasted walk. Well, no time in the woods is wasted but we wanted to see art. We had barely started on the path when we were greeted by these logs full of carvings and we knew we were on the right path.

Yes I know the lighting was the best that day. But guess what, it took us well over a year to even make it up there so I took photos anyways. Shortly after we left the woods, it rained and hailed like crazy!

This little noisy red squirrel made a spectacle of himself and although I had a wide lens on, instead of the huge honkin one, I snapped his photo anyway.

I think he wanted to be a piece of art.

I wonder how long it took to build this nest. Let’s get a little closer.

It is huge! I did climb inside and there was still plenty of room for at least 7 more adults to sit comfortably with me.

Inside the nest. I’m guessing the rocks are supposed to represent eggs?

Dennis tried to create some art of his own while we were there. We call this ‘Shaded Shades’.

There was a little bog with some Pitcher Plants.

But of course the blooms are past their prime.

A monstrous web. I don’t want to see the spider that made it!

More to come.