Last summer in Wisconsin we saw vibrant greens and blues, lit by golden sun through clear pleasant air. I kept watching for the sharp accent of orange and black of the Monarch butterfly, and for a long time I didn’t have much luck. Even on that valley farm so beautiful that we used the word…READ MORE >
Butterfly Tale Two
A brief stop at Bakke Farm, then over one ridge and across two rivers to the beautiful valley farm of a friend who said, yes, she had seen a Monarch this summer. One. It was still July, and I’d been thinking about Monarch butterflies. Her place, grown lush in the moderate summer weather that settled…READ MORE >
The Butterfly Tale
We got to Wisconsin in the summer. It was July, and we saw a few fireflies. There was a feeling in the air. I had to ask. “Seen any Monarch butterflies this year?” We visited a lot of people and I asked often. No one said they’d seen more than one, most said, “No, none…READ MORE >
Four Leg Peg
I first saw this easel design when I was living and working in Toronto, Canada. Two different schools had several in storage and brought them out to display signs or art work in progress at festivals or at special classroom events. Neither school used them for individual easels in full classes – I’m thinking they…READ MORE >
EN PLEIN AIR
The Viroqua, Wisconsin plein air painters keep Bakke Farm on their list of regional locations that offer beautiful rural views, and three painters came to the farm one Friday in August to catch a summer image. Kathy Fairchild arrived first. Kathy comes to the farm quite often; she and her husband have a garden over…READ MORE >
PIECE BY PIECE
There was still clothesline tied to the old laundry poles in the sideyard of the Bakke Farm house, so I hung up my new quilt for a view, an art piece in an artistic setting. Quarter square triangle blocks, a standard in quilt piecing design, make up this subdued and yet vibrant piece, and I…READ MORE >
Treasures in the Marketplace
I first saw the bracelet at a music festival some years ago in Toronto. The copper color caught my eye, and I was attracted by the beautiful design of the letters cut from metal. “What do these words say?” I asked the Tibetan vendor. “It’s a mantra,” he answered, “inviting enlightenment for everyone on earth.”…READ MORE >
Teaching Moments in a Desert Garden
When I arrive at Las Milpitas de Cottonwood community gardens, Josh Banno and a group of students are already working. They had taken the city bus from their downtown high school as they do every Friday afternoon as an after school option activity to work on their small piece of ground in the larger community…READ MORE >
Getting Out the Word
Letters, the foundation of our literacy, the beginnings of our intellectual technology, lead the way in the study of history and art, traditions of the intellectual life of people on earth. The western Roman alphabet, A to Z, reached a design pinnacle with 23 letters in second century Rome. For 2000 years the identifying shape,…READ MORE >
11th Annual Mesquite Milling, Pancake Brunch, & Fiesta – A Neighborhood Event
Nov 26, 13 Pedaling quietly down tree lined streets in the crisp autumn morning, we round the corner into Dunbar/Spring Community Park and meet the sounds of gasoline engines driving mills grinding mesquite pods. It is the 11th Annual Mesquite Milling, Pancake Brunch, & Fiesta at the Dunbar Spring Community Garden, Orchard and Mini Nature park in…READ MORE >