Posts filed under Madison Life

Monona and Mendota

Isthmus

Madison is this cute little town tucked in right between two large lakes (well everything is relative right?). The whole town is stretched between these two lakes, an isthmus (näs på svenska).

People talk about the east side and the west side of Madison, we live on the east side. There are several small neighborhoods and completely impossible to NOT find a little small park or something alike. There are wildflowers everywhere, lovely beautiful wildflowers.

The Capitol

All roads lead to the capitol, this large building with a square around it. Every Saturday in the summertime there is a farmers market around the square, and no matter how early you get there it's always crowded. On Wednesdays there is a free concert out on the square, and people "reserve" their spot with blankets already early in the morning (even though the "rule" says you are not allowed to reserve your spot until 3pm). It kind of reminds me of a charter hotel in the Mediterranean, where most tourists "reserve" their sun chair already 5 or 6 am, even though you are technically not allowed to do this.

July brings Summer Birthdays

July 13th

Many of my friends have their birthday in July. Three of my closest friends do, and W too of course, even W's brother! This year I celebrated my birthday alone, W is in Yellowstone and I am solo at the house, well I do have the kitty cats. I don't envy him for being in Yellowstone with all the crazy tourist, have you seen all that has happened there lately?

Birthdays are a bit overrated though, I mean every day we are one day older than the day before. Either way, me and W will go out for a nice dinner somewhere when he gets back.

Alaska

I have spent many of my birthdays in the field in Alaska, couldn't ask for anything better :) I love being out in the field, out in the boreal forest, in the middle of nowhere (well almost) and that is something I really really miss.

Madison

Here in Madison, instead of a stroll through the forest I now go for walks through the neighborhoods. Instead of berries and fireweed I am watching all the magnificent gardens. We have sunsets here too, but it's hard to find them, because they disappear as soon as they appear and most of the time there is a house or two that blocks the view.

Posted on July 13, 2016 by Ann Rumbleinthearctic and filed under Alaska, Madison Life, Photography, Wisconsin and tagged Alaska Birthday cats Tycho_the_earless_cat houses citylife urban garden Madison Wisconsin 2016 Sunset.

Midsummer - Longest day of the year

Midsummer

The Swedish Midsummer is suppose to celebrate the longest day of the year. After midsummer the days actually get shorter and shorter. Living this far south all of a sudden makes this very different. In Alaska the longest day is 21 hrs and 49 minutes. With that long of a day, it doesn't really get dark. Here it is a lot different. 15 hours and 22 minutes. That is a big difference. I actually haven't really reflected over this fact until right now.

Alaska

Here are some pictures, memories, from Alaska, solstice weekend 2014.

Last year the smoke was so bad, so I didn't even bother taking any pictures of the beautiful summer night. I did get a few of the smoke, and the blood red sun, yup, sun around 8-9 pm. We had bad smoke from the forest fires for several days straight, more than a week I think, to the point where I was actually wondering if I would ever be able to see the blue sky again. Luckily the smoke did disappear, and I took some pictures around midnight a week or so later.

Madison

We celebrated the Swedish midsummer with some other Swedes around Madison about a week early. It was a really fun time, and the first time I really danced around the midsummer pole in the US. I made a dessert, strawberry mousse cake on a brownie bottom, needless to say, it was very very tasty! Compared to Alaska, it got pretty dark fast though, when we were biking home around 8 pm the sun was already starting to set..