Baking And Making Homemade

I may not write about it all the time, but I'm still enjoying baking as much as ever.  I'm looking at being able to make more things here at home rather than buying at a bakery or grocery store.  And I'm finding how simple much of it is.

I now have three very good pizza dough recipes that I make every so often, which has very much lessened ordering out and I can't remember the last time we even thought about buying a frozen pizza.  A thin crust recipe that uses fine 00 pizza flour to make four dough balls that I make ahead and freeze.  A pan pizza dough that is similar to a focaccia that I make ahead and can wait in the refrigerator for 12-72 hours before baking.  And the newest is similar to a hand-tossed crust, uses course-ground semolina flour and sits in the refrigerator for a day before baking.  

Any of the pizza doughs I can add King Arthur's Pizza Dough Flavor, which is basically cheddar cheese powder with salt, onion and garlic powder and a few other things.  I did get some plain cheddar cheese powder, which is much cheaper, so I can make my own soon if I wish.  KA also sells a Pizza seasoning that can be sprinkled on pizza, but also makes a very good pizza sauce, that I've made many times, with crushed tomatoes, garlic and olive oil.

I bake them (not pan) on a pizza stone and peel that we've had for a long time and stopped using for some reason, but now it gets a whole lot of use.  We've definitely stepped up our home made pizza game in a huge way.  I could put a pizza picture here, but I have a feeling that will be its own post someday with more detail on all three crusts.

I had also been thinking about making my own tortillas as we do often enjoy Mexican food at home.  I've already made my own homemade taco sauce a few times now.  Just tomato sauce and spices we already had in the cupboard.  On a recent day off I decided to give tortillas a try.  It was unbelievably simple.  For the fat you can use oil, lard, shortening or butter.  We normally have oil and butter in the house, so I tried with oil but will try butter next time.  I rolled them out, a bit too thin, and dry fried them on the stove.  They turned out pretty good for a first try, enough for me to buy a tortilla press for my next batch.  I can see these becoming a staple in this household soon.

I still make baguette often enough to keep some available in the freezer, but I've been making baguette the longest and have written about it often here.  My go-to recipe has changed a bit, as has my technique.  I no longer care about making 16 inch versions of a French baguette and am more concerned about taste and form for our uses.

And it had been a while, but I made a couple batches of cheese pennies yesterday.  Cheese pennies are a fun snack, so I made a roll of parmesan and a roll of sharp cheddar - with added cheese powder.  So tasty.  This pan pictured was pretty much dinner last night, along with a loaf of what I'll write about next.  These could have used another minute or two in the oven, but still good.

I made glass bread (Pan de Cristal) yesterday.  I had made it once before, but I was a less experienced baker then.  This was before I got a baking stone so they were baked on the round pizza stone and also I overcooked them.  I know I wrote about it here, I'm just too lazy to look it up to link.  Glass bread is a 100% hydration bread, so the dough starts out like pancake batter and is very delicate.  Big bubbles form in the crumb making the bread so light and airy.  I wish I could get more of that in my baguette - maybe someday.

The glass bread dough gets stronger through coil folds and time, with the last resting period about 2 hours before going in the oven.  This made 4 loaves, three of which went into the freezer.  Mine may be slightly less done than usual, but that was on purpose so we can throw one in the oven for 5-10 minutes sometime and have it taste like fresh.  I suppose you could make a sandwich out  of it if you cut it the long way like a bun, but as far as I'm concerned it's a wonderful snacking bread.

I skipped over a lot of details here for brevity, but the details do change as I go.  Many are a combination of flours, like the 00 recipe I use half AP flour, etc., and the ratio may change on my whim.  As may the hydration percent I use in some doughs.  My tools, techniques and dough handling have also improved a lot since I started baking a few years ago.

I get great satisfaction from making these thing at home rather than buying them, though my wife would tell you I'm never satisfied.  I'm getting there, I just like trying to improve whatever I'm making every time I make it.  We all need something, right?

Valentines Day Weekend

Yesterday was Valentines Day, so a card, some candy and a nice lunch out.  We again went out to lunch today, followed by a walk around the neighborhood.  Most of the snow has melted, but that leaves the grime from winter and the drab, brown flora everywhere.  It will be nice when things start to green up again but that will take some time yet.  Our stretch of beautiful weather for this time of year continues, and should until Friday when we go back to more seasonable temperatures.  

Still not a lot happening that's been worth writing about other than the weather, but let's see what I can think of - a mini This-and-Thats:

I finally created an account on the King Arthur website and tried to put in an order, but I got an error every time I tried to submit this weekend so I went back to order from Amazon.  Not sure why the error, but I may try again sometime in the future.  Oh well, it's disappointing even though I'd have to pay for shipping there.  Most available KA flours I will continue to buy locally, but my thought was some of their seasonings and other ingredients might be fresher directly from them.  Maybe I'll find out for sure sometime in the future.

I bought a new dash camera for my car, one that also has a camera pointing back into the inside of the car.  I'd like to get one that has a rear-facing camera, but I don't want to have to run that wire back there somehow.  The interior view will show some out the windows and I thought might be a good idea as I have to transport clients often.  The dash camera that I had, forward view only, I moved to my wife's van but ran into an issue.  There are two plug-ins for it in front, one that is always on and one that is only on when the car is.  I can't use the one that is always on or it may run down the battery and the other is inoperable for some reason.  My wife said there is another one in the back that is within reach that I will have to try, but another day.  The rest of the weekend is now for rest.

It is now light out when I go to work and stays light later in the afternoon/evening.  I entertained the thought of a fire last night but the ground is very wet so I decided against it.  We have a little more than a month until the spring equinox, March 20, which is a Friday so maybe I can have an fire pit then, if not sooner.  

We don't have snowdrops around here that I'm aware of, but we do get crocus early spring in the back yard.  Still too early, I guess.  At least it feels like we can make it to there, now.

Winter Solstice Fire Pit 2025

The winter solstice was yesterday morning, and since I put in the fire pit in 2018 I've liked celebrating the occasion with a fire, when possible.  Temperatures never got above freezing yesterday, they stayed just a bit below, so it was definitely chilly but very manageable.

I shoveled some snow out of the fire pit and considered melting more with the garden torch but there were sticks in the pit already so I felt I had a good enough base to build the fire.  I didn't want to be out there long and it would get colder after the sun went down so I got started around 3:30 in the afternoon, about an hour before sunset.  I built the small fire up right away, then basically just let it burn down until I could go inside.  I think it's pretty safe to say this will be the last fire pit of the year, but, of course, now that I said that...

I made a couple discoveries while I was out there.  First, I realized that I left the gnome outside under the lilac.  I didn't take him into the garage for winter like I usually do when doing the fall cleanup, but I still may sometime.  We've had him for quite some time now and he's starting to look a bit faded and rough.  I always have my eye out for garden gnomes but haven't found one to replace him yet.  I have a smaller one that's been living on the porch all year that I may put out come spring.

The next discovery was bat guano under the bat house.  I don't know exactly how long it's been there, but it's a bit too cold for the bats to be out and about this month so I'm guessing since October, or maybe early November.  Hopefully they found a warmer place to hibernate, but not my attic!

Saturday started a run of 10 out of 16 days off for me.  We do have some holiday obligations, but I welcome the time off.  Next post will be holiday wishes, so I may get that written up and scheduled soon so I don't forget.  Happy solstice, everyone.

Snow Day!

As we got closer to Saturday the projected snow totals got higher, and now here we are.  We planned on staying in all day due to the weather anyway, and since it was a holiday weekend and still no responsibilities tomorrow, we had a bit of fun with it.

Homemade potato skins for the final Badger football game this afternoon.  And homemade-from-a mix chocolate chip cookies for dessert.  (Not to mention finishing off Thanksgiving's banana cream pie.)

And given a snow day's time to spare I decided to make a big and bubbly focaccia bread.  It was absolutely airy, crispy and delicious!  Don't worry, we froze half for warming up at a later time.  We're only two people, after all.

But it was oh, so delicious!

And as of right now, it's snowed at least 7 inches and probably even more more with the end several hours away.  It may still be snowing when I get up tomorrow.  

We've cleared the front and back steps about four times, plus knocking the snow weight off the front arborvitae, while doing a full snow removal twice so far.  By mid-morning we should be able to do a final cleanup, then hope for sunshine to help because the temperatures won't.  Welcome back, Winter, my old friend.

Yard Work Finished

This morning my wife and I finished all the yard work for the year.  It was a beautiful day, sunny and about 66ºF, and we probably won't see another day like this for several months so now was the time.

I started with cleaning the gutters, then moved on to strimming dead plants in flowerbeds to mulch them up.  My wife cleaned up the flowers we had left out front and raked all the leaves on the front lawn into piles for me to vacuum/mulch and put in the flowerbeds.  I mowed just a bit to mulch what was left but quickly ran the mower out of gas for the season, then made sure the snow blower was ready to go and started up easily.  Gardening supplies were put away and snow shovels, sand and salt are now at the ready.  It feels good to have it all done, but boy am I sore.  Tomorrow might be worse.

I never got around to carving the pumpkin for Halloween and the squirrels were starting to munch on it so it was moved to the stump.  I used my axe to chop a hole in it for them to get inside more easily and set up the trail camera at the base of the bird bath.  We'll see if I get anything entertaining enough to share. 

This has been a pretty rough week for us, especially my wife.  She had been taking care of her dad for well over a decade, and he became more and more dependent on her each year.  It was very stressful for her, but she gave him a very good quality of life.  Since she was laid off in March, she was going over there or doing something for him almost every day.  Not to mention the phone calls, so many calls every single day whether she had just been over there or not.  This was her life, and now, suddenly, that all stops.  It will take quite some time to get everything wrapped up, and even longer to fully move on.

Now, happier thoughts.  Homemade pan pizza dough with homemade pizza sauce.  This one was pepperoni and Italian sausage.  Yum!

Happy Halloween 2025

We had a little different look for Halloween this year with some new decorations.  

Same skeleton as last year hanging on the door but some new little lights I got for free after last Halloween, ghosts in the kitchen window and 2 strings of pumpkins on the right railing.  The rest is from a dollar store; pumpkinhead on the left of the door and skully on the right, the sign at the bottom of the steps and the window covering.  I did forget to use the flickering flame light bulb, but no matter.  I also never got around to carving the pumpkin, but I have ideas for a trail cam video with the critters in back again.  We also moved the flowers to the porch for the little kids to make it up our stairs more easily.

Originally I ordered a different window covering online then found this one at a dollar store.  What I received from my order was not what I ordered so I was very glad to have this as a backup.  And I like it well enough, but even though I only used black masking (painter's) tape to hold it on, the plastic was so thin it ripped when taking it down so the search will continue next year.

There were very few houses in the neighborhood with any Halloween decorations other than pumpkins and mums, and fewer with lights on to welcome the kids.  We got about 25 trick-or-treaters this year so got rid of a lot of candy, but not all of it.  That sure seems like a lot of walking for only a few giving houses in an area.  I feel a bit sorry for kids these days.

The picture above makes it seem so much brighter than it actually was.  We do have street lights, including one directly across the street, and I can see shadows from a neighbor's front light, across the street and 3 houses down. After the break I altered a picture to more resemble what human eyes saw, and a wider view that also amplifies the light.

I hope everyone had a great Halloween!

Fire And Ice - First Frost

When I left for work on Friday morning the frost was very apparent.

It won't be long now and I'll be strimming the melting plants into mulch for next year's spring revival.

One day earlier we had a company out to wash the house.  Temperatures were around 40ºF so I wondered if they would cancel, but they carried out the job.  Normally I get the power washer out every year and clean the house as good as I can, but things build up and don't come off with just the power washer.  It was expensive, but the house siding and gutters look immaculate now.  Blankets of white snow will not make the dirt on our white house stand out this year.  There was a faint smell of bleach outside, but already seems to be fading.

And last night was perfect conditions for a fire, very little breeze and not too cold.  I built up a big fire about a half hour before sunset then settled in to watch it burn for a few hours.  Had a good phone conversation with my Mom and watched the Bucks game on my phone while being warmed by the flames.

I should really do this more often.

Fall Updates & More

We've had a much milder fall than normal so far, but cooler days are coming.  This morning was our first frost warning though we had none here, but a few more chances are coming soon.  I'm writing this on Monday but I think I'll set this to post on Tuesday, just to put a day between this and the Ace stuff.

My wife cleaned up the stump area on Saturday leaving only the wildflowers that were still blooming, a couple red ones, one cone flower plant, and there are still small yellow ones that appear from time to time.  We also got the new bushes caged for winter so the rabbits don't eat them down to the nubs like they did last winter.  Hopefully by the end of next summer they'll be big and strong enough that we won't have to do this again.

I spent 4 hours on Saturday morning making baguette, and 4 hours on Saturday afternoon/evening making loaded baked potato dinner rolls to go with steak for dinner.  Another King Arthur recipe, which is my first stop when looking for something different to make.

My wife thought I was just making potato dinner rolls, so this was a tasty surprise seeing all that went into these.  They were a lot of effort for only a small pan of rolls, but they're so very good.  So good that these will definitely be made again in the future.

On a side note, I also made my first batch of homemade taco sauce.  It seems to have turned out well, and we'll have tacos later in the week to verify.  But another thing that we have everything in the cupboard to make, so why the heck not?

After all that on Saturday I took Sunday almost completely off, except for making the taco sauce mentioned above.  But today I looked at the forecast (cold and rainy tomorrow) and so I went out after work to do some of things I had planned on doing yesterday.  First off, I cut up all the sunflower stalks.  There is only the one sunflower left out front by the bird feeder and I may leave that for some time yet until it is completely dead.  

Once the stalks dry out completely there's not much to them, but they'll be easy to light and will make good kindling.  The root balls I separated into another bucket.  Those I may just run to the dump as yard waste to get rid of them.  I like to keep organic waste right here and compost it, but sometimes it's just got to go.  And as you can see the gardens have been cleaned up, mostly.  The two parsleys will be removed when it is time to plant garlic in that garden, yet this fall.

We've been pretty windy lately so I had to pick up some sticks today, which I would normally put in the fire pit but realized the pit needed cleaning out, so I got that done, too.  Ready for a fire now, whenever the wind dies down and I have that energy.

The calendar has me itching to clean up everything for winter, but the mild weather has stretched that timeline quite a bit this year.  I'm not going to complain, once winter gets here it will drag on seemingly forever, then we'll happily do it all over again come spring.

Farewell, Ace Frehley

I also found my first Ace autograph in a storage box.  I had it in an old, dirty frame with two Kiss trading cards, of which I have both sets still stored somewhere.  Anyway, I ditched the frame and scanned them all together. 

In the late 80's I met a friend who had run into all 4 members of Frehley's Comet outside their hotel, I forget which city.  He realized how big of an Ace fan I was and gifted me this autograph, though he wouldn't part with the other band members'.  A few years later he moved to Colorado and I haven't heard from him since, but I still have this.

This also seems an appropriate time to share the first Kiss poster again, original post here.  I also have the aforementioned trading cards, Kiss On Tour board game, all 4 puzzles, die cast toy cars, tons of magazines and posters, several of all of their albums including rare releases, plus some t-shirts, pins, patches, hats, bandanas and more.

Well, things go in threes, so thank you for attending my Ace Frehley tribute posts this weekend.  We did some more cleanup in the back yard so I'm delaying pictures of that until sometime this week.  For now, here is Ace's biggest hit performed during his last live concert.  

Farewell, Ace Frehley.

Ace And I, 1994

It was the summer of 1994 when I first saw Ace Frehley and his solo band live at a club in Chicago.  I was coming into town to visit a friend and heard an ad for the show on the radio.  When I got to my friend's house I let him know exactly what we were going to be doing the next night.  Thankfully, he agreed.

At that show I met a woman who knew Ace, and though I had been drinking quite a bit she seemed to like me a lot and took me backstage to meet him after the show.  It was brief, and I was drunk and starstruck.  We kept in touch and eventually she invited me down for a Kiss convention in November that year as Ace was the featured guest.  It was there I met Ace for the second time, an even more brief meeting as, because of my woman friend, I was allowed to cut the line to get a picture with him as he was about to greet everyone.

This is the only picture I have of Ace and me.  It was a Kodak 110 Instamatic camera with a flash bar, but even the archaic camera could not be blamed for the poor picture she took.

This picture was taken right after as attendees started moving through the line.  I have that same shirt he's wearing as I bought it at that earlier club show.  Very cool shirt and I still have it, but it's way too small for me now.

All just memories I've had for decades by now, but a youthful, fun experience that I will hold on to forever.  Thank you, Ace.

Schuster's Farm

I had the opportunity at work today to visit Schuster's Farm, a family-friendly local attraction.  I've driven by it many times but have never been, and today another staff and I took 6 clients for a several hour visit.  I tried to snap pictures when I could, and while they were quite busy today it is a large area so I managed to get some pictures mostly without people in them.  I can take pictures of our clients for work, but once I transfer them to work I'm supposed to delete them from my phone.  There's rules about pictures, and there were several other groups like ours there, as well, so just being mindful.

I'm finding it hard to describe the place as I'd never been anywhere quite like it.  They have fields of flowers and pumpkins, and corn for mazes.  Several different farm animals to pet and even a bunch of parakeets.  Wagon rides, a haunted forest, and several different areas for kids to play and climb.  I didn't get pics of the other areas as I had to stay back with a couple clients while the more mobile ones explored.  Overall, lots for kids here though they sometimes have bands at night and do have a bar for the adults.

The day was mostly overcast with just a peek of sun here and there, while temperatures called for a light jacket or sweatshirt.  I found the day interesting and I believe all had a lot of fun, especially since we got to take them out to eat afterwards.  After the break are more pictures, if you're interested, and you can find more information on their website here.

Vacation Recap

I was looking through the pictures I took last week and found there weren't many.  I truly did just try to take it easy, and apparently I managed that pretty well.  Yet, there were some highlights so let's see what I can remember.

First off, we'd had fall-like temperatures for a few weeks, but as if on cue the weather started turning nicer and warmer during my vacation.  This looks to last for at least another week, which is good.  It was way too early to have to switch from shorts to pants!

I didn't mention it last post, but there was a bit of a bigger project on my list - actually more of a PITA than "big" - that I chose to ignore all week.  There is a drawer in the kitchen I need to figure out how to fix.  The old, outdated hardware simply wore out and my first fix, didn't, so I do still have that to do but I have a new plan and will get that started this weekend.

I began the week by going to my Mom's on Saturday for the Badger game.  We hung out, I cooked dinner, and I spent the night.  It was nice, but I got some wires crossed in my head about the Packer game that Sunday so left for home earlier than I needed to.  Not a big deal, but another lunch out with Mom would have been nice.

On Monday we had a new rug delivered for the living room, which led to maybe the biggest chore of this vacation.  The new rug was for the living room, so that rug was to move to the bedroom, and that rug was to move to the porch.  So, basically, we had to work backwards; clean up the porch for the rug from the bedroom, clean up the bedroom for the rug from the living room, then clean up the living room for the new (bigger) rug to be placed.  It was certainly good to get the cleaning done, but we wound up moving around most all of our furniture that day.

Some shopping, mowing the lawn, and plenty of time spent with my feet up all week.  Oh, there were a few little jobs done here and there but hardly anything else worth mentioning.  Now that I said that, I did want to mention the dill pickle bread I made.  It was interesting and not bad, a good baking exercise, but I may look for a different recipe if I make similar again.  

Most importantly, my wife and I did get to spend some good time together and enjoyed several lunches or dinners out, and several drinks out during the week.  It was nice to spend the time together, but later in the week the less I seemed to do, and that was good, too.  Now, sigh, back to work.

58 & Vacation

I've been on vacation this week, and today I turn 58 years old.  Normally I have a certain main project to do on my vacation, plus a list of other chores to get done.  This vacation I still have that list but no real big project and I'm placing more of a priority on rest and relaxation than getting things done.

My wife got me some Belgian sour beers, Rodenbach and Duchess de Bourgogne, that I may begin to enjoy starting later tonight.  Today we strolled State Street as it had been some time since I'd been downtown, and enjoyed lunch at State Street Brats.  Tonight we plan to meet some friends at Come Back In for food and drinks, then get home in time for the Packers game.

Overall, a good week so far.  I may reflect on this week more at a later time, but for now, all is good.

Panorama Fire Pit

I had a relaxing fire last night, and a good conversation with Mom.  The mosquitoes were terrible so I had to spray myself head to toe with repellant, and resign myself to having to take a full shower again today to clean up before bed.

Recently I needed to upgrade my phone from a Pixel 7A to a Pixel 9A because my battery was going.  Last night I found out how much better the panorama feature is on the new phone, likely AI assisted.  I notice only one error stitching images together, the back steps and roofline of the house in the first picture.  But if you open the pictures full size you get a lot of detail of the back yard with no real distortion.

Just got home from a nice dinner on the bank of the Yahara river.  Dining, relaxing, and watching the boats go by on a beautiful Sunday evening...

Madison's Peregrine Falcons

Peregrine falcons are one of the most widely distributed birds in the world, but fascinating none the less.  There is a livestream of a nest on the MG&E building downtown Madison, overlooking Williamson (Willy) Street and Lake Monona.  (The same building with the three tall smokestacks seen in background of this recent post.)  The falcon home page with the livestream is here, if the embed doesn't work or last below.

It's hard to catch them at home sometimes, but you can back up the stream to see them.  I did a deep dive on them recently, pun intended, and they are a fascinating creature.  I'd love to witness the hunt in real life sometime.  A good four minute video is here if interested.  And a good story on the site linked in the previous paragraph of the origins of the nest and happenings since 2009.

*Edit: I just found this page that has livestream links to other peregrine falcon nests at other power plants in Wisconsin.

Labor Day is Monday, so we have a three day weekend.  Today, I made two batches of flatbread this morning, we went out for burgers for lunch and now I'm watching the Brewer game while typing this.  This evening we're going to grill out jerk chicken and I'm hoping to have a fire.  I also need to call my Mom and plan an overnight trip as I have a week off coming very soon.  My wife will have things to do for her dad the next two days for several hours each day, but we'll still have some time to rest and recreate together.

I know I've had some pretty shallow posts recently, but there really hasn't been much to say.  I'll post some pics if I have a fire tonight.  Or if I'm too tired then tomorrow looks like good fire weather, too.

Dog Days of Summer

We had planned to go to a Jamboree to sample different foods from black-owned restaurants last weekend, part of Black Restaurant Week here in Madison, but it was postponed due to rain until this Sunday.  Because of that, it will be in a different location farther from home and the weather is questionable so I'm not sure if we'll go tomorrow.  

We considered going to Schenk Corners Block Party last night, but instead went out for dinner then to a neighborhood bar for drinks.  Still, a good night out for us.

Mom came up to the house last week.  She had a gathering at her brother's just a bit south, so wanted to make the short extra trip up to see me and Kate.  We set up our screen gazebo tent in the driveway, grilled out dinner and enjoyed a nice visit.  I'm glad she made it up to the house as the big city traffic can get pretty nuts so she tends to stay away, and I don't blame her.  My next visit down to see her will be next month, sometime during my vacation.

Today was to be partly sunny with scattered strong storms, and indeed it has been all overcast and very wet so we will not be going to Eken Park Fest this afternoon after the Packer game, nor the previously mentioned block party tonight.  Instead we will be staying in and I'll be watching the Brewers go for a franchise-record 14 wins in a row.

Starkweather creek, from this morning's walk.

A bit disappointing after having bigger plans, but the rest is needed and even welcomed.  I even napped for the last half of the Packer game today, waking up to another storm approaching and scuttling any plans outside the rest of the afternoon.  I'm not sure what similar events are left yet this year, but that's okay.  It feels like we are entering the dog days of summer.

Sunflower and afternoon rain and wind today, dark enough at times for the garage lights to turn themselves on.

Not a lot new here, otherwise, at least nothing that I want to discuss here.  The sunflowers continue to grow and bloom, and ordinary life continues.  Mostly drama-free, which is good but doesn't provide much writing fodder.  Blissfully mundane, I guess you could say.  

The Brewer game is about to start, so that will be most of my evening.  Hope you are well.

Saturday Picture Post +

Plus commentary, that is.

My wife and I spent time on separate chores this morning, mine at home and hers more unexpected and difficult.  By early afternoon we were able to be done and go out for a nice, but very filling lunch together, then relaxed at a pub for a few drinks before coming home to watch the Brewers win their game and extend their lead in the division, league, and all of Major League Baseball.  

'Chuffed' isn't a word often used here in the US, but seems to aptly describe our pride as fans of our small-market team doing so well.  It's happened with our different Wisconsin teams at different times, but it's always really nice to look at the standings and see your team on top and enjoy it while it lasts.

AtwoodFest 2025

It rained off and on though mid-day Saturday, so it was very warm and humid when we ventured down to the eleventh AtwoodFest early that afternoon.  The skies remained cloudy after we arrived, and we did feel a raindrop here and there.  A shower would have felt good in that humidity, but Sunday was to be much hotter (and indeed it is sunny and feels like 96ºF outside right now) so we wanted to visit this day.

For the most part I tried to keep my phone in my pocket and not think about taking pictures, but I did take a few.  It looks similar to past years, but the food seemed to be all on one side this year and the main stage has been in a parking lot off the street about halfway down for the last couple years.

I was having a mild flare-up so I did not partake in any food cart goodies.  We spent a couple hours walking, looking, watching and listening before walking home as the sun came out.  We're thinking about an evening visit next year, just to see what that's like.  Today I'm just resting and fasting, watching the Brewers hopefully get a win.  Happy Sunday, everyone.

Saturday Picture Post

Fete De Marquette 2025

We've talked about coming to Fete de Marquette in years past, just have never made it until this year.  McPike park is relatively new to Madison, established about 10 years ago, and creates a nice open space near downtown Madison.  Initially, it was even called Central Park.  There is a skate park and some facilities, but mostly it is open lawn (a very well-kept lawn compared to other parks) with few trees mostly on the border.

We went about mid-day on Saturday, early enough that it wasn't too crowded.  The skies were mostly clouds and there was a good breeze.  We spent a couple hours, then left as the clouds started to break up and the sun made it very hot.  Atwoodfest is coming soon, and so is Eken Park Fest in August.  There are more but we'll just have to see.

A few more pictures after the break.