There are only two ways to live your life. One is as though nothing is a miracle. The other is as though everything is a miracle.
~ Albert Einstein
Only Two Ways
A Cow Named James
HeyJules posted a weathervane on her blog The Way I See It a few days ago and her photo reminded me of this weather vane which flies high atop one of the barns at the University of Wisconsin’s agricultural complex in downtown Madison. (Except her photo was of a horse vane, and quite a lot smaller.)
I’m not really sure why the name James is on the vane – perhaps it really is the name of the cow, or more likely the name of a farm family.
Addition to the post: I decided I had better check to see if I could find out why this cow was named James. And I did find out. Seems there was a company called the James Co. out of Fort Atkinson, WI that made large weather vanes in a variety of animal shapes around the 1900s. I found quite a few examples through antique dealers’ sites: several rooster vanes – these all seem to have been used for target practice and have bullet holes in them – and another cow vane. One dealer recently sold a James weather vane for $1300, so evidently they are collector’s items.
If you want to learn some pretty awesome information about weather vanes in general, including why 18th Century vanes required a king’s permission, and what a 9th Century papal decree decreed about vanes, this short article on these silhouettes in the sky will tell all.
Oscar Mayer Weinermobile
I am not posting this because it is a good photograph, but because it is the Oscar Mayer Weinermobile. How many of you have seen this big guy up close? I’ve always thought it might be fun to ride way up there, surveying Madison from the top of a hot dog, but this is as close as I’ve gotten. I occasionally see the hot dog car cruising the streets of Madison – Madison, WI is the home of Oscar Mayer.
The Weinermobile was the brainchild of Oscar Mayer’s nephew, Carl G. Mayer, and first made its appearance driving the streets of Chicago in 1936. The sixth generation of Weinermobiles was built in 2004 and are equipped with voice activated GPS, an audio system with a wireless microphone and a horn that the Oscar Mayer Theme Song in 21 genres, from Cajun to Bossa Nova, Classical to Rap. It also has a ceiling painted sky blue with floating, fluffy clouds. There are currently 6 of these Weinermobiles in existence, and they travel the US from coast to coast 365 days a year.
Drivers of the Wienermobiles often hand out Wienerwhistles, little toy replicas of the Wienermobile that double as whistles. I, as a proud mother of 3, have probably collected a dozen or so of these screech-y things over the years. I wonder how much monetary value is attached to a 25 year old Weinerwhistle?
If you want to see a video of the very newest Weinermobile, ABC News covered the big story Weinermobile Goes Mini Cooper in March of this year. It takes a moment to pop the story, but its fun to see the new mini-weiner. (though you’ll have to spend 30 seconds watching a coffee commercial before the featured film – sorry)
A Bluebell Walk in the Woods
This path is lined with masses of Virginia Bluebells, and provides a spectacular show when in full bloom. This is especially true in the Midwest where the plant seems happiest, even though it bears the name of Virginia.
It grows in moist and nutrient rich hardwood forests, not only in Wisconsin, but in the northern and eastern quarter of the United States and in southern Ontario.
Virginia Bluebells are fairly large, tall plants that bear clusters of showy, trumpet flower clusters. The flower buds begin tinted a delicate pale pink and then deepen to a medium blue when in full flower. They aren’t as ephemeral as the earlier woodland wildflowers, and stay in bloom several weeks. The entire plant does disappear from the forest floor, though, by mid summer.
This species of bluebell was used medicinally by Native American cultures, usually made into a strong tea for the treatment of consumption and whooping cough, and was also used as a general tonic.





