Walking down Willy Street

Bicycles on Willie II

Bicycles on Willie

I’m doing an urban project on selected stretches of streets in Madison.

I’m excited about this opportunity, and have learned a little something about patience and waiting in the three sessions I have already done.

The tenant on the south end of the Machinery Row Buildings is Machinery Row Bicycles.

Their BICYCLES sign is a prominent feature on the side of the brick building.

I love all the angles and geometric shapes in this photo — both in the letters spelling the word BICYCLES, and the individual bricks which break up large areas of space, but also in the cylindrical shape of the turret, and the shortening diagonal lines.

The Machinery Row Building  is at the intersection of Blair and Williamson Streets. Williamson is known as Willy Street by all the locals.) East Wilson disappears and Willy Street appears. The row of buildings was designed by the architectural firm of Conover and Porter from Madison. As was typical of many commercial buildings at the time, the structures were designed in a commercial Romanesque Revival Style. The firm dissolved shortly after the first sections of Machinery Row were built. Lew F. Porter then supervised the remaining work on the building.

During their partnership, Conover and Porter constructed several hundred buildings, including jails, banks, churches, commercial properties and homes. A few of the more well-known buildings include the old University of Wisconsin boathouse, the UW-Madison’s Old Red Gym, the Senate Tavern, the Agricultural Dean’s residence on campus. The firm was a training ground for novice architects, including Louise Clause, John Flad, Alvin Small, and Frank Lloyd Wright.

 

Journaling in Olbrich Courtyard

Olbrich Courtyard

Olbrich Courtyard © 2011 Bo Mackison

Journal Notes, written while eating lunch, at the Olbrich Botanical Gardens, taking a mid morning break from another garden photo shoot:

…white metal faux wicker tables and chairs, stone crock on each table, centerpiece, holds succulents, thick and fleshy. I think of the word durable when I think of succulents. Not hardy, the term often applied to plants, often an indication their tolerance for cold or heat. Durable. They seem to tolerate hard use, sporadic care. Succulents – crinkled, velvety, twisted, icy green succulents. And they are thick and fleshy, not svelte and wispy — I like that.

I feel like the photographer’s equivalent of a bag lady, come to take root in this shaded courtyard. Fountain trickling nearby, people trickling in and out as they discover this hidden resting space. I unpacked my pockets. Lots of pockets. Tossed on my table — lens cap, lens brush, lens cloth, phone, notebook, pen, floppy hat. Peach wrapped in paper towels, a bottle of Vitamin Water, string cheese. Sunglasses.

I do not like to wear sunglasses. I bring them from habit. Mostly, they occupy my hands, I never have them on long enough to protect my eyes. I remove my sunglasses constantly — so I can see a flower, see a path, see a shot — clearly, not through a polarized layer of dark. I hook them onto the neck of my shirt, then forget them ’til they fall and need retrieval or until the sun glare makes me squint. I do like to play with my sunglasses. I spin them by one arm – whoosh, whoosh, whoosh, like an off-balance Ferris wheel. I take them off and put them on a hundred times. No, I do not like to wear sunglasses — I cannot see when I wear them.

And it is all about seeing…

Yesterday I discovered an alternative to both sunglasses and the sunscreen that I hate to put on my face. Ick. Goo. Found an end-of-the-year bargain. A very wide, very floppy, very black hat that has 50 SPF protection from the sun in its fibers. (How do they do that!)

I imagine how I appear, though it’s doubtful anyone else notices “the photographer.” This woman in her 50s, a frequent visitor, always has her camera gear, spends hours walking around, examining everything closely, taking photos, lots of photos. She dresses mostly in black three seasons a year. (Summer requires casual clothes, lighter and cooler colors.) Today she wears a big black floppy hat, looks like the ones worn by movie stars in the 50s.

Ah, maybe I am not the movie star, but the paparazzi!  Ha.

Garden’s quiet now. Here in the courtyard, at least. Going to close my eyes for ten minutes and listen to the fountain, the trickling water.

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Bo Mackison is a photographer and the owner of Seeded Earth Studio LLC. Gardening, photographing gardens, writing in her journal. Enjoying a few week break before autumn art fairs begin.

 

A Bit of Enchantment

Behind the Green Curtain?

A Bit of Enchantment © 2011 Bo Mackison

I do not understand how anyone can live without one small piece of enchantment to turn to.
~ Marjorie Kinnan Rawlings

Another visit to the botanical gardens, another morning with time enough to notice textures, patterns, colors. The sunlight’s reflection on the large leaf of the elephant ear plant, the sun still strong, still a summer’s sun although its strength wanes each day as we add a few night minutes onto out 24 hour allotment, subtract a few light minutes.

I sat on one of the many benches in the gardens, closed my eyes, and noticed the many ways I am aware of the sun without opening my eyes. Warm on my arms, warm enough to cause me to break into a sweat under my hat band, a glowing feeling, a feeling of well-being. All is right my my tiny garden world when the sun shines.

I found a small piece of enchantment today in the garden.

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Bo Mackison is a photographer and the owner of Seeded Earth Studio LLC. Loving the gardens these days, prime garden time in Wisconsin,  and the gardens bring out so many beauties.

“Sunset” Coneflowers

"Sunset" Coneflowers

“Sunset” Coneflowers © 2011 Bo Mackison

A visit to one of my favorite gardens in Madison proved disappointing last night until I rounded the last corner of a small enclosure and found a patch of hybrid coneflowers. (The garden is under going major renovations and the atypical heat we have had has taken a toll on many of the summer gardening projects.)

I am not a fan of most of the purple coneflower hybrids, which are no longer purple, but instead they are white, yellow, orange. I don’t think I mind the change in color as much as the change in the prickly cone head center of the flower. Many of the hybrids have a flowery center and it seems they lack the character of the original prairie flower.

Most of these have not undergone much testing so the hardiness of the flowers is unknown. I thought the “Sunset” coneflower was one of the nicer varieties and still had the typical center. A bumblebee seems to like it fine, too.

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Bo Mackison is a photographer and the owner of Seeded Earth Studio LLC. She is experimenting with a new photo techniques with the huge variety of flowers in bloom as her willing subjects.

‘Loraine Sunshine’

'Loraine Sunshine' False Sunflower

‘Loraine Sunshine’ False Sunflower © 2011 Bo Mackison

I always thought this flower in my garden was a sunflower. Now I find out, while doing a bit of research for blog writing, that it is not a true sunflower, but a false sunflower. It is a good thing a flower’s beauty is not in its name, but in its looks. Botanically speaking, a sunflower has green leaves, while this flower has green and white variegated leaves. Hence the false label.

'Loraine Sunshine' Variegated Foliage

Variegated © 2011 Bo Mackison

It is a ‘Loraine Sunshine’ heliopsis and when I was in the nursery picking out replacement stock for a few spaces in my garden, one of the reasons I chose this flower was because of its deep yellow color. A second reason was because of its unusual foliage.

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Bo Mackison is a photographer and the owner of Seeded Earth Studio LLC. She is enjoying the backyard garden this year, especially since plentiful rains are keeping everything green and growing.