Christmastime

This year I decided to try my hand at baking cookies for selected friends. On the tray are butter cookies, brownies, chocolate cranberry tarts, apricot almond cookies, butter crumb cheesecake cookies and cherry mints.


The light fixture is a favorite of mine from my Mother's dining room.

Cranberry Tarts

In early November, I took some cranberry tarts that I made to a Thanksgiving potluck. Last week, I read that an almost identical recipe for cranberry tarts won honorable mention in the Chicago Tribune Christmas cookie contest. The difference was a chocolate cream cheese filling and white chocolate drizzled across the top.

Mmmmm. Guess what I am making for Christmas?

Motown

A wonderful period of gorgeous Autumn weather was all it took to convince me to head "north of Canada" and see the sights in Detroit.




Buckminster Fuller's Dymaxion House.


Thomas Edison's Labratory, Greenfield Village.


Henry Ford Museum.


The dining room in architect Eliel Saarienen's house at Cranbrook.


The lobby of Renaissance Center with Windsor, Ontario across the river.


It's the 100th anniversary of Chervolet! And Dinah Shore invites you to "Make a date today to see the U.S.A."

Deere Crossing

Eero Saarinen is one of my favorite architects. In the 1960s he designed a corporate headquarters for John Deere in Moline, Illinois. After lecturing to undergraduates in Davenport, Iowa, I got to see the Deere facilities. The Deere people are very generous in accomodating visitors.

The Wright Stuff

Every Autumn, the Smithsonian Institution sponsors a free museum day. Given the choice, I decided to go to the Frank Lloyd Wright home and studio in Oak Park, Illinois.

Reliving the days when my Aunt lived in a Wright home on Forest Avenue, I decided to take pictures of the various Wright buildings in Oak Park. There are 27 of them! I've posted pictures of them on Picassa. Use this link to view the pictures: https://picasaweb.google.com/lh/sredir?uname=109902147989161286051&target=ALBUM&id=5682013365337450737&authkey=Gv1sRgCIf9mICTzcHgUA&feat=email


Shouldn't every suburb look like this?

The Land of Sky Blue Waters

An hour north of Madison is Devil's Lake, one of the most popular state parks in Wisconsin. As part of my project to explore close-to-home attractions that I've never seen, I chose a perfect, low-humidity, cloudless summertime day to visit.

This lake was originally part of the Wisconsin River. When the glaciers came along, they deposited a moraine to the east and another on the north, forcing the river to take a different path. Because of the moraines, the remaining lake has no outlet.

Today it is the quintessential northwoods Wisconsin lake.

Blue Ribbon Kitchen

Good food shared with good friends is important to me. So in my kitchen, I am displaying my award for Mango Cream Pie from the Walworth County Fair.

Extra, Extra, Read All About It!

My new tax column, Beyond Form 1040, is being published on an occasional basis by the Boone County Journal in Belvidere, Illinois. Archived columns will be published at a later date on a future blogsite. Meanwhile, feel free to email me a tax question, and I'll try to answer it in the column.

Dear Abby, how do I syndicate?

"When I was your age, we had snow ...."

It looks like my neighbor had the same idea:



Once the walks are shoveled, this will be a perfect excuse to meet and give my neighbor a picture of him photographing the snow. Midwestern snowstorms always bring out the best in people and are frequently one of the best ways to meet the neighbors!
Meanwhile, this was the scene inside the Mitchell Domes in tropical Milwaukee, Wisconsin:



Here's a Wisconsin cheese tree in bloom just in time for the Super Bowl:

Ponder Before You Post

I am impressed with how easy and quick it is to post something here--if you shoot from the hip. The mechanics of sign on, start typing, and click "publish post" facilitates intemperate comment just as easily as deliberate reflection. It's little wonder the social network services are so popular with the masses.

But this service, like any of the others, takes a lot of effort if you want to make a quality impression. If you are willing to do something out of the box, it isn't hard. Anything else can be painstaking, even for those with some web experience. Initially, I had decided on a format, only to discover that the posting dates were printed in impossibly small type. My wish is for more comprehensive design controls than the ones provided.

Please enjoy the collection of autumn foliage that I am using to decorate the site. I took most of these pictures in October 2009 and 2010.

Autumnal Harvest: First Fruit

Last Thursday, I searched my name and discovered that Google now lists my website as the first result. Although I've accomplished that with Bing/Yahoo, this was a first with Google. I suspect that my use of Blogger and linking the website had a lot to do with it. Other correspondents report that it is not the first result for them, but that it does appear on the first page.

For that reason alone, this experimental blog is a success.

Welcoming Jack Frost and the Autumnal Cast of Characters to our conversation

The first day of my blogging experience I woke up. Then I went downtown to look for some help. Then I hung out in front of the computer.

With apologies to Cheech, Chong, and the now-sainted Sister Mary Elephant, this is my first experiment in blogging. I don't know what direction Autumn Leaves will take, much as we don't know the day a particular leaf will fall or precisely where on the ground it will fall. Jack Frost will do his thing, the rains will come, and the winds will howl!