Musical Park in Milwaukee

I had driven past this park many times, not knowing that it was even a park. I thought that it was some sort of promotional display for one of the museums in the area. Well, one day we happened to park across the street from it during a visit to the Milwaukee Art Museum. We decided to stop and explore... and we were pleasantly surprised!

The flags (?) make a rustling noise in the wind, like leaves on tall trees in a very large forest. They sparkle and wink in the sunlight and you can turn them with wheels at the bottom of the poles.

We were really surprised to find that the benches had drumsticks tied to them! They are musical benches!

And the "sculpture" in the middle has a sign on it to drop in pebbles. The pebbles make music on their way down.

Probably one of the coolest parks we've ever visited!

Charity Block - Aqua & Red for Project Improv

Charity Block - Aqua & Red, originally uploaded by Irishroses ~ Milwaukee.

To be mailed next week! The wonderful fabric selection is thanks to Cynthia at fabricworm. I told her I was making a block for the aqua/red charity quilt group and asked her to pick some fabrics that would look good together. I'm very pleased with what she sent me! I worked the block from Jacquie's Wonky Log Cabin tutorial and it was so much fun! Off to Kansas City it goes!

Nature Walk at Wehr Nature Center

Last weekend we went to Wehr Nature Center, not far from our home here in the Milwaukee area. The last of the snow was melting in the heavily wooded area and we brought the camera in search of signs of spring!

There's a hanging nest in this tree! If you click on the photo you will go to my Flickr photostream where I highlight the next with the note feature.

Red berries - not sure if this is a sign of spring, or leftover from winter?

There's a goose landing on the ice!

Irish Soda Bread - Yum!

We started some of the March Book of Days activities (also note link in sidebar), put together by the inspiring Stefani at Blue Yonder. Here we are making Irish Soda bread (and we learned a whole lot about Ireland and baking in the process!) It was delicious - eaten for dinner, then breakfast, then snack, then... gone!

Birds On A Wire

From Birds On A Wire

We went outside today in our small urban yard and I tried to find something beautiful or inspirational to photograph. A difficult feat in Wisconsin during a minor winter thaw. Most plant life is dead and the snow is dirty. I did manage to find a few things that I might post later, but the most inspirational image was that of doves on telephone wires (in the alley, no less!) The photo quality is not good, the doves were too far away for my camera to get a decent focus. But I found the composition to be quite good and fun with it in iPhoto when we came in. Here are some of my favorite "new" looks for what started as a mediocre photo. Enjoy!
Above, enhanced with color boost and cropped.

Below, the original:

Next, sepia with color boost:

Black and white with matte:

Color fade vignette:

Antique with high contrast:

I think it would be fun to make note cards or calendars with images such as these...