Hearthstone House

Now that it's finally October, all sorts of spooky events are going on. Of course, that pesky virus is still around but at least we're getting used to dealing with it. It's only been a couple of years, ha!

Since traveling is still dicey, His Madness has been looking around our area for something to do and discovered The Hearthstone Historic House Museum. It's located just a few minutes away in the nearby town of Appleton so we went to see it for the first time last summer. The docents, who were very entertaining, told us about their "haunted theatrical productions", so naturally, we immediately bought tickets without actually knowing what we were getting ourselves into.  

What makes this particular house historic is that on the last day of September in 1882 it was the first private residence in the world to be illuminated by the world's first hydroelectric power plant. That was a lot of "firsts" for a sleepy lumber town. Although two weeks earlier, Thomas Edison's plant in New York City was actually the very first to generate electricity. It ran on steam and the Appleton plant was generating its electricity from the Fox River. According to their web site the house still has the original Edison electroliers and light switches. When it began they only had electric service from dusk to dawn, I guess the only thing they needed it for was the light. ha! Another surprising piece of info, a restaurant we've been going to for years is in the old power plant. It was an illuminating visit.   

The house is done in the Queen Anne style of architecture and is a real work of art in itself. All the tours are guided so instead of ropes and headsets you get to wander around amongst all the quirky period furniture and tchotchkes while the docents demonstrate the gramophones - that are everywhere. It's been nicely restored and really seems more like a residence than a museum.    

So what about the Haunted Hearthstone: Sequential Killers of the Victorian Age - Part IV ? That all began with a walk down these stairs into the cellar. Where we learned it was a theatrical production. Members of the audience (with appropriate precautions and no more than a few people at a time) would be moving from room to room throughout the house. In each room an actor or two would portray a different serial killer while the docent filled us in on the grim details.    

It was a great production, very well done but sadly the rooms were so dimly lit it was impossible to get any decent photos. In fact, it was hard to see where we were going at all. I didn't ask but I doubt if they would've let me bring a tripod, ha! Wouldn't it be embarrassing to stumble in the dark and wipe out an original light fixture? Maybe I'll volunteer next year and see if anyone wants their portrait done. The only scary part was that the stories were true. After an hour of listening to the horrors of what had been done to the victims and the huge number of people who had been poisoned or killed by these people portrayed in the production, I had completely lost my appetite but was ready for a drink.

I did get a photo of this talented volunteer who entertained us with spooky organ music while we waited our turn to be tortured. I loved his wild feather boa and mask, maybe I'll have to rethink this year's Halloween costume.

After an hour of trying not to trip over things in the dark, while wearing a mask in a house with no air conditioning on an 85 degree day, we happily exited through this door. I might volunteer there but I'd probably pass on being in the audience again. It looked great and everyone played their parts wonderfully but knowing the facts were true was just too creepy for me. Guess I'm just not a horror person, ha!

Happy October everyone, sorry I forgot that yesterday.

Thanks for stopping by, see you tomorrow. 

Releasing the Decorations

 

Our search for Halloween decorations started with a bang this year when His Madness and I took a road trip to pick up the Toad Witch. It was a grey, overcast day near the end of April and a wild turkey misjudged its flying capabilities and collided with our windshield. That was an inconvenience but we had so many lucky breaks while making our way home and then back to pick up our repaired car, that we decided she brought us good luck, ha! She has been casting a spell over the dining room all summer and has taken up residence in the sunroom for fall. It's very green in there, just her color. 

Since the Toad Witch has moved in, Ivy and Burt decided the sunroom would be a good place to start decorating. Burt took charge of unpacking the pillows. I swear they multiply in the closet, worse than tupperware lids! It looks like he was planning on hiding from Ivy and sneaking in a nap.

Meanwhile, Ivy was sorting through the pumpkins. These gorgeous black and white ones were a gift from our goddaughter, Katie and her husband. Her dad, Gene is the artist who made the Toad Witch.  

Freed from the pillow pile, Burt offered to help.

Ivy had fun arranging all the bits and pieces but honestly, does any of this stuff stand a chance of staying on that table with Stewart and Spenser around? It's one of their favorite places to sit and look out the window. I guess it's worth a try but like all the decor, it will probably end up somewhere else if the kitties don't approve. 

At least the little table is safe for the moment. Spenser can't resist a tub of fake garland.

The Crew decided they could use some entertainment while they contemplated what went where. Eventually they got more interested in the movie than the decorations and ended up putting everything in the same place as it was last year.

The last surface requiring a spooky make-over was the coffee table. They kept it simple so it will be easy to clear off when the pizza arrives. Priorities you know. It looks about the same as last year, except for the new "coffee table book" storage box I got to store all the electronic clutter.    

Who expected to find diversity at Home Goods?

It's even big enough to hold all those remotes we never use. They are from a long gone era when everything came with its own control device and for some mysterious reason, we still hang onto them, ha!  It might be easier to just replace the tv. First world problems. So, now that the two remotes we actually do use are safely stored where we won't remember to look for them, we're onto spreading Halloween throughout the rest of the house.

Thanks for stopping by, see you tomorrow

 

The Calamitous Countdown Begins

 

Today, Ivy and Burt are beginning their third annual countdown to Halloween. Whether or not they can manage to show up for all thirty-one days is a good question but they plan to try their best. With the first "risk of frost date" just a week away, the skeleton crew have been keeping a close eye on the garden. That date is usually anywhere from two weeks to a month off so we not too worried.

What would Halloween be without jack-o'-lanterns? All of the four varieties of pumpkins we planted came up and produced a bumper crop of  . . .  flowers. 

A few of them even turned into pumpkins, who knew they started out so fuzzy?

          

I've moaned too much about the critters who dig up the beds and trash the veggies but somehow, two pumpkins have survived beyond golf-ball size. They're both small, not orange and I'm pretty sure they didn't come from any of the seeds we planted.

I did put in some Jack-Be-Little seeds, thinking the compact size of the plants and their miniature pumpkins would look cute in the raised beds. At first, when nothing came up  I wrote them off as just another failure. Then last week His Madness asked what the yellow tomatoes were called. They had sprouted after all, grew up and climbed into the tomato cages where they are masquerading as Brandywines. Very sneaky.

At least there's no problem finding the habaneros.

The dahlias were another autumnal surprise. Last spring I bought about two dozen tubers, when it was time to get them in the ground, half of them were rotten or dried up. It was icky. Of the dozen left, seven actually grew and are just starting to bloom. However, they did grow into spectacular plants and the flowers look more beautiful in real life than they do on the label. Let's hope for a late frost!   

Now, it's a wait and see situation. Meanwhile we will be very thankful for all the gardeners out there who are much better at growing pumpkins and dahlias! There's always next year.

Thanks for stopping by, see you tomorrow!

Returns

It's hard to believe tomorrow is the equinox and first the first day of autumn. Days with temps in the mid 80's don't feel much like sweater weather but that's okay, there are plenty of those days ahead! 

Spooky, on the other hand, is all year-round and it's easy to overlook the heat and humidity when the Halloween stuff hits the stores. Unfortunately, since some things have to be purchased online, mistakes happen. We all agreed, this door mat was not a keeper.

What was on the website did not match what I received.

Honestly, this was a nice design, just badly executed and the letters were barely there. Yes, it's a door mat but it shouldn't look dirty when it's brand new. Plus, I wasn't actually going to encourage His Madness wipe his feet on it! Fortunately, thanks to covid, we are now experienced at returns and have learned to incorporate this once annoying task into a fun afternoon exploring the local area. I wish I had realized how much easier it is to return bulky mistakes to a store rather than sending them back via UPS. Duh! So, since I bought it from Kohl's all we had to do was find the one that was close to a good restaurant and nearby something interesting we wanted to explore.  

When HM and I realized there was a Kohl's close to a botanical garden we hadn't visited in at least a decade, we decided to see what had become of it. As it turns out, the Scheig Center Gardens hadn't changed much although now it's surrounded by suburbs and urban sprawl with a Starbucks nearby.    

 Still, it seems miles away from the city. I wasn't expecting there to be much going on at this time of the year. Their website described the gardens as mostly native wildflowers and roses (and they mainly blossom in the spring) but it was covered in late summer plants in full bloom! The goldenrod and the cattails don't show up too well here but there was a lot of autumnal color out there.    

There's a large contemporary building in the center and the garden fans out from it. The plantings closest to it are fairly formal becoming more natural as they drift into the surrounding meadows. It all looked like it just happened that way but it definitely took some careful planning. 

Although it is part of the City Parks and Recreation Dept. most of the grunt work is done by local volunteers and gardening organizations. I have a love/hate relationship with garden clubs. That said, in this case, I think it would be way more fun to have your efforts contribute to a whole garden, as opposed to just tending a bed sporting a sign with your club's name.   

 

The trees were still green or just beginning to turn color but a lot of the shrubs were in their full autumnal glory. I now have a long list of things I want to plant in the spring.

It's was a beautiful place to take a walk and get ideas for next year.

 We shouldn't wait ten years before we visit again.

After walking around the gardens we drove four miles to the east to the village of Little Chute. They have an authentic windmill that can actually grind wheat into flour. It was built in the Netherlands and reassembled in the town park in 2015. In addition to producing some very expensive flour it also houses genealogical information and historical archives of the Dutch settlers in the area. It wasn't in working order on the day we visited but we did get a tour, took a look at their museum and had a great time picking out cookies (made in Holland) from the gift shop. 

Kibitz thinks all museums should sell cookies in their gift shop.  

Burt and Ivy agreed but wish he had left a few more of the chocolate ones. There's still plenty left and that should give them the energy they need to find another spooky door mat!       

Thanks for stopping by, see you soon!

The Sunset of Summer Road Trip

His Madness and I took a day trip to Madison last month to celebrate our anniversary and we spent some time at Olbrich Gardens. After the fiasco our backyard turned into, I was on a mission to check out any new plants they might be showcasing and pick up some ideas to try out next year.

Of course there are a lot of areas in their gardens I can only dream of recreating!

One of thy favorite places is the Thai pavilion or sala, with its exotic statuary and tropical garden. It's quite a contrast to all the corn fields and dairy cattle we drove past to get there, ha! 

In Thailand, these pavilions are used as roadside shelters from the sun or rain and on this day it was useful for both! Typically, they're not this fancy unless they're located near a palace or temple. It was a very generous gift from the government of Thailand and the Thai Chapter of the UW Alumni Association to the University of Wisconsin. 

Since its opening, almost twenty years ago now, we've been able to watch the trees and shrubs slowly mature. The landscape designers have done a great job of finding trees and plants that look native to Asia but can still survive the winters here.

Normally, they add quite a few tropical plants along with colorful annuals during the summer and this year they seemed particularly happy with all the rain and heat we've had.

The rain clouds moved in just as I was trying to get a photo of the sunlight sparkling off the hundreds of tiny mirrors inlaid into the supporting brackets. Instead they look blue because they picked up the sky being reflected in the water, ha! They still looks pretty anyway.

A close inspection of these lush plants at the back of the pavilion revealed nothing more exotic than coleus, caladium and ornamental banana. Guess it's all about what we think we see, ha!

I'd love to visit Thailand someday but until we can all safely travel again we are lucky to have this beautiful pavilion to enjoy. There are other posts from my previous visits here and here. 

It's so easy to take things for granted, especially simple things like walking in a pretty garden. It was great to get back to a place that we missed so much during the covid closures.

Now that Labor Day is here and the sun has metaphorically set on summer, it's exciting to look forward to autumn but also sad to look back at all the catastrophic events. To be fair, the summer wasn't all bad and thankfully, most of us were lucky enough to be far away from the worst tragedies. Still, between covid, wildfires, hurricanes and floods, not to mention the Taliban, there was a lot of misery out there. It used to be foreign countries that needed our help, not that they still don't, but now it's here too! So, to feel less helpless, I've been contributing to disaster aid funds, trying to be environmentally responsible, and supporting politicians who believe in science. That won't be enough but it's a start and it gives me hope that things can get better.

The Skeleton Crew had a great holiday weekend and they hope you did too!

Thanks for stopping by, stay safe and we will see you soon.