Catching Up

 I haven't been writing much so I'm not sure where to begin. January came and went. We had some awful cold weather, down to minus 22 on January 23rd. The apartment got freaking cold, down to 63 degrees, which is way too cold for me. The radiators were barely warm. I called maintenance and he said turn the thermostat up as far as it would go, which is 90 degrees. Not much help, so we bought a little space heater. When I plugged it in I realized a massive amount of cold air was coming inside through the air conditioner (through the wall A/C), which was over my head where I plugged in the space heater. We then went to ACE Hardware and bought an outside cover and an inside cover. They made a huge difference! The good thing about the apartment being so cold is a week or two later all my orchids began to spike, all but one. In case you were wondering, we keep the apartment about 72. My hubby likes it warm.

We didn't let the cold slow down our weekend adventures. We like to stop at antique stores and drive home on country roads, often stopping in at some random little town we had not seen before. 

January 5 - Redgranite. Stopped for coffee and then drove to the former quarry. Will visit in spring/summer for sure!

Love the light bulbs!

Cute coffee shop, Dauntless Soul Brew Co.

ACE Hardware actually has this light bulb

Redgranite quarry. The stones are dark red, but the light was fading you you can't tell

January 9 - drove down some of the roads through the White River wilderness area. My pictures are tagged "Berlin". One of the roads was icy. Hubby wanted to test the SUV. It drove perfectly.

The icy road

me...

Jan 10 - Fond du Lac. Stopped to eat at a supper club. Great food! Would like to go back sometime. Red Cabin at Green Acres, W2701 Fourth Street Road, Co Rd T, Fond du Lac.

Jan 11 - Neshkoro. Stopped by the river.

January 25 - Briggsville and Wisconsin Dells.

Briggsville. We had a cottage a few miles out of town. We used to go to Foxy's!

Wisconsin Dells

The dark entrance to the forest! Creepy! I held hubby's hand.

Inside wasn't so bad. LOL

Walking back to the parking lot, pine trees and blue sky.

January 31 - Pardeeville, Baraboo, Packwaukee. We stopped at a big antique store in Pardeeville, then went to the antique mall in Baraboo. On the way home we stopped at Packwaukee, because we never went there before. There were houses all along the Buffalo River so we followed the signs to the public access, which is a series of piers along a roadway that crosses the lake.

We parked on the side next to a pier.

The moon

Named after Winnebago Chief Packwaukee. Packwaukee is Ojibwa, meaning shallow land.

Heading home I suddenly yelled, "THERE'S A BALD EAGLE SITTING IN THE FIELD!!!" Hubby stops the car. You scared me! "I'm sorry but there's a BALD EAGLE sitting in the field!!!" He backs up. I took a picture as it was flying away.

I think that's enough stories for tonight.

Photography

 One snowy night back in November, hubby and I went out for a drive, because who wants to stay home in a blizzard when the roads are slippery, say most people. Anyway, we stopped downtown and got out for a short walk (slip and slide). I told hubby I needed to cross the street to take some pictures. 

So I go tromping through the snow while he calls after me to be careful and watch out for cars. I took about a dozen pictures, and when we got home I realized I got some pretty good photos.

I posted three of them on the Hometown Ripon page and over the course of two days my post gathered 2.2 thousand likes. At lease 100 people joined the group just so they could comment, like and share. I read some of the comments with the shares (of those that were public). People were sharing to family and friends, "This is the town where I was (born, used to live, grew up, live now)". Wow, just wow. If I had a dollar for every like I would have 2 month's rent!

Forward to today. I got a message from Amy who is putting together the 2026 Destination Guide for the Green Lake Chamber of Commerce. She said she would love to include my photo in the "Explore our Area" page of the guide. She sent me this picture.

It's just a Samsung phone! I'm impressing myself lol

I guess I should find a way to offer some of my work for sale. I have some outstanding photos, here and there, through the years.

Look What It Did

 I guess it heard me threaten to replace it. So, yes, now I need to keep it because I can't throw away a perfectly healthy plant.

It's Good To Be Home

 The drive home went well. Traffic was light. We stopped at our favorite rest area, WisDOT Rest Area 64 near Lomira, WI.

 The trip to and back from the airport yesterday went well. Traffic was light. There were no problems at all at the airport. The new parking garage is awesome. 

After we got back to Indiana we decided to go to Anderson's Winery to enjoy some wine, cheese and live music. My daughter and her hubby gave us two bottles of Fuzzy Peach (Christmas gift).

My new plants are snuggled into their spots. All of my Oxalis "fainted". A couple of my succulents look dead. All of my Jades have wrinkled leaves. My orchid dropped its blooms and my pothos looks like cr@p. Most of them will recover. Some of my plants are like cast iron, surprisingly, my Hoya and Sanseveria.

My pothos has been looking worse and worse. Ya' know, I think I would like a heart leaf philodendron instead.

It has been developing dark spots and now it's severely wilted.

All of my Oxalis look like this so I trimmed all the leaves and watered lightly. Usually they recover.

The flowers on my Orchid dried up but it still has nice buds. The good news is all the flower spikes on the other orchids look good. I watered all of them.

The succulent in the center is struggling. The one above it to the left is dead. The pot of Little Spheroids in the front right has some wrinkles but they will be fine. 

Tomorrow!

 Hubby is coming home tomorrow! He should be landing at O'Hare about 2 pm. We will spend the night here and go home tomorrow. It's always nice to spend time with my daughter, but I really miss my hubby.

My daughter and her hubby and I had a nice time last night. Since the bowling alley was closed, we went to Rosati's in Crown Point. We watched Indiana beat the bageebers out of Alabama in the Rose Bowl game. Oh, we did also watch the rainy Rose Bowl Parade on TV.

Today, while everyone is at work, I'm going to vacuum the bedroom I'm staying in and pack most of my stuff. I'm taking another plant home. My daughter doesn't have time for them. This is a Sanseveria (on the left) my heavenly daughter bought years ago. It has white stripes. It is clinging to life but I think it will be fine. Sanseveria are pretty tough, as long as they don't get overwatered.

It will be interesting to see how my plants did while we were gone. It was only 2 weeks. We need to shop on the way home. I will post an update tomorrow sometime or Monday. Hubby goes back to work on Tuesday.

That's all for now. See you back in Wisconsin!

Happy New Year!

 Wishing everyone a Happy New Year. 

The Indiana sunrise was beautiful 

  My daughter, S-I-L and I got dressed up and went out to the bowling alley to meet some friends but found out they couldn't come because they were sick. My daughter called some other people but they were under the weather as well.  We ate and went back home. We were all hoping to party but ended up just watching TV. 

 I'm missing my hubby. He sent a couple videos of the New Year celebrations in Kosovo. He called to wish us Happy New Year :D

Checking In

 I'm feeling better...yay! Hubby is feeling better. Not sure if I mentioned he has been sick. Today (over there) he took his mom and sister to the giant new mall in Prishtina. I will try to look it up and add a link. They are 7 hours ahead so they would be home and maybe sleeping by now.

Prishtina Mall Images, opens in new window.

We are having crazy wind, rain and thunder storms here in Indiana. It's 62 degrees! It should be sunny so we could take a walk. Crazy. It's 35 and snowing back home in Ripon. 

My daughter found a bunch of craft supplies for me to fiddle with while she and S-I-L are at work next week. She gets off at noon on Wednesday, is off New Year's, works Friday (probably) and maybe half a day Saturday. Then we are off to the airport to pick up my hubby. So I guess I better hurry and finish some crafts LOL

It's raining like crazy again, some tornado warning but not for this location. That's about it for today.

Picture of my orchid for interest