Thank you @ace108 for hosting #beautifulsunday and thank you @c0ff33a for hosting #SublimeSunday!
Each year the local Botanical garden displays different themed art pieces created by willing artists that are auctioned off at the end of summer as a fund raiser. One year there were handpainted Adirondack chairs. Last year it was fish. This year it is dragonflies and they are all around the garden.
This dragonfly, decorated and named Wisconsin is a favorite of mine.
It reminded me of these words by John Steinbeck.
John Steinbeck on Wisconsin:
It is possible, even probable, to be told a truth about a place, to accept it, to know it and at the same time to not know anything about it. I had never been to Wisconsin, but all my life I had heard about it, had eaten its cheeses, some of them as good as any in the world. And I must have seen pictures. Everyone must have. Why then was I unprepared for the beauty of this region, for its variety of field and hill, forest, lake? I think now I must have considered it one big level cow pasture because of the state's enormous yield of milk products. I never saw a country that changed so rapidly, and because I had not expected it everything I saw brought a delight. I don't know how it is in other seasons, the summers may reek and rock with heat, the winters may groan with dismal cold, but when I saw it for the first and only time in early October, the air was rich with butter-colored sunlight, not fuzzy but crisp and clear so that every frost-gay tree was set off, the rising hills were not compounded, but alone and separate. There was a penetration of the light into the solid substance so that I seemed to see into things, deep in, and I've seen that kind of light elsewhere only in Greece. I remembered that I had been told Wisconsin is a lovely state, but the telling had not prepared me. It was a magic day. The land dripped with richness, the fat cows and pigs gleaming against green, and, in the smaller holdings, corn standing in little tents as corn should, and pumpkins all about.
I don't know whether or not Wisconsin has a cheese-tasting festival, but I who am a lover of cheese believe it should. Cheese was everywhere, cheese centers, cheese cooperatives, cheese stores and stands, perhaps even cheese ice cream. I can believe anything, since I saw a score of signs advertising Swiss Cheese Candy. It is sad that I didn't stop to sample Swiss Cheese Candy. Now I can't persuade anyone that it exists, that I did not make it up.
Beside the road I saw a very large establishment, the greatest distributor of sea shells in the world--and this in Wisconsin, which hasn't known a sea since pre-Cambrian time. But Wisconsin is loaded with surprises. I had heard of the Wisconsin Dells but was not prepared for the weird country sculpted by the Ice Age, a strange, gleaming country of water and carved rock, black and green. To awaken here might make one believe it a dream of some other planet, for it has a non-earthly quality, or else the engraved record of a time when the world was much younger and much different. Clinging to the sides of the dream-like waterways was the litter of our times, the motels, the hotdog stands, the merchants of the cheap and mediocre and tawdy so loved by summer tourists, but these incrustations were locked and boarded against the winter and, even open, I doubt that they could dispel the enchantment of the Wisconsin Dells.
-John Steinbeck, Travels with Charley (1962)
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Thanks, Pix!
Recommended for @zephalexia's upgaged 😊 thank you😊.
thanks for this recommendation @gyn
That was really nice of you! I do appreciate it!
The dragonflies are extremely decorative and slightly naive painted. They seem to be made by children. I like!
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How cool is that? Thank you!
My pleasure, Melinda.
Indeed beautiful! ^^
Thanks!
I love the painted dragonflies.
That is neat how they do the different art every year and then use it for a fund raiser.
It is a huge fund raiser for them. And a delight for everyone who is visiting the gardens!
Beautiful 😊
It is the summer of the Dragonfly by me....
Really? We have been commenting that there are so few here this year.
It even has Madison on it. I remember passing through there long time ago.
You've been in Wisconsin? Did you spend any time here?
No, some friends and I was just driving through going somewhere.
Very creative and they are so awesome.
It was fun to see them! And fun to take photos of them!
Yes, and also they make the garden more colorful.
They really do!
The photos will really make a Sunday beautiful. lovely shots you have. and what a great project of that botanical garden.
Your post has been recommended by @gyn for my up-gage challenge
Thanks, and thanks to @gyn, too! Looks like a worthwhile contest!
Beautiful, @melinda010100! Have a sublime Sunday, my friend!
Thank you! It started out with a thunderstorm, but the sun is shining right now! Hope your weekend has been wonderful, too.
Muy lindo este trabajo @melinda010100,su escrito muy excelente al igual que las imagenes tan hermosas,gracias por brindar la oportunidad de verlos y halagarlos,siga haciendolo bien para deleite de los visitantes,saludos y siga disfrutando este gran domingo.
¡gracias mi amigo! Espero que hayas tenido un maravilloso fin de semana!
Oh my goodness! Dragonflies, my favorite! Besides butterflies and bees, lol. This art is absolute divine! Would be nice to have one in our garden 💙💜💙
They are a favorite of mine, too! I took tons of dragonfly photos, so most likely you will see more.
It was delightful to see them in the garden.
Oh really? I look forward to that! Sadly, I am not very lucky with capturing them. Although, just recently I took photo of one in our garden, but she was quite small. I will post the photos tomorrow.
I meant more photos of the garden art dragonflies! I have not seen many real life dragonflies this year at all. Lucky you if you got pictures!
Ohhhhhhhhhh! LOL! Well I love that art ones too and I love ti see more 😍
I love dragonflies! 😊 These are so pretty!
There were around 50 dragonflies in the garden and I couldn't resist taking photos, so most likely you will see more of them!
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Nice local Botanical garden displays art piece photography.
Thank you!
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Wow! That's a lot of talking! Thanks!
I LOVE dragonflies @melinda010100 even though they manage to dart away from my camera just as I am about to capture the most spectacular image of them (lol) Great shots of some very creative dragonflies.
I also enjoyed reading the article you included by John Steinbeck on Wisconsin. We can admire many a beautiful photograph or read many an interesting article but nothing takes the place for seeing it in person. (U & R )
I would love it if you could visit Wisconsin someday!
Oh......I would love that too Melinda. I have no doubt that the two of us would have no problems passing the time of day together. 🌷 💝 🌷
We would have plenty to talk about, that's for sure! 😍
No doubt about it Melinda. 😍
I am sure they will scare a few birds of the garden but they actually do look great even hang up on a side wall of a house on the outside of course...lol :)
There were many beautiful dragonflies. Some were mosaic and some stained glass. I'll post more later. And I agree. They would be lovely anywhere outdoors.
Awesome will keep a eye out for your next post on this :)
I'm hoping to get back over to the garden today. Hopefully the rain will stop soon.
Hope so good luck and hope you can get back there :)
My daughter and I had hoped to go today... But now it is raining.
My daughter and I
Had hoped to go today... But
Now it is raining.
- melinda010100
I'm a bot. I detect haiku.
That's all really nice
Thank you!
Howdy Melinda! oh what a tribute to Wisconsin and oh to be able to write like John Steinbeck! lol. This post is a thing of beauty. But of course the big question is: was he right about the Swiss Cheese Candy?
I have never heard of Swiss Cheese candy! My friend, the historian, lives in New Glarus, at one time one of the major Swiss cheese producer area in the state. If anyone would know, he would!
I love reading Steinbeck.
Oh that's a great connection to have, yes if anyone would he would! Just the mention by Steinbeck of the place that sells it would make them famous! But I guess he didn't name them.
He called a while ago and after imagining what it could have been and laughing about it, we came to the conclusion that Steinbeck was referring to sugary candy that was shaped like a piece of Swiss cheese and packaged in a little cardboard container that showed a wedge of Swiss cheese and a mouse on the box. He is going to try to find photos of the package.
oH, THAT makes sense! lol. that's funny.