Colors of Madison, WI

As I flew across the country last week to visit my son and daughter-in-law in Madison, WI, I was struck by the changes in scenery. Leaving Seattle, above, there was water snaking around heavily developed land. 

I changed planes in Salt Lake City. As the plane descended, I noticed how the blue sky contrasted with white mineral deposits -- at least I think that's what it was. Salt deposits around the Great Salt Lake?

And finally, as we circled over Madison, it was green farmland as far as I could see.

Down on the ground, we walked miles over the next few days through green fields, prairie and woods. Here's Keith at Pheasant Branch Conservancy with me on the bench and with Rachel.

The wild prairie was full of yellow flowers punctuated with purple.

On another day, we wandered through Olbrich Botanical Gardens,  an oasis in the city that includes a tropical conservatory and a Thai pavilion. 

Here is the pavilion, above, and some gorgeous color from the conservatory.

I also found this soft, feathery texture

on a birch tree.

Speaking of Thai, we had delicious meals at two Thai restaurants. This is the sweet potato curry I had on my last day for lunch at Curry In the Box. It was so good. I googled sweet potato curry recipes and found a few that I'm going to make.

And speaking of food (which I usually do), Rachel baked a chocolate wacky cake with vegan cream cheese frosting on my first night! Their dogs were very interested. That's Marty the border collie mix on the left and Penny the cattle dog on the right. Tomorrow I'll show some quilty photos from the trip.

Have a colorful day