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Words In Wood

I drove straight from work over to Two Rivers (or Trivers, if you’re local) yesterday to attend the mini-workshop at Hamilton Wood Type & Printing Museum that I recently wrote about (scroll past the bracelets).

Before we got inky, though, we learned the Turkish map fold technique and made a book!

The cover & insert were premade for us so we could learn by doing & actually make something! And we each brought home an extra cover to use with our own prints, if so desired.

As a mini-workshop, it was only a few hours long, so we did’t get full access to the typecases, but had a pretty good selection of sizes & styles to choose from.

It was a full workshop, though, so by the time I settled on my layout, there wasn’t an “I” or “E” in the large type (nor could I spell BUY THE in the same style as LIFE IS SHORT). I think it worked out though.

I only pulled five prints… I could have used a few hours to refine this whole thing (kerning!) & play a lot more with color, but I’m pretty happy.

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Door County Weekending

It was a process! After work on Friday, Kate & I loaded up the wagon with our gear, a cooler, some food, and bedding, and hauled it three blocks or so to the car, went back to get the bikes and load them up, and then down to hitch up Ducky.

We drove up to Bay Shore Campground, just north of Green Bay, to get just a little bit closer to Sister Bay for Saturday morning’s bike ride. It was fun to spend a couple of nights camping again.

We rode the 25-mile route which had one official rest stop — facilities, sub sandwiches, fruit, granola, beverages & cookies! (Mmm, I can never resist a snickerdoodle.)

We made a few unscheduled stops, too, to investigate plants growing in ditches (wild sweet peas) or try to spot a bird in a tree. I walked my bike a little ways up a couple of hills — once, when I was startled & hopped off, and again just because. I always have a little pang of “not doing it right” when I do that but I wasn’t the only one… nor did I have an electric-assist bike! I spotted quite a few of those, and not only when they were passing me by on the road.

Happily, neither my back nor my hip really complained much during the ride! It is getting more difficult to swing my right leg over in the manner that I normally mount but I can still do it (carefully).

One Barrel Brewing Company was one of the event sponsors, and we certainly enjoyed that post-ride beverage, along with the taco bar by Thyme. Oh, and it just wouldn’t be a Door County event without some sort of cherry dessert. It was delicious!

We drove up to Gill’s Rock on Saturday afternoon, stopping at a few places on the way up/down (antique shop, ice cream store, a scenic overlook), at One Barrel’s tasting room on the way to dinner and, finally, back to the campground.

We went down to the water’s edge to watch the sunset — it was gorgeous! Can you see the line of geese? Man, we were pooped… stayed awake long enough to play a couple of games of Sequence, and then it was lights-out — at 8pm! I slept for 9:44 on Saturday night!

After a quick breakfast on Sunday morning, we loaded up & pulled out, and made a stop at Ali’s on the way home to wish Davy a happy birthday!

The aftermath of gift opening! One of the items was a small set of Rocket Balloons and they all LOVED it, so yay! They were all busy either blowing up or chasing balloons when this photo was taken.

Later, Ali sent this photo:

…which cracks me up… all those little balloon babies!

Signs of fall are getting a bit more vivid & plentiful. We sure saw a lot of Halloween displays in people’s yards, too!

Travel

Black Point Estate

Black Point Estate is one of the Wisconsin Historical Society's sites. The only public access to the property is by boat! One of many boat tours operated by Lake Geneva Cruise Line, it also includes the scenic tour of other historic and notable properties around the lake — titans of Chicago such as Wrigley, Maytag, Sears, and Schwinn had summer homes there, as well as many other names that you might not recognize but whose companies you certainly would! Those summer homes came in handy as refuge following The Great Chicago Fire; with easy access by train, many of those leaders moved their families to their homes in Lake Geneva and lived there while rebuilding the city and their businesses.

The house is located on a bluff and is not really visible from the lake. After climbing about 75 of the 120 steps to reach it, this was my first view:

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Being the first (with Rusty) to reach the top, I (we) was awarded with a bumper sticker to proclaim that fact! 

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Conrad Seipp made his fortune making beer, founder of the Seipp Brewing Co. in Chicago (home beer delivery? OK!). Conrad died not long after Black Point was completed, but his wife and other members of the family managed — and even grew — the estate for many years.

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Many of the furnishings were "hand-me-downs" from their elegant home in the city. The cherubs on this bedroom set caught my eye. What you can't see in my blurry phone photo is the large mended patch on the bedspread! Waste not, want not.

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The historical society rather scoffs at the bright green shag rug in the bedroom across the hall! I love it. While many of the furnishings are "antique" and certainly quite valuable, and much of the home is like a "time capsule," it's things like this rug that let you know it was lived in and used by many generations. The knit & lined blanket also caught my eye, of course.

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Upstairs hall: there was a closet exactly like this, mirrored on the other side of the hall.

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An enormous doll house sat at the other end of the hall, with a large cabinet full of extra furnishings standing nearby!

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Stencilled burlap wall covering in dining room. Burlap covered many of the walls.

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Exterior and gardens. The house is beautifully painted. One of the descendants of Conrad was a "collector" of trees and, according to our guide, there are 70 different types of evergreens planted on the property, along with the black oaks and other native trees.

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I found gingko!

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We'd walked the Geneva Lake Shorepath Walk in one direction on Saturday. While Rusty went in the other direction after the tour on Sunday, I did a little knitting (baby pants for Zim) at the beach. 

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And then it was time to go!

We stopped at Gooseberries on the way home for some groceries, but mostly to surprise long-time virtual friend Gretchen!

I feel recharged and maybe slightly less overwhelmed after that little break. Man, there sure is a lot to do around here… maybe it's the time of year! I'm finding myself wishing for winter ***ONLY*** because it takes a few things off of one's plate just because, you know, it's winter.

Forget I said that, and let's revel some more in autumn…

Autumn
For as long as we can!