A Full-time Life

THROUGH A FRAME

 

Joining Sunday Stills for the first time.  This week, the challenge is "to find an opening (a window, knothole, fence…) and use it to frame something on the other side."     (I am using photos from our FullTime-Life archives just this once.  From now on, I will try to meet this weekly theme challenge with new pictures!) 

This challenge immediately made me think of the Chinese Garden in Portland Oregon.  This meditative space is an area of beauty and serenity in the middle of the City.  

In this other picture, you can see the high rise building just beyond the garden's boundaries.   

If I lived or worked in that building, I'd visit this garden every day!

Looking ...and walking ... through these gates help to establish a feeling of serenity  .... as if you've left the cares of the world on the other side.

 The picture below is from the Japanese Garden at House on the Rock, in Wisconsin.

We enjoyed the Garden more than we did the rest of that particular attraction.  

Here's a picture of one of the serene spaces beyound the gate.

HOUSE ON THE ROCK (Flashback Friday)

 

This one's a leftover post from the latest Spring roadtrip.  Chronologically it belongs somewhere between here and here.  House on the Rock is the most visited attraction in Wisconsin, and it is listed in most midwest travel guides as a "must see."  It was an interesting stop.  The building is perched on a 60- foot rock pinnacle.  It is surrounded by typical Wisconsin countryside -- beautiful, green, gently rolling hills.   The "house" (which really isn't a house) was the grand vision of Alex Jordan. 

It really isn't a house and never was one, so I felt like I'd been cheated. Because after all it is called "house" not "building."   The docent said Jordan built it as a retreat and meeting place for friends.  I think he built it as a tourist attraction. 

Plus because most of the rooms are sort of underground, I found it dark and kind of spooky. Bill agreed that the underground rooms were too dark but he admired the construction and the way the guy had the imagination and ambition to complete his idea. 

You walk down ramps to see the thirteen  rooms.  Jordan was a collector of many things and his collections are  housed in the various rooms and in nooks and crannies carved into the stone.  They include oriental art, stained glass, statues, books, lamps, music machines that play themselves, dolls, guns, and a whole bunch more. We both agreed that we really didn't love these "stuff" collections.   

You go back up the ramps again to visit the Infinity Room on the main level. It projects 218 feet out over the valley and contains over 3200 windows.  I liked this room better than the underground ones. The window seat, in another one of the upper floor areas, looked like a nice place to take a nap. 

There are other rooms, not part of the original House, that showcase more of Jordan's collections but we chose to skip that part because we'd seen enough "stuff".   

 

There's also a quite lovely Japanese Garden, which we did enjoy.  The Garden was just added last year.  The sunshine felt wonderful after emerging from underground.

According to a pamphlet we picked up as we left, "Alex believed that sights and sounds were the most effective means of stimulating the senses.  He wanted his guests to question his creation, to come to their own conclusions and to turn his world of dreams into their own."  

Our conclusion, which its builder may not really have wished visitors would come to, was that there were too many of some kinds of sights and sounds (all those spooky music machine collections) and not enough of some others (sunlight! bird song!). 

So House on the Rock was an interesting experience, but certainly not one that we'd put on our "go-back" wish list.   

 

 

 

FRANK LLOYD WRIGHT'S TALIESIN

We like historic home tours.  It's a good way to visualize how people lived and worked.   Bill is also interested in the technical aspects of building and design.  So of course we wanted to visit Frank Lloyd Wright's home while we were in Wisconsin.  Wright was one of the greatest American architects and an  eccentric genius as an architect and as a self-promoter.   He called his home Taliesin, which means 'shining brow'.  He said it served as the source of all his ideas and a kind of laboratory for his new concepts. 

Taliesin was Frank Lloyd Wright's personal residence for almost 50 years.  He never stopped changing and remodeling it until he died (in 1959, at the age of 92!).  We remodeled our old (stick) home off and on for twenty years or so, so it was interesting to think about living with that for 50 years.  (Of course, Wright had more help and more than one wife living through the various incantations of his home.)

Wright designed his home so that it seems to be a part of the surrounding countryside, a style that became one of his trademarks.  Hills and garden spaces almost seem to become part of the house.   It was built of simple inexpensive materials -- another one of his trademarks.  (On this home, he used sandstone and limestone from nearby quarries, plaster and wood, lots of plywood.)  

He also designed the interior and even many of the furnishings.  He actually did this for most of the commercial buildings and homes he designed.   (Purchasers had to sign contracts that they would not change anything, including arrangement of the furniture and pictures.)     Inside the house, you could see how he used light and space as part of the buiding's design.  It is too bad that inside pictures aren't allowed, because the living areas includ many pieces of priceless Asian art, which Wright collected.  

We also toured the Hillside School on another part of the extensive property.  Wright inherited most of it from his family who were long-time settlers of the area.   He designed this building in 1902 for his two maiden aunts who operated a private school.    He said that this design was where he first "broke the box" of conventional architecture. 

In the 1930s, after his aunts' deaths, he expanded the building to include his new school and community of architects, called the Taliesin Fellowship.   The fellows (teachers) lived on the property.  A few of the fellows who worked with him are still alive and still live on the property along with most of the current teachers. 

There are also dorms for the students.  When Wright was alive, he kept them busy doing chores on the property as well as learning architecture.  He had a pretty good thing going for him as they paid him for the privilege of doing his work.

Today, the Taliesin Fellowship still operates the architectural firm and what is now an accredited college.  The students still live on the property (but they no longer have to clean and do the farm work).  The building also contains a beautiful theater that is used by the Taliesin Foundation and the community (picture below).  

 

Most of the teachers and all of the students had only recently returned from Taliesin West, which is in Phoenix, Arizona.  Wright first went to Phoenix for part of the Winter in the early '30s.  He (and his students) built a home and school there and starting in 1937 he began moving the whole staff and school there every winter.  (Snowbirds!) 

At the original Taliesin here in Spring Green, there is no central heating (lots of fireplaces).  Some of the students were wearing parkas as they sat at their computers.  They hadn't re-adjusted to Wisconsin temperatures yet.  We knew how they felt.   

Here are a few more pictures of the grounds.  Wright designed the Windmill.

  

In addition to the Wright memorabilia, studies, and biographies that you would expect to find, the bookstore at the Visitor Center also sold books about the scandals associated with his life.  (Most of which were more scandalous back then than they would be now).   Nobody really tried to hide the fact that Wright felt no particular need to live his life the way his neighbors did.  He kind of designed his whole life outside of the box.   

ON WISCONSIN

We're glad we got a chance to visit Wisconsin.  It is beautiful and green and immediately apparent why it is the Dairy State.  We noticed that there is absolutely no "cow smell."  These Wisconsin Farmers keep their dairies clean. 

We stayed four nights in Spring Green, which we chose because we wanted to see Taliesen, Frank Lloyd Wright's home.  (That will be another post.)

We were parked at Bob's Riverside Resort which overlooks the beautiful Wisconsin River.  Like most other travel-oriented businesses in this part of the country, this resort is primarily a place for summer adventures and it had just barely opened for the season.  Rental canoes and kayaks were lined up hopefully, waiting for the weather to get nicer.  It was still much too cool for water activities, so the resort was very quiet with only a few spaces filled.  There was a bar and grille on the premises and it seemed to have a local following, so that must keep them going during the off season.  We walked down there for supper one night and enjoyed the river view as we ate. (In truth, that would probably have been our only water activity here, even if it had been warmer.) 

Riverside is a couple of miles from the "city" center of charming Spring Green, a town that could easily be the setting for any 1930s or '40s movie.  Just take away the cars and change people's clothes and you'd have it.   Friendly, chatty people too -- we felt at home. 

The day we left Spring Green, we drove through the well-known Wisconsin Dells area.  We had earlier thought about staying there but when we saw it, we were very happy that we didn't.  The Dells is an area that seems to have been completely created for tourists.  It was one Casino!  WaterPark!, Mega-Resort!!! after another.   (Kids would love it though.)

Then we stayed one night at O'Neil Creek Campground in Chippewa Falls.  This park had everything we want from an overnight stop.  Long, pull-through sites (so that we don't have to unhook), internet and Dish connections that work, and an interesting place to walk.  The resort is a HUGE (over 500 spaces) summer resort with park models and RVs.  It is on a creek and lake, with many families using it as their vacation getaway or summer home.  We walked around the park for over an hour and came nowhere close to seeing it all.  Water and birds and nice scenery. 

Spring comes late in these parts and that means that we are seeing the traditional spring flowers.  I've missed those (literally and figuratively) for several years because they've been gone by the time we get back to where they grow.  This year, we're seeing lilacs, irises, snowball bushes, and flowering trees everywhere.

The only problem with Wisconsin was Mosquitoes!  The day we left Spring Green, it had sprinkled just a tiny bit early in the morning.  I think a million of the nasty creatures hatched right around the RV.  Not the pleasantest way to hook up. 

So we recommend a visit to Wisconsin, but bring your bug spray -- and don't forget to use it, even if you're only outside for a short while.