Blizzard Elsa came through and has now gone. 12" of snow overnight which caused chaos but has mostly melted off the main roads.
Any big snow storm merits a photo of this old house!

Took a bit of time off and went to Madison to see this ice boat, it was spectacular and beautifully restored, 100 mph that close to the ice takes some doing.

I always used to fly United to build air miles, I was frequently flying to the east coast and back as well as England and I scored a couple of nice upgrades but never until I got on the plane.
However a tip, fly Aer Lingus when going transatlantic to Europe and bid on an upgrade. This is now the third time I have a reasonable upgrade to business class! Way less than the ticket price.
Customer satisfaction and loyalty for sure, I have been flying with them for 5 years now.

I am standing as a candidate alderperson in my local town. The local maps on which district a house resides in are not so great and it changes depending on the side of the street. The data is open so GeoJSON and geojson.io to the rescue - https://geojson.io/#id=gist:normanb/d025cb061da7c8885702f2dc76117f10&map=14.25/42.77856/-89.29563 clicking on the polygons gives the districts. So simple and using gists means I don't get obscenities on the map ;)

I grew these Matador Shallots from seed this season and now they will go back in and over winter and multiply by 3-4x and be about golf ball sized. It has been great to be able to grow veg again this year. #vernalization

I would not have thought I would be able to grow specimen roses in WI but here goes! Growing roses is surprisingly addictive and relaxing, but now these roses need to go dormant and they are resisting the urge with these beautiful blooms. The climbers in front of the house will be ready to be trained next year.

Amongst the beautiful harvest of a Wisconsin summer (rain, heat and then some more rain and heat!) I am putting in a winter garden with 3/4" PVC pipe and rebar to help with the upcoming snow. The top bar is just a wire tied and then taped stabilizer.
Spinach, cabbage, beets, turnips, winter lettuce and others should make it through to Thanksgiving. I am expecting the sprouts to be fine without a cover.

Some of my newer (walmart!) bare root roses are now flowering as the temps dip here in Wisconsin. This is a particularly nice one. Not bad for $6! It has been a good show this season but I like these surprises.

Only year 2 but the roses are putting on a show already. This more delicate rose (Eden) is own root as opposed to grafted so although it dies to the ground in the winter here it comes back up.