Evening tower, Muscatine, IA

Tower standing out in silhouette in the evening sky of Muscatine.

Butterflies, Muscatine, IA

Butterfly-shaped lights shining in the darkness at the Muscatine Arboretum.

We crush the competition, Muscatine, IA

A rather unique advertisement for this auto dealership in Muscatine, Iowa.

Swallows' nests, Muscatine, IA

Part of a long line of swallow's nests, nudged up below the road deck of a bridge in Muscatine.

Mississippi bridge, Muscatine, IA

Sighting across the great river through the windows of bridge supports.

Ship clearance gauge, Muscatine, IA

Pragmatically painted on the side of a bridge support, this simple height gauge tells pilots how much clearance their ship will have below this bridge, given the current height of the Mississippi river.

Migrating pelicans, Muscatine, IA

Migrating pelicans swirling and branching their flock.

Migrating pelicans, Muscatine, IA

A flight of pelicans migrating over the Mississippi river.

Flood Tracks, Iowa City

Intricate ripples of mud, left on the walkway by the river after the floodwaters have receded.

Flood Tracks, Iowa City

Intricate ripples of mud, left on the walkway by the river after the floodwaters have receded.

Flood Tracks, Iowa City

Intricate ripples of mud, left on the walkway by the river after the floodwaters have receded.

Flood tracks, Iowa City

Intricate ripples of mud, left on the walkway by the river after the floodwaters have receded.

Flooded trees, Iowa City

Small trees, half-submerged in floodwaters by the banks of the Iowa River.

Flooded amphitheater, Iowa City

A walkway and amphitheater by the river, filling with spilled over floodwaters by design.

Contrail stroke, Iowa City

One perfect stroke of sunset-reddened contrail in an otherwise empty cloudless sky.

Picnic site in Winter, Iowa City

Cold and bare picnic site in silhouette on a chilly winter day.

Hippie Van, Coralville, IA

A gloriously decorated vehicle I cannot think of as anything other than "a hippie van", discovered on evening in the parking lot of Trader Joe's.

Sunlight streams, Iowa City

Streams of sunlight out around the clouds in an open sky up high above Iowa City.

Cabinet-perching cat

We never quite apprehended that there even was a space above our cabinets in our kitchen until Veronica started colonizing it a few months ago, with a three jump path to counter to fridge-top to cabinet and dammit kitty, those paws are filthy!

F is for Feline

Our other cat, Veronica, curled up in a sunbeam that happens to be going through the baby play structure and its perfectly silhouetted dangling letter F.

Salvatore surveying his domain

Inspecting this impertinent human who dares to take a picture of the king.

Salvatore surveying his domain

Our cat Salvatore likes to survey his domain from the top of the stairs.

Leaving Jones County, Iowa

Returning through Iowa, the American Gothic couple face only outward from the roads of Jones County, unaware of your departure from the birthplace of their painter.

Kinetic Sculpture, Madison Children's Museum

Water-based kinetic sculpture tossing balls around in the lobby of the Madison Children's Museum. I love kinetic sculptures and could watch most of them for hours.

Steampunk bird legs, Madison Children's Museum

The complex gearing mechanisms of this steampunk bird sculptures legs, standing high in the midst of the garden roof of the Madison Children's Museum.

Monster attack!, Madison, WI

Monster attack! Who will save the state government from its impending doom at the hand of the giant steampunk bird monster leaning over its way!?!

Climbing sculpture, Madison Children's Museum

Decorative grille on a port-hole into the gigantic climbing sculpture.

Climbing sculpture, Madison Children's Museum

High near the ceiling of the room, one of the topmost modules of the climbing sculpture makes me think of some sort of ominous spaceship, or perhaps the Death Star.

Climbing sculpture, Madison Children's Museum

A view from inside the climbing sculpture, doing down through one of the giant plastic buoys.

Climbing sculpture, Madison Children's Museum

A lovely enormous climbing sculpture in the Madison Children's museum: those balls are some sort of nautical buoy at least five feet in diameter.

Children's Museum Signs, Madison, WI

Closeup into the playful street signs outside the Children's Museum. My favorite is perhaps "Roads | Diverge."

Children's Museum Signs, Madison, WI

Outside the Madison Children's Museum stands a tangle of playful street signs full of cultural and literary references and just plain fun and nonsense.

Witch that way, Madison MOCA

Utility marking created by my daughter Harriet, who at the time was rather into witches and monsters and the like.

Starburst, Madison, WI

There was a lovely interacting exhibit in the museum of contemporary art (MMoCA), inspired by construction and utilities markings on the streets, which invited you to create your own patterns with these carefully created steel markers. We played for quite a while, creating many things.

Trolley Pub Mechanism, Madison, WI

The mechanisms at the heart of a functioning trolley pub: every seat has a set of bicycle pedals, the chains of which all drive the same shaft transmitting power to its wheels.

Trolley Pub, Madison, WI

A nifty thing I'd never seen before, the trolley pubs of Madison glide up and down the restaurant and shopping district at the heart of down, their riders pumping the pedals as they drink on board, powering their way to another bar along their tour.

Lily utilities, Madison, WI

In a more clearly sanctioned piece of urban art, this utility box has been turned into a beautiful jungle of day-lilies.

Yarnbombed bike stand, Madison, WI

Another bit of apparently guerrilla art: this bike stand has been yarnbombed with a cozy sweater.

Your next Ho, Madison, WI

Just think: one of those apartments could be your next Ho. Thank you for the laugh, anonymous likely-student vandals.

Polygonal tower, Madison, WI

Another unusual building shape: this one a many-sided (16-sided?) polygon.

Curving apartment tower, Madison, WI

Another view up the nearby interior curve of this Madison apartment building.

Curving apartment tower, Madison, WI

A curving tower of an apartment building in downtown Madison, whose shape I liked a lot.

Imprisoned cow, Madison, WI

I'm sure this cow is just meant to advertise the quality of the beef served at this restaurant in Madison, but to me it looked like a prisoner on display.

Boating Bucky, Madison, WI

Bucky the Badger is the University of Wisconsin's incongruously pugilistic mascot, much like Herky the Hawk is for the University of Iowa. Both of them have arbitrarily artistically decorated statues scattered around their cities, like this one with a bucolic boating scene on his bulging angry pecs.

UW boats, Madison, WI

A neat row of garishly colored university sailboats, just waiting to be launched.

Lake Mendota shore, Madison, WI

Boats clustered on the shore of Lake Mendota in Madison, which sits neatly wedged between two gigantic and beautiful lakes.

University castle, Madison, WI

An incongruous castle-like building at the University of Wisconsin.

Fossil shrimp, UWM

Fossil shrimp, so beautifully preserved as to look to me almost more like a Japanese woodcut than an ancient shape in stone.

Sea life fossils, UWM

Fossils of ancient sea life at the University of Wisconsin geology museum.

Gypsum, UWM

I've always loved gypsum roses: they just seem like such a wonderfully improbable yarn-ball crystal shape.