Pie Viking, Decorah, Iowa

And now off in another direction, pictures from a bit of quiet vacation to the Driftless region up in Northeast Iowa last summer, an odd little anomaly where the glaciers never came, leaving it with unusually deep and beautiful valleys (for the Midwest). This dude here, however, was most symbolic of its dominant current culture to me: deeply Midwestern and proud of it Scandinavian roots.

Fantasy mural, Dubuque, Iowa

Popping up unexpectedly between buildings in downtown Dubuque, this airbrushed fantasy woman with her purple/pink hair blowing in all directions.

Balcony Beast, Dubuque, Iowa

Inexplicably, the Beast is hanging out on the side of a wall above the turtle tank in the Dubuque Aquarium.  He's up high, where you can't get near him, and there's no sign or anything that points him out, just the Beast alone, quietly offering a flower to nobody.

Aquarium lighting, Dubuque, Iowa

Deep blue textured lighting panels give the interior of the Dubuque Aquarium a very underwater feel.

Paddle wheel, Dubuque, Iowa

An enormous old paddle wheel, 2-3 stories high, stands as a marker outside of the Dubuque Aquarium.

Channel markers, Dubuque, Iowa

A big pile of tumbled Mississippi channel markers by the side of the river in Dubuque.

Rave kittens, Madison, WI

Intense kittens decorating a portable electronic dance music facility.

Butterfly wall, Madison, WI

A wall of beautiful monarch butterflies.

Portable rock climbing, Madison, WI

Portable rock-climbing wall at a Madison street fair, an upturned trailing reaching high into the sky.

Gears, Madison, WI

Big chunky metal gears installed gnomically in the grass by a Madison street.

Beaded mannequin, Madison, WI

A wonderfully ridiculous looking mannequin, decorated with thousands of colorful beads.

Procrastination Workshop, Madison, WI

This sign just made me laugh. I have no idea what it has to do with the business it was actually out in front of, except that it attracted my attention.

Railroad underpass, Iowa City

White paint reflecting in a shiny tunnel beneath an effectively defunct railroad track.

Church aerial, Iowa City

Strangely round aerial/steeple of a church in downtown Iowa City.

EBI building, UK

And a fond, yet bittersweet goodbye to EBI through the waning light of my last day there, just before the nervous journey back across the Atlantic and into my pandemic lockdown.

EBI building, UK

One last shot up through the sliced curves of EBI, to a deep and beautiful sky whose speckled clouds make me think of stars.

Green wall near EBI, UK.jpg

Green wall on the side of another Genome Campus building near EBI.

EBI building, UK

More views of the lovely segmented curves of the EBI building.

EBI building, UK

More views through the sides of the EBI building.

EBI building, UK

The Southern side of the EBI building has these great circular hoops all along its edge.

EBI building, UK

The EBI has a really neat building.  The Northern side has these crown-like ridges.

EBI roof, UK

Angled shadows on the beams of the roof windows at EBI.

EBI roof, UK

Sky divided through the windowed roof of the EBI building.

Genomic mural, EBI, UK

Mural with all sorts of genetic/genomic imagery on the wall inside the EBI.

Laboratory Mascots, EBI, UK

Mascots chilling outside a laboratory at the European Bioinformatics Institute.

Batman street, Cambridge, UK

I know it's supposed to be Bateman street, but neither me nor the joyful vandals cared.

Make and Create, London, UK

Artisan's mural on the side of a building in London.

One for the road, UK

Bartender Moe invites us to have one for the road on the side of an abandoned pub.

Biogen facility near Cambridge, UK

Gigantic fermenters mark a large scale biofuels facility near Cambridge. Looks pretty much just like the ones in Iowa, despite its very different context.

Sunset bridge near Cambridge, UK

Bridge glowing orange in the lowering sun near Cambridge.

Sunflower eyes, UK

Most curious mural in a highway rest stop bathroom: the texture of the sunflower and the placement of the hand dryers somehow together make me think of insect eyes.

Highway ultralight near Bristol, UK

I'm pretty sure this curious machine on a trailer that I encountered near Bristol is an ultralight aircraft, its wings broken down and stowed in the metal box below.

Thatched roof, Devon, UK

Some houses in Devon even yet still have thatch roofs in the olden style.

Awkward scarecrow, Devon, UK

This scarecrow here is acting as a signpost for the farm stand in the shed just next to it, but something just feels off about its face to me, somehow in the uncanny valley of too well carved but not yet well proportioned.

Rider on the road, Devon, UK

Horse and rider proceeding sedately down a quiet country lane in Devon.

A flurry of crows, Devon, UK

This flock of crows all came flurrying off the field together to swirl around as I walked past.

Divided fields, Devon, UK

A double-row of hedges marks the lane, while single rows are just the dividers between fields.

Crossing hedges, Devon, UK

Hedges criss-crossing divisions through the farm fields of Devon.

Boundary stone, Devon, UK

A weathered stone marking the boundary of something unclear up in the moors.

Gorse, Devon, UK

Gorse, one of the iconic plants of the moors, in spiky yellow bloom high in Dartmoor.

Grimspound, Devon, UK

Remains of a Bronze age settlement, Grimspound has little more than fallen stones in rough rectangular patterns and a circular rubble of a surrounding outer wall remaining to mark this ancient village site.

Hookney Tor, Devon, UK

Atop the barren peaks of Dartmoor are the rocky outcrops known as tors, thrusting their ragged bones through the otherwise deeply encompassing turf.

Obligatory road sheep, Devon, UK

And of course, there are the sheep upon the road, patiently wandering unsupervised throughout the open moorland, spray painted with marks to let them be sorted back to their appropriate owners when the need arises.

Village in Devon, UK

Tiny little village in the midst of Dartmoor, old stone houses crowding the road in this fold between the hills.

Devon hedgerows, UK

Taller and narrower as one goes deeper into the moors.

Devon hedgerows, UK

Hedgerows along the narrow Devon roads, including a shaped tree passage.

Grazing sheep, Devon, UK

Sheep grazing on the hillside in rural Devon.

Morning on the farm, Devon, UK

Morning in the damp green aged stones of the farm.

Hedgerows at night, Devon, UK

Tight hedgerows at night, on a single lane dirt road going through rural depths of Devon.

Clifton Bridge, Bristol, UK

An old, high, and extremely narrow suspension bridge leading out of town in Bristol, and apparently historical as one of the first suspension bridges.