Some places don’t need ghosts to feel haunted. I recently visited Lake Delton’s Dawn Manor Speakeasy. Walking up to the entrance, diners are greeted by historic gargoyle-like stone statues. These weathered guardians once graced Dawn Manor when Helen Raab owned…
“I wish someone had told me…” Those five little words can open the floodgates to wisdom, reflection, and humor. When I asked fellow Wisconsinites to finish the phrase, their answers reminded me that life itself is a classroom—one where the…
I’ve always loved getting up early, when the world seems to hold endless possibilities and before responsibilities tug at me. One of my daughters does, too. And a dear friend of mine does as well. I enjoy writing; my daughter…
The human heart has about 2 billion beats in a lifetime. That’s about 35 million beats a year, about 100,000 beats a day. How are you going to spend yours? I’m having a fish fry outside at the Keg in…
While walking on one of my favorite hiking trails, a monarch flits past me. This fragile insect, no heavier than a paperclip, will soon begin its journey to Mexico—battling heat, storms, and cold, adjusting its flight with the sun or,…
Garoo-oo-a-a-a. The call of the sandhill crane always makes me search the sky. My fascination began in my 30s, when my husband and I joined the annual Sandhill Crane Count. We rose at 4 a.m., brewed a thermos of coffee,…
Every evening after supper, my husband and I scheme and whisper like spies as we plot ways to get our small dog to take her three pills… and nearly every night Josie outsmarts us. I start in the kitchen with…
It started with a mess: rotting firewood, a broken cartwheel, and my husband muttering, “Maybe I’ll try to fix it.” At the time, it felt small and ordinary. Later, I thought of the saying that the flap of a butterfly’s…
I’m on the porch flipping through the Italy section of my latest travel catalog when a tooth in my lower right jaw throbs. Please stop, I tell it. I try to distract myself with descriptions of Italy’s art, culture, and…
I’m taking a twilight stroll along the river walk when it strikes me: fifty years ago this week, I moved to the Dells. I can still see myself lugging suitcases down a narrow spiral staircase into the basement apartment I’d…