jinian | best sights of Wiscon trip

(This is the last Wiscon post. The delay is due to the obligatory Wiscon cold, which has sapped all the energy not used for resuming work.)

Dance party in general and specific.
Happy faces of friends.
Geoff Ryman pattern-mixing like a boss. (Monday morning? Black small sketchy pattern on white shirt, small pattern on white vest.)
The GLOWING RED EYE of the Minnesota Lottery loon sign, which made me laugh aloud walking through the airport.
The Capitol and Concourse from the sky! I haven't really looked before, and I was all excited when I saw them.
Olbrich Botanical Gardens:
- In the conservatory:
- A little fig fruit:
- This fern is gorgeous and lush, but still so light and feathery.
- Pretty sure I have photographed this lovely thing before, but look at that fringe and tell me how I could resist.
- The other stems grew like this too! I've seen helical inflorescences but this is a first for me with non-reproductive stems. Maybe it's optimizing insolation by not blocking the other leaves?
- Lots of tropical plants bear flowers, and so fruit, directly on the stems like this, which is called cauliflory (really). The question is, why? They're not all closely related to each other.
- Wish I remembered the name of this one. So pretty and sweet-smelling.
- I wonder how the taffeta plant gets this super-shiny effect. Some interesting epidermis on there, I bet!
Swimming mammal. jesse_the_k is pretty definite that muskrats are known on Lake Mendota and otters wouldn't like it there, though it seemed a little large for a muskrat. I do not think it was a nutria.
And sunset on the lake: