Scarlet Aqua

Helping K.C. move. With steady hands and stern faces, we move boxes all over town. Hundreds of boxes, carried by sober super men. Strong men, carrying boxes of water. The water's red. The water comes out of grapes. The water's 15% abv. But K.C. keeps more water than boxes. So empty wine-boxes I mean water-boxes go back to the Wine Room. New boxes are filled and brought to a special den at the top of some very steady stairs. We stack the goods - not one squeak of laughter. We lock the juice up in steel cages. No one gets in. No one can. No one has keys to the scarlet aqua. If we find any red water in a glass, we drain it straight down the pipes.

Bocktanz

I got tugged, by accident of cocking my head to a far-away Irish flute, into full-blown Irish celebrations along the lake last night. My former (Céili & Step) dance teacher showed up & roped me into `The Fairy Reel`, which seemed all and not at all familiar, in front of the stage and crowd. Sizzling. Ran into former ICH'er - Armenian-Finno-Hungarian dancer I hadn't seen since 2007, who's a co-digger of roots & folk-religion: _Katholikos_. Ecumenism, Chesterton & Belloc's names came up. Rare celebrations already have a crowded company for Thursday pub. Heaven petitions were ringing. The weather was sweltering on my eskimo-body. We sweated a freak medley of capers, waltzes, polkas, reels, hambos, polskas, gangars with centrifugal force to knock down arch-enemies. I flung water off my woolly mophead-hair like a half-goat, which led to dancing circles on my hands. This mad delight is the feast after famine: What diehard folko-philes feel, daily blared by Brainwash Babel Noise, when the public host traditional music for a single hour. I'd no idea the event was on - but I got there the same way all the children got into Pied Piper's magic mountain. By following the pipe out of town. Leaving the nuclear for the extended family. Hail the Piper! Down with Puritans.

Fire-Worked Up

It was a strange day. It was the Fourth of July, a day when people ferment, foam at the mouth and talk to strangers.

The first stranger to chat me up insisted my bike was too heavy for me to carry. But he was racing by in a machine on four wheels and somehow unable to lend a hand. The second stranger, because I was sitting bare-chested next to a lake, tapped me on my shoulder,

`Yo Bruce Banner!` {Hulk's alter ego}

The third stranger was a Staffordshire Bull Terrier and nearly put its owner in the lake in its desire to sniff my journal. The Bull languished and looked back as the man manhandled him away.

The fourth stranger didn't come till I'd nearly carried home a 6' long dresser weighing about 120 lbs. I was unscrewing a flappy hinged door to throw that away when I heard,

`You're almost there! Keep screwing! You got it!`

I look up. `This is a good day to talk to strangers. People must be early drunk.`

He runs up at this point, tall and ruddy with blonde buzzed hair. `Can I help with the screws?`
`Sure,` handing him a screwdriver. `Any good at carrying heavy dressers? You're not too tipsy yet, right?`

`Naah.` He screws one of the screws back in.

`I'm actually trying to unscrew the whole door.`

`Oh! You should have told me!`

_You mean 3 seconds ago?_ But I didn't say anything and he was unable to get the screws out since the screwdriver was too short.

`Can I help you carry it?`

Once inside, we carry the thing up eight flights of stairs. At this stage, he seems to twig he's a stranger in a strange house, but keeps up the farmboy politeness as I lead him back out.

`When I saw you there, I knew I had to help you!`

Partly thanks to a boozy stranger, Bruce Banner didn't have to get all Hulk on that dresser today (see attached photo).

Unearthing spring goodnesses on two wheels

After eating dandelion heads, linden tree leaflets, and garlic mustard in the sunshine, I went out on two wheels for adventure. I cycled round and round the near east side, the crooks, nooks, nannies and crannies of near-east Madison Wisconsin, soaking in the gentle sun. Visited St Vincent de Paul, Lazy Jane's Cafe, Cafe Zoma (back garden), Willy Street Co-op, Kitchen Gallery, Green Owl Cafe, In the Company of Thieves (Gorham), Mildred's Sandwich Shop, and Bradbury's (N. Hamilton - local food). Alas Sofia's Bakery and its pear ginger sauced waffles weren't available.